On Wednesday, April 19, 2017, Professor Pyong Gap Min of RCKC and Queens College gave a talk titled "The Advantages of Suburban Enclaves Over Urban Enclaves in Community Empowerment: A Comparison of Korean Enclaves in Queens Borough and Bergen County in the NY-NJ Area." This event took place at Global Leadership Foundation on Parsons Blvd in Flushing from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. Approximately twenty people attended this talk, including three of RCKC's 2017 visiting scholars, the co-director of the MinKwon Center for Community Action, and a reporter for Korea Central Daily News.

Professor Min's talk focused on the advantages of suburban enclaves over urban enclaves in community empowerment, using Korean immigrant communities in the NYC borough of Queens and New Jersey's Bergen County as case studies. Using census data, newspaper articles, and personal interviews with Korean politicians and community leaders, the talk covered three components of community empowerment: (1) electoral politics, (2) the promotion of the Korean language to American public schools, and (3) erecting "comfort women" monuments. Professor Min also discussed some of the advantageous benefits of other suburban Korean enclaves in the U.S. 

On Saturday, November 5, 2016, RCKC held its 7th annual conference at the Rosenthal Library at Queens College. The theme of the conference was "Korean Religious Experiences in the U.S." Presenters included Ruth H. Chung (University of Southern California), Grace Ji-Sun Kim (Earlham School of Religion), Rebecca Kim (Pepperdine University), Pyong Gap Min (Queens College and RCKC), Jerry Z. Park (Baylor University), Hye Sung Park (Won Institute of Graduate Studies), Andrew Cha (St. Paul Chong Ha-Sang Roman Catholic Church), Hyoung Keun Kim (Modern Buddhism magazine), and Jin Eun Park (Won Buddhist Temple of New York). Dr. David Yoo of UCLA and Thomas Chung of RCKC moderated the conference sessions.

RCKC would like to thank Queens College, Research Foundation for Korean Community (RFKC), the presenters, and everyone who attended the conference.

On Tuesday, September 27, 2016, Professor Edward J. W. Park of Loyola Marymount University in L.A. gave a talk titled "Divergent Paths: Korean American Politics in an Age of Globalization" at KCS. This event was part of RCKC's ongoing seminar series. KCS is located at 35-56 159th Street, Flushing, NY 11358. Approximately 20 people attended this event.  

In the 1980s, Korean American political attention shifted away from democratization in South Korea to urban politics in large American cities. From New York, to Chicago, to Los Angeles, Korean Americans struggled with their middlemen minority position as merchants in inner-cities, situated between indifferent white power structure and hostile African American activists. Punctuated by the Los Angeles Civil Unrest of 1992, Korean Americans committed unprecedented attention and resources to increase their political visibility and influence in American cities. By 2015, this effort to claim their rightful place in mainstream American politics resulted in modest success measured in electoral victories and significant appointments. However, this familiar pattern of American ethnic political incorporation has been complicated by dramatic changes in laws and policies by the Korean and the U.S. governments. From the Overseas Korean Act of 1999 to the ratification of the Korea-United States Free Trade Agreement in 2012, transpacific politics are once again pulling Korean American attention and resources as these changes redefine the terms and conditions of being Korean American in a globalizing world. Korean Americans have vigorously pursued their interests on this front, seeking to maximize their professional opportunities as bilateral trade and relationships grow while minimizing the personal disruptions of pursuing transpacific lives. Once again, Korean American politics stand at the crossroads.

Edward J.W. Park is director and professor of Asian Pacific American Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. His publications include “Competing Visions: Political Formation of Korean Americans in Los Angeles” (Amerasia Journal, 1988) and “Labor Organizing Beyond Race and Nation: The Los Angeles Hilton Case” (International Journal of Sociology and Social Research, 2004).

Click the link below to access an article that Professor Park wrote reflecting on Korean Americans in L.A. after the 1992 Uprising:

From an Ethnic Island to a Transnational Bubble

We are pleased to announce that Queens College has established a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Secretariat of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea. The Office of the Secretariat is the government agency that supports the activities of the Korean National Assembly, including Assembly members' research activities and visits to other countries. 

A small formal ceremony to make the MOU official was held at Queens College on Friday, September 16, 2016. The event was attended by (left to right in the photo above) Mohamed Tabrani (Director of Education Abroad at Queens College), Sunghee Shin (Professor of Education at Queens College), Yoon-keun Woo (Secretary General of Korean National Assembly), Felix Mattos-Rodriguez (President of Queens College), Elizabeth Hendrey (Provost of Queens College), Pyong Gap Min (Director of RCKC and Professor of Sociology at Queens College), and William McClure (Dean of Faculty at Queens College). 

The purpose of the MOU is to develop academic/educational cooperation and to promote relations and mutual understanding between Queens College and the Korean National Assembly. Some of the activities will include mutual exchanges through seminars and workshops, briefings on public policy and scholarly topics, joint research projects, and mutual exchanges of research personnel and former and current officials.  

The Research Center for Korean Community (RCKC) will play an intermediary role between Queens College and the Korean National Assembly in fulfilling the content of the MOU. In addition, RCKC will most likely conduct research on behalf of the National Assembly.