• Author: Kyung-soo Chun
• Publication Date: December / 2023
• Publisher: SNU Press

This book discusses Keijo Imperial University, which operated as a cultural governing apparatus in Joseon when imperial Japan’s colonizing policy was enacted.  It does not aim to study the university of the colony in terms of the educational institution of higher education but seeks to discuss the academic projects and accomplishments of the university and its staff, especially those limited to anthropology. The specific purpose of this book is to organize and analyze the anthropological work carried out by the university or its affiliated staff from 1926 to 1945, a period during which Kejo Imperial University existed.

Author

Kyung-soo Chun (b. 1949) received his B.A. in archaeology and M.A. in anthropology from Seoul National University and his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Minnesota. He was a professor in the Department of Anthropology at SNU from 1982 to 2014, teaching and researching cultural theories, ecological anthropology, and the history of anthropology. He was awarded the SNU Academic Research Award in 2011. This recent publication is a comprehensive overview of the history of anthropology in the Japanese colonial era, which Chun deemed important in terms of the history of the discipline. Other major publications include Understanding Culture (1994), Anthropology of Eco-friendliness (1997), 100 Years of Korean Anthropology (1999), and Izumi Seiichi and Anthropology of Militarism (2015).