Korean Studies Conference in Prague

By Paul Wijsman

The number of participants in AKSE conferences seems to be on the rise. Altogether 145 scholars from eighteen European countries, as well as from North and South Korea, Australia, Japan, Mexico, the USA and Kazakhstan participated, presenting sixty-one papers, brief summaries of which will appear in the next issue of the AKSE Newsletter (Summer 1995). One remarkable fact was the great number of papers on history, both ancient and modern, accounting for nearly half of the total number. North Korean scholars presented papers on the recent and somewhat controversial excavation and reconstruction of the tomb of Tan'gun, who is regarded as the first ruler of a Korean state. Other papers highlighted the function of history and historical images in the construction of national or ethnic identity and the legitimization of power. Besides history, sessions were also devoted to traditional and modern literature, anthropology, linguistics, art and religion. Two papers devoted to Christianity showed how thoroughly this religion has been Koreanized. Highly topical issues addressed were the problem of the "Comfort Women" and international investments by the Republic of Korea. In line with the AKSE policy to promote exchanges with related organizations outside Europe, invited representatives of the Association for Asian Studies in the USA and the Pacific Area Council for Korean Studies (PACKS) also read papers at the conference.

Future workshops and conference
At the Membership Meeting it was announced that the next conference will be held in Sweden in 1997 and will be organized by Professor Staffan Rosén. In 1996 AKSE hopes to organize two small-scale workshops, which will afford an opportunity to discuss certain topics in greater depth than is possible at the biennial conferences. The subjects and the venues of these workshops will be announced soon. To the regret of the membership, AKSE's President, Dr. Robert Provine, announced his decision to step down prematurely, while Dr. Henrik Sorensen chose not to stand for another term in office. The newly elected Council is constituted as follows: Prof. Boudewijn Walraven (President), Prof. Staffan Ros‚n (Vice-President), Prof. Eckart Dege (Treasurer), Dr. Roland Wein (Secretary), and Dr. Pak Youngsook and Dr. Alexandre Guillemoz (Members).
Dr. James Grayson will continue to act as the editor of the AKSE Newsletter, which welcomes any information pertaining to academic Korean Studies in Europe. The deadline for the next issue is 31 July 1995.

Catalogue of Korean periodicals
During the conference the latest version of the Union Catalogue of Korean Periodicals in Europe was offered for sale in the form of a 3.5" HD disk (written in dBase IV). The disk also contains a (stand-alone) dBase retrieval program for operation on PCs with DOS, and an installation programme which will automatically decompress and install the database and retrieval programme on the hard disk. The Catalogue is operational without dBase or any other programme, but 9 MB of free hard disk space are necessary to hold the database and programme, and another 4MB to operate the retrieval programme. The Union Catalogue contains data from more than seventy public, as well as private libraries. It is still available by sending a Eurocheque for 20 DM (or for overseas customers, US $20) to:
Dr. Eckardt Dege
Geographisches Institut
Universität Kiel
D-24098 Kiel
Germany.

Correspondence to AKSE may be addressed to:
Boudewijn Walraven
P.O. Box 9515
2300 RA Leiden
The Netherlands
Fax: +31-71-27 22 15
e-mail: walraven@let.leidenuniv.nl

Copy for AKSE Newsletter may be addressed to:
James Grayson
Centre for Korean Studies
University of Sheffield
Sheffield S10 2UJ
Great Britain.