This conference brings together scholars interested in Korean-Vietnamese in dialogue with one another from across North America, Europe, and Asia in order to develop a framework for meaningful collaboration. It will examine Vietnam and Korea through both a "connected" perspective and comparative lens. A "connected" perspective emphasizes linkages and circulations, namely the flow of ideas, texts, people and objects. A comparative lens hones in on issues of historical process and the convergence or divergence of particular institutions, cultural patterns, or social configurations. 

Sponsored by Academy of Korean Studies (Project: AKS-2020-C-15), James P. Geiss & Margaret Y. Hsu Foundation, UCLA Center for Korean Studies, UCLA Center of Southeast Asian Studies, and the UCLA Department of Asian Languages and Cultures.

Conference Schedule

Friday, January 14th

Session 1: Methods

10AM to 12PM

• Toward a connected history of reading in Vietnamese and Korean cultures -- Young Kyun Oh (Arizona State)
• Change and Continuity between Koryo and Choson: A View from California -- John Duncan (UCLA)
• Toward a Comparative Study of Sinitic Legal Codes -- Jaymin Kim (Rice University)

Session 2: Nature

1PM to 3PM

• Notable Changes in the Medical Culture of Late Choson Korea -- Richard Kim (UCLA)
• Environmental Histories of Korea and Vietnam: Comparisons, Approaches, Possibilities (Part 1) -- Bradley Davis (Eastern Connecticut) 
• Environmental Histories of Korea and Vietnam: Comparisons, Approaches, Possibilities (Part 2) -- John S. Lee (Durham) 

Session 3: Knowledge

3:3PM to 5:30PM

• Nom Script Variation and Textual Layering in an early Sino-Viet dictionary -- Albert Errickson (Columbia University) 
• Translating Du Fu, Rewriting Li Bai: Vernacularization and Adaption of Sinitic Poems in Choson Korea -- Christina Han (Wilfrid Laurier) 
• Construction of feminine piety in Vietnamese Christian vernacular writing -- Nhung Tran (University of Toronto)

Saturday, January 15th

Session 4: Encounters

1PM to 3PM

• At Home in the World's Wild Edges -- Kate Baldanza (Penn State)
• Ming Loyalist International: Choson and the broader Ming Loyalist world -- Adam Bohnet (King's University College)
• Not quite others: Korean and Vietnamese Encounters -- Sixiang Wang (UCLA)

Sponsor(s): Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Asian Languages & Cultures, UCLA Center for Korean Studies, Academy of Korean Studies, and James P. Geiss & Margaret Y. Hsu Foundation