• Date: November 19th, Tuesday, 2019 15:00-17:00
• Location: Room 303, SNUAC (Bldg. 101)

2019 ICAS Book Prize Korean Edition Winners’ Book Talk Series 2

Jae-Jeong Chung, Railways and Modern Seoul. Seoul: Kookhak. 2018.

In-Sung Jang. Imaging International Society in East Asia: International Political Thought of Korean Intellectuals. Seoul: Seoul National University Press. 2017

SNUAC has planned a book talk series for outstanding scholarly publications for the purpose of introducing 2019 ICAS Book Prize Korean Edition winners to researchers and readers in Korea. In the second event held on November 19th, Professor Jae-Jeong Chung (Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology)  and Professor In-Sung Jang (Dept. of Political Science and International Relations, Seoul National University) were invited to give talks on their publications.

Prof. Chung made it clear that his book Railways and Modern Seoul sought to cast a light on the process of Korean society progressing into modern society, as Koreans experienced and learned modern civilization from the late 19th century into the mid-20th century, from the perspective of the cultural history of railways. He explained the background of his interest in railways from his experience while studying in Japan, and clarified how Railways and Modern Seoul is different from his previous work, The Japanese Invasion and Korean Railways: 1892-1945. Furthermore, he explained how Seoul was a global city as the hub of the railway network in Northeast Asia in the mid-20th century. He put forth his opinions on how railways connect to the various interpretations of the development of modern Korean society including the theory of colonial modernity and the overall relationships between Korea and Japan.

Prof. Chang’s Imaging International Society in East Asia: International Political Thought of Korean Intellectuals is an analysis of the ways of imagining that Korean intellectuals have unfolded around the formation of East Asian international society, from the perspective of international thoughts. Prof. Chang gave an explanation on the background of how the theory of East Asian international society emerged in the late 19th-century open port period and 21st-century post-Cold War transition period and emphasized that discussions of East Asian international society must be made through empirical and historical examinations rather than logical and theoretical imaginations. After the introduction of the book, audience members asked questions on the past and the future of the Korea-Japan relationship, and Prof. Chang provided his consistent and insightful opinion on the Korea-Japan relationship as well as the international order of Northeast Asia following the methodology outlined in his book.

SNUAC has hosted and judged ICAS Book Prize Korean Edition since 2017, with the purpose of proliferating Asia studies in Korea and introducing outstanding Korean research to foreign researchers. 2019 ICAS  Book Prize Korean Edition received 51 books written in Korean and published from November 2016 to October 2018 from 23 domestic publishers. An independent judge committee of four experts carried out an impartial evaluation to select 6 outstanding books.

2019 ICAS  Book Prize Korean Edition Webpage

https://icas.asia/en/shortlist-and-winner-korean-language-edition-ibp2019