"Works of Late Chosŏn Dynasty Korea" project awarded major grant

George Kallander, associate professor of history, has received a three-year grant from the Academy of Korean Studies to lead a project to translate four important historical Korean texts into English.  As the project director, Kallander will oversee three other North American scholars on the project.  Each will translate, annotate, and write a scholarly introduction for a primary source written in classical Chinese, the script of the educated elite during Korea's premodern era.  The resulting series will include four titles ranging from the early seventeenth through the late nineteenth centuries that reflect the complex and vibrant nature of early modern Korean society.  The period was a time of realignment of Korean identity in the aftermath of the seventeenth century Manchu conquests of Northeast Asia, followed by economic, social, bureaucratic, and artistic developments over two centuries of growth and steady change in Korea.  This is the first time these works will be translated into English; making available the annotated translations, and the scholarly studies that will accompany them, will allow the English-language world access to historical and artistic developments in Korea during this important era, long before the country became familiar to the West. 

The award, which totals 309,000,000 Korean Won, or approximately $290,000, was made as part of the "English Translation of 100 Korean Classics" project of the Korean Studies Promotion Service, a division of the Academy of Korean Studies. 12/03/13