The Korean Foundation Signs Agreement with Princeton University to Establish Endowed Professorship in Korean Studies

Photo1. Representatives of the Korea Foundation and Princeton University posing for a photo after signing the agreement.

On November 18, 2021 the Korea Foundation signed an agreement with Princeton University to establish an endowed Korean studies professorship. For five years, Princeton and the Foundation will each make annual contributions of US$500,000 to fund an endowment of US$5 million for the appointment of a Korean studies professor.

This is the second position established at Princeton with support from the Foundation following the tenure-track position in Korean cultural studies and sociology created in 2007. The holder of the second position is expected to join Associate Professor Steven Chung, KF Professor in Korean Cultural Studies and Sociology since 2007, in strengthening the foundation for Korean studies research and education at Princeton.

Since its establishment in 1991, the Foundation has provided support to the eight Ivy League schools in the Northeastern United States—Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, The University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University—for the establishment of Korean studies professorships and the employment of Korean language lecturers. Currently, 14 professors in Korean language and Korean studies and one Korean language lecturer are working at these eight Ivy League universities with support from the Foundation.

On a visit to Princeton on the afternoon of November 18, 2021, Korea Foundation President Lee Geun attended a signing ceremony for the establishment of the endowed professorship in Korean studies in the presence of Princeton officials and faculty members including Provost Deborah Prentice, Dean for Research Pablo G. Debenedetti and East Asian Studies Department Chair Anna M. Shields.

Meanwhile, with an aim of promoting regionally balanced development in Korean studies in the United States, the Foundation concluded an agreement with Emory University in Georgia in the southeastern section of the country in December 2021 to create a US$4 million endowment for a Korean studies professorship. Following this, the Foundation will continue to strengthen infrastructure for Korean studies in the southern and central portions of the United States.

Over the past three decades, the Foundation has provided support to 97 universities in 17 countries to establish a total of 149 Korean studies professorships. It has also supported more than 4,000 graduate students and post-doctoral researchers in Korean studies around the world. The Foundation has promoted Korean studies research and education by continuing to render aid, including the recent establishment of a Korean studies endowment at Princeton, to promote Korean studies at prominent universities abroad that educate future generations of promising scholars in Korean studies.

(Source)

https://www.kf.or.kr/kf/na/ntt/selectDgtldetailView.do?dgtlSn=13381