Peace Corps volunteers trigger expansion of Korean studies

By Kang Hyun-kyung

In 1966, 100 young Americans arrived in Korea as Peace Corps volunteers to help the then poor country stand on its own feet. From then until 1981, when the Peace Corps ended its mission in Korea, nearly 2,000 Americans had worked in the country as English teachers, health workers or other support staff.

Milan Hejtmanek, a Peace Corps volunteer-turned-Korean history professor at Seoul National University, on Sep. 2 at the university / Korea Times

Carter Eckert, a history professor at Harvard University. He served in Korea from 1968-1972.

Donald Clark, a history professor at Trinity University. He was in Korea in the late 1960s.

Bruce Cumings, a history professor at the University of Chicago. He served in Korea from 1967-1968.

David McCann, a professor at Harvard University. He served in Korea from 1966-1968.

Edward Shultz, a professor of
emeritus at University of Hawaii. He was here for one year in 1966.

Michael Robinson, a professor at
Indiana University. He served in
Korea from 1969-1970.

Some of those young Americans became hooked on the East Asian country, its people and culture. While performing their humanitarian duties, they had the chance to mingle with locals, who never lost their sense of humor despite the hardships they faced. The volunteers were also able to discover the country's cultural heritage and history, much of which was relatively unknown to the outside world.

Their one to two years of service in Korea had a significant impact on their education and careers; the experience inspired them to learn more about the country and to subsequently become specialists in Korean studies.

These former Peace Corps volunteers helped promote Korean studies in the United States between the 1970s and the 1990s.

Milan Hejtmanek, a Peace Corps volunteer-turned-Korean history professor at Seoul National University, said American scholars were inspired to pursue Korean studies by their heritage, their experience in the military, their missionary activities or just happenstance.

"However, in terms of sheer numbers and future influence, the former Peace Corps volunteers proved a formidable group," he said. "One rough measure of their academic importance was the fact that by the late 1990s, all three Korean studies faculty positions at Harvard were held by former Peace Corps volunteers."

According to Hejtmanek, some of the seminal figures in Korean studies who were former Peace Corps volunteers include Donald Baker, Donald Clark, Bruce Cumings, Carter Eckert, Laurel Kendall, Linda Lewis, David McCann, Michael Robinson, Edward Shultz and Clark Sorensen.

From 1976 to 1978, Hejtmanek volunteered as a rural health worker in Goheung County, South Jeolla Province. He said his conversations with the locals and experiences of the local culture inspired him to become a specialist in Korean history.

"Not only [did my job enable me to become a part] of a fascinating and complex organization, functioning completely in the Korean language, which I could barely speak, but also even better, my job required me to visit dozens of remote farm villages, often walking miles through the verdant countryside, chatting freely and singing Korean folk songs with my coworkers," he said. "In such locales, I had the opportunity to converse, however haltingly, with village elders and hear their life stories, stretching back to the 19th century. The root of my subsequent professional engagement with the Korean past lies in those long, interesting conversations."

For Edward Shultz, a professor emeritus at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, being part of that first batch of Peace Corps volunteers in Korea had a similar lifelong impact on his career.

"We were primarily English conversation teachers and sent to schools around the country," he recalled. "Korea was still poor in 1966 …. Koreans knew they had suffered for much of the 20th century, but they were aware of their great traditions and knew that they would overcome their adversities."

Shultz, who taught English for a year at Kyungnam Middle School in the southern port city of Busan, says his Peace Corps experience had a direct impact on his career choice.

"The principal of my school was also an archaeologist and had a great interest in history. He really whetted my interest in Korea's history," he said.

"In January 1967, the Peace Corps had a program for us in Gyeongju. The city still had mostly dirt streets, and there were houses built on the tombs, but the sense of history was clearly there."

The southeastern city has a rich cultural heritage and is home to many historic sites, as it was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Silla (57 BC to AD 935). In its heyday, between the seventh and ninth centuries, the kingdom ruled nearly two-thirds of the Korean Peninsula.

During his service, Shultz said he realized that Korea and its history were uncharted territory, with very little written about them. After returning to the United States, he studied at the University of Hawaii, specializing in the Goryo Dynasty following his advisor's recommendation.

"Having lived in Korea for a year in a Korean environment, I had a foundation in the Korean language and also had a basic appreciation for Korea and its history. This provided me with a foundation to study Korea," he said.

Professor John Duncan, director of the Center for Korean studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the role of former Peace Corps volunteers in the advancement of Korean studies in the United States is undisputable.

"[The] Peace Corps definitely played a very important role, particularly across a wide range of disciplines, including anthropology and sociology," he said.

According to Duncan, Korean studies in the United States began with a group of people who had a military background.

"I was in the Army. My advisor was also in the U.S. Army, and his advisor had been in the Army, too," he said. "So the earliest beginnings of Korean studies in the United States were with the U.S. military."

The late scholar James Palais (1934-2006) was one of the pioneers of Korean studies in the United States. He learned Korean at the Monterrey Language Institute in the army, and this stirred his interest in East Asia.

Upon joining the University of Washington in Seattle in 1968, Palais helped the university establish the largest Korean studies program in the United States. There, he taught many former Peace Corps volunteers assigned to Korea.

These Korean studies pioneers, their seminal works and their teaching positions helped increase the number of Korea-related programs in U.S. universities. According to the Korea Foundation, there was only one Korean studies center in the United States in 1991. This number has since increased to 15 as of 2014.

According to the state-run agency, there are currently 73 professors at 49 American universities teaching Korean studies or Korea-related courses. Nearly 120 U.S. universities offer Korea-related courses.

"There is no doubt that the United States has the most advanced, systematic Korean studies programs in the world," a KF official said, asking for anonymity because she was not in a position to comment on behalf of the organization.

"In recent years, we've seen a surging interest in Korean studies in other countries in Asia and in other continents, because of the popularity of K-Pop. K-Pop has stirred their interest in the Korean language, and some people who have gained a deeper understanding of Korea have also shown interest in its development in the past several decades, from its rise from the ashes of the Korean War."

As far as Korean studies is concerned, she went on to say, most countries still have a long way to go before interest in the Korean language turns into Korean studies scholarship, which includes publication of quality papers or research activities on Korea.