Iranian Studies in Korea

First Name: 
Byung-Ock
Last Name: 
Chang
Institutional Affiliation : 
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
Academic Bio: 
Byung-Ock Chang has a PhD in International Relations from the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, Korea; and a B.A. in Iranian Studies from the same university. He was a President of the Korean Association of Middle East Studies. He is now the Chair of the Iranian Department and Director of the Institute of Middle East Studies at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. He is working as an anti-terror advisory committee member of the Metropolitan Seoul Police, and a recommending commissioner of the Seoul Peace Prize. His main research areas are Middle Eastern and Iranian politics.

 
Abstract:
This paper intends to deal with the present status of Iranian Studies in Korea. In response to Iran's growing political and economic interests in the Middle East, only one Iranian Department, founded in 1975,  and  an Iranian Cultural Center, opened  in 1992 at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS, Seoul, Korea) have been recorded in history since contacts between Korea and Iran began. It has so far produced approximately over 700 graduates in Iranian-Persian language with some going to graduate school and specializing in the Middle East Studies. Thus it creates specialists on the region, with a working knowledge of Persian language, literature, and other fields (history, politics, culture, etc.), very much sought not only by the Korean government, but increasingly also by the Korean private sector, eager to penetrate further into the Iranian market. No wonder that the Department at HUFS has been named the -Mecca- of Iranian studies, whose influence in the promotion of ties between Iran and Korea is now a well-known story.
 
Moreover, the university has established academic agreement for cooperation with the University of Tehran since 1992, and the two universities have been trying to enhance academic and cultural opportunities for the faculty members and students of each institution.
 
The eagerness to promote ties between the two countries cannot be better demonstrated than in the educational cooperation, which is  a vehicle paving the ground for better understanding of each other's culture and history, and further strengthening of cooperation in all fields.
 

Academic Discipline : 
Politics in Iran
Time Period : 
19th-present

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