$2 million for Center for Korean Studies chair endowment

University of Hawaiʻi
Contact:
Margot Schrire, (808) 956-6774
Director of Communications, University of Hawaii Foundation
Posted: Apr 4, 2011


HONOLULU, HAWAII – In 2006, the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Center for Korean Studies partnered with the Korea Foundation in a campaign to create an endowment that would ensure the steady growth of Korean studies at the university. By leveraging the Korea Foundation’s generous $1 million challenge grant, the center has successfully raised an additional $1 million from a wide range of other donors.
 
The resulting $2 million endowment, to be known as the Center for Korean Studies Rotating Chair Endowment, will be used to expand the teaching of Korea-related courses beyond those already offered. Focusing on the humanities and social sciences, the center will work with various departments in rotation to establish new tenure-track faculty positions in disciplines currently not taught at UH Mānoa.
 
“We are grateful to the Korea Foundation for its visionary gift that enabled us to launch this project,” said Professor Yung-Hee Kim, director of the Center for Korean Studies. “We are equally thankful for the support of the local community and the many individual friends of the center in Korea, whose generosity made it possible for us to meet the Korea Foundation challenge,” she added.
 
The Center for Korean Studies coordinates and develops resources for the study of Korea at UH Mānoa. Established in 1972, it brings together one of the largest concentrations of scholars of Korea outside of Korea itself. The center conducts scholarly conferences; sponsors research projects; presents seminars and lectures; publishes significant research on Korea; and supports the university library’s Korea collection. The center’s faculty members are drawn from diverse disciplines, including communication, dance, economics, ethnomusicology, history, language, linguistics, literature, political science, sociology, and urban and regional planning.
 
“The Korea Foundation is pleased to have contributed, in part, to the creation of the Korean Studies Rotating Chair Endowment at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa,” said Dr. Byung-Kook Kim, president of the Korea Foundation. “I would like to express our sincere appreciation to the university for the diligent efforts to reinforce its Korea Studies program. I firmly believe that this chair will contribute greatly to the advancement of Korean Studies at the Mānoa campus, and eventually throughout the U.S. academic community. We look forward to our continued partnership with the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.”
 
“We are so very grateful to the Korea Foundation for its continuing support,” said UH Mānoa Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw. “Thanks to the support of the Korea Foundation, UH Mānoa’s Center for Korean Studies offers the most versatile and diversified Korea-related course offerings and degree programs in the United States.”
 
Established in 1991, the Korea Foundation is a nonprofit organization affiliated with Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade that aims to enhance Korea’s global image, in an effort to bolster its cooperative relations with the international community through the promotion of academic and cultural programs.
 
For more information on how you can support the Center for Korean Studies, please contact Harriet Cintron at (808) 956-3594 or Harriet.Cintron@uhfoundation.org. You can also make a gift to the Korean Studies Chair endowment online at www.uhfoundation.org/GiveToKoreanStudiesChair.
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The University of Hawai‘i Foundation, a nonprofit organization, raises private funds to support the University of Hawai‘i System. Our mission is to unite our donors’ passions with the University of Hawai‘i’s aspirations to benefit the people of Hawai‘i and beyond. We do this by raising private philanthropic support, managing private investments and nurturing donor and alumni relationships. www.uhfoundation.org
 
The Korea Foundation, established in 1991, is a nonprofit organization affiliated with Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade that aims to the enhancement of Korea’s global image, in an effort to bolster its cooperative relations with the international community through the promotion of academic and cultural programs www.kf.or.kr