We are pleased to announce the arrival of our third visiting scholar for 2015. Jaigi Kim, Professor of Political Science and Foreign Relations at Chonnam National University in Gwangju, South Korea, arrived in New York two weeks ago. He will conduct his sabbatical research in the area for one year. Professor Kim has done research on Korean diasporic communities in the U.S., Japan, China, and CIS (former Soviet) nations. The Research Center for Korean Community's other two visiting scholars in 2015 are Dr. Heejin Lim (who arrived in February) and Professor Yill-Youn Park (who arrived in May and recently returned to Korea).

During his stay at The Research Center for Korean Community at Queens College, Professor Kim will examine areas in which the Korean government can provide more support to Korean ethnic organizations in the NY-NJ area. Additionally, he will examine the role of Korean grassroots organizations in lobbying state legislatures and city councils on the east coast of the U.S. to pass resolutions to rename "The Sea of Japan" to "The East Sea" on world maps. In April 2014, the state of Virginia passed a law that required all textbooks approved by the Board of Education to make sure that the body of water was referred to as "The East Sea." Professor Kim will conduct research in northern Virginia to see how Korean immigrants in the area succeeded in helping to get the resolution passed.

Professor Jaigi Kim received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from Chonnam National University, and he has been a professor there since 2008.

On Friday, August 14, 2015, board and staff members of RFKC and RCKC met at the Standard Grill in Manhattan for a delicious and fun 79th birthday celebration for Elder Hae Min Chung, who is the President of the Research Foundation for Korean Community (RFKC). President Chung's eldest daughter also attended the party.

Over the years, President Chung has worked very hard to help and serve the Korean and Korean-American communities in the New York-New Jersey area. Since immigrating to the U.S. in 1974, he has founded and established a Korean school, worked for the New York City government as an outreach and community coordinator for the NYC Citizenship Program and Office of Immigrant Initiatives, been Chair of the Board of Directors of the Korean American Voters' Council of New York and New Jersey, and been a Co-Chair of the New York Coalition for House Resolution 121 (the "Comfort Women" resolution). In 2013, he received the Vision Award from Korean Community Services, and in 2010, he received Special Congressional Recognition from U.S. Congressman Michael Honda. These are just a few of his many accomplishments and activities.

 We are happy to have been a part of a wonderful celebration for a man who has served the community in a variety of different ways, and we wish President Chung continued good health and prosperity. 

On Wednesday, August 12, 2015, Professor Dae Young Kim (Department of Sociology and Anthropology at George Mason University) gave a talk about the Korean community in the Washington, DC-Baltimore metro area. The seminar took place at Korean American Youth Foundation, and it was hosted and organized by the Research Center for Korean Community. Below is a brief summary of his presentation:

The Washington, D.C.-Baltimore metropolitan area has emerged as one of the fastest-growing places of settlement for Korean immigrants in the United States. With more than 104,322 Koreans (single-race Koreans) residing in the region (ACS 2009-2011), it is the third largest Korean community after Los Angeles (301,534) and New York (203,020). Through an examination of the rich history and evolution of the Korean community in the greater Washington, D.C.-Baltimore metropolitan area, as well as Korean immigrants’ patterns of settlement, forms of economic adaptation, and structure of community and political organizations, the paper seeks to provide a timely portrait of the evolution and state of the Korean community in a new immigration gateway city. The paper draws on multiple sources of data, including the 2009-2011 American Community Survey (ACS), the 2003 Washington-Baltimore Korean Community survey (a survey commissioned by the Centennial Committee of the Korean Immigration to the United States, Washington, D.C.), a monograph commissioned by the Korean American Foundation-Greater Washington entitled, “History of the Korean-Americans in the Washington Metropolitan Area, 1883-2005,” the 2014 Giant Korean Business Directory, and twenty in-depth interviews conducted with Korean community leaders, long-time residents, and newcomers in 2011. 

In particular, Professor Kim talked about the concentration of Koreans and the emergence of Korean business districts in Fairfax County (VA), Montgomery County (MD), and Loudoun County (VA). Centreville, VA and Annandale, VA have especially high concentrations of Korean residents. Professor Kim cited stable government jobs and highly rated school systems as pull factors that have attracted Korean immigrants and Korean Americans to settle in the metro DC-Baltimore area.

Some of Professor Kim's research interests include immigrant integration, particularly the integration of the children of immigrants, into new host countries. He has published articles in Sociology of Religion, International Migration Review, Ethnic and Racial Studies, and Sociological Forum.

Click the link below to visit Professor Dae Young Kim's faculty page on the George Mason University Sociology and Anthropology website:

Professor Dae Young Kim's Faculty Page

On Wednesday, June 24, 2015, the Research Center for Korean Community hosted a seminar at Korean American Youth Foundation in Flushing. RCKC's director, Professor Pyong Gap Min, gave a talk titled "The Emergence of the 'Comfort Women' Issue and Survivors' Breaking Silence in the Early 1990s." He discussed a number of issues related to Korean victims of Japanese military sexual slavery during World War II. Recently, this tragic issue has been prominent again in U.S. and Korean media with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's recent visits to the U.S. and to shrines of Japanese war criminals.

Click the link below to read an article written by Professor Min that was published in the journal Gender and Society:

Korean "Comfort Women": The Intersection of Colonial Power, Gender, and Class