The goal of this course is to enhance our understanding of Korean society and culture by emplo
ying sociological perspective. In addition, this course will help the students to acquire relevant m
ethods to understand diverse societies and cultures in the glo balizing world.
Korea today consists of many elements of the past. These elements, while often less visible, still
exert influence on everyday lives of Koreans. What might roughly be called 'tradition' has been in
teracting with 'modern' forces of developm ent in making complex 21st century Korea. In order t
o unravel this complexity, the lectures are organized around the question of how ‘developmentdevelopment’ has affected Korean society, culture, and people over the past several decades. In the first few se
ssions, w e will examine Korean social change historically; this includes an overview of Korean soci
al history which includes rethinking traditional culture, examining the role of Japanese colonialism,
and evaluating the role of the U.S. in making modern Korean soci ety. This will be followed by d
iscussion of several important issues to understand Korean society such as food, culture, political
economic changes, rural issues, population, and family. By carefully investigating these issues an
d based on the students' r esearches, better understanding of Korean society can be attained.