Prominent Asian history scholar to speak at UPEI on March 8
Dr. Don L. Baker, Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia, will give the inaugural lecture in UPEI’s new Asian Studies International Seminar and Korean Studies Speaker Series on Thursday, March 8, 2:30 pm, Faculty Lounge (Room 201), SDU Main Building.
Dr. Baker will give a presentation called “From the Mountains into the Cities: The Transformation of Korean Buddhism in the Twentieth Century” on Thursday from 2:30 to 3:45 pm. The storm date for the event is Friday, March 9, 2:30 to 3:45 pm, Room 213, SDU Main Building.
A renowned scholar in the area of East Asian history, especially Korea’s religious, intellectual, and cultural history, Dr. Baker is frequently invited by many leading universities and research institutes around the world to give special public talks. He joined UBC in 1987 as its first professor of Korean Studies (KS) and was entrusted with the task of building a Korean Studies program. Under his leadership, it has become the best KS program (with BA, MA, and PhD streams) in Canada and one of the premier KS programs in the world. For many years, he also served as director of UBC’s Centre for Korean Research. He has authored, edited, co-edited, or translated eight scholarly books since 1996. His Sourcebook of Korean Civilization, Vol. II, and Korean Spirituality are accepted as two popular textbooks in Korean history or religion courses and are frequently cited by scholars and students. He recently published a pioneering monograph, Catholics and Anti-Catholicism in Chosŏn Korea (University of Hawaii Press, 2017).
“As the first of our international seminar and speaker series,” says Dr. Edward Chung, coordinator of Asian Studies and director of the Korean Studies Project at UPEI, “this is a wonderful lecture topic on modern Buddhism, especially for understanding the religious and cultural transformation of Buddhism in twentieth-century Korea under the influence of Japan, Christianity, Western ideas, and socio-economic changes. This public talk is significant because of the growing popularity (public awareness) of Buddhism in our Island communities as well.”
This international seminar and speaker series project is an initiative of the UPEI Faculty of Arts, Asian Studies Program, and its Korean Studies Project, and is supported by a major international Seed Program for Korean Studies grant (AKS-2017-INC-2230001) through the Ministry of Education, Republic of Korea, and Korean Studies Promotion Service, the Academy of Korean Studies.
Everyone is welcome to attend Dr. Baker’s presentation. Healthy refreshments will be provided.
