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Nation-building and democratization in contemporary South Korea

From 1948, when Korea formally gained independence, until roughly 1998, the country’s history was marked by a period of trial and error aimed at establishing the Korean state and consolidating an identity as “Korean nationals.” This era was also characterized by various efforts and tensions surrounding the consolidation of democracy, which had been proclaimed as a national principle at independence in 1948. In that context, what policies did the contemporary South Korean government and media employ to cultivate a sense of “Korean nationality”? And, in the pursuit of a stable democratic society, how did ordinary people, opposition parties, and the press behave toward the government? To address these questions, I intend to elucidate the processes of nation-building and democratization in Korea by drawing on a range of primary sources, including government records from the period, memoirs of leading figures, and contemporary newspaper reports.

Anti-Communist Textbooks in 1950s South Korea

The Memorial Hall of Democratic Struggles in Busan, South Korea

Principal areas of interest

• Research on anti-communist education in contemporary South Korea
• Research on the South Korean government’s and media’s attempts to construct a sense of “Korean nationality” in the 1950s
• Research on the consolidation of democracy in contemporary South Korea
• Research on opposition parties in South Korea prior to democratization (1948–1987)