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The 19th Kim Okgill Memorial Lecture
The Ewha Institute for the Humanities hosted the 19th Kim Okgill Memorial Lecture at Lee Sang-bong Hall in the ECC building on March 29. The “Kim Okgill Memorial Lecture” is an academic series organized to pay homage to Kim Okgill (1921-1990), an extraordinary teacher who served as the 8th president of Ewha. It is designed to further develop the humanities, sociology, natural sciences, and arts and to popularize academic achievements. This year’s memorial lecture was organized to offer a space for scholarship where the emerging issue of sustainability, or the collective awareness of life and ecology, could be discussed. Ursula K. Heise, a professor at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) studying environmental issues and climate change and actively putting her beliefs into practice, was invited as a guest speaker for this lecture. Professor Heise is not only an established ecological critic but also Director of the Institute for Environment and Sustainability and holder of the Marcia H. Howard Term Chair in Literary Studies in the Department of English at UCLA. In addition, she is a researcher and environmental activist who initiated the Stanford Environmental Humanities Project and served as the president of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) out of a passion for global issues such as the environment and climate change. In her lecture entitled “Beyond Realism: Narrative and Environmental Futures,” Heise emphasized the risks of climate change threaten life on the planet and the need to be aware of these risks and take appropriate actions. She has sought possibilities of thought and imagination from science fiction as a new storytelling strategy for an era of unprecedented environmental degradation and climate change. She enthusiastically delivered an intriguing speech on how literature can provide answers to questions about this new era while introducing various subjects, plots, and narrative strategies from speculative fiction that encourage the development of critical thinking about human sustainability. “We need humanistic introspection going beyond science and technology and a policy regime, namely a new set of values, reconstruction of ethics, and intellectual imagination surpassing existing boundaries, to wisely solve the problems posing a threat to humans,” she remarked with great force. Following the speech, Professor Sohn Ji Ae (International Studies) led an enthusiastic discussion and Q&A session with Ursula K. Heise, Professor Ae-Ryung Kim from the Ewha Institute for the Humanities (majoring in philosophy) and Professor Ji-hyung Park of Environmental Science and Engineering. The Ewha Institute for the Humanities is in charge of the organization of the Kim Okgill Memorial Lectures. It strives to provide a place for new academic discourse while preparing various issues and topics to reinterpret and transmit the virtues and values that Kim Okgill pursued.
2023 Ewha-Harvard International Exchange Program Conducted
Ewha-HCAP (Harvard College in Asia Program), an international exchange program jointly organized by Ewha and Harvard, has been conducted by the two school. HCAP is a conference aimed at creating international networks of students and fostering future experts on Asia through academic and cultural exchanges among students at Harvard and its partner universities across Asia. The program consists of a “Boston Conference” through which selected students from eight Asian partner universities are invited to Harvard and subsequent conferences through which Harvard students are invited to Asian partner universities. Ewha has participated in this program as the sole Korean university since 2007. The Seoul Conference held by Ewha is considered the most fulfilling among Harvard students every year. 2023 HCAP in Boston Ten students from Ewha attended the Ewha-HCAP Boston Conference held at Harvard University in Boston in the U.S. over seven days from January 15 to 21. HCAP features activities designed and operated by the students, such as diverse academic lectures and cultural experiences. The program is composed roughly of an academic exchange program and cultural version. Held on the theme of “Start Small, Think Big: Change Starting From Our Local Community,” the conference was attended by more than 100 students from eight Asian universities: the University of Tokyo, University of Hong Kong, National Taiwan University, Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, National University of Singapore, Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai, and Ewha. Participants returned to their universities with broader global networks based on the academic exchanges listening to lectures from renowned speakers and the various tour programs and social activities prepared by the Harvard delegation. Ewha-HCAP in Seoul The Ewha-Harvard College in Asia Program (HCAP) Seoul Conference, which invites Harvard students to the Ewha campus, was held from March 12 to 19. The Ewha-HCAP Seoul Conference for this year was held as a face-to-face event for the first time since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was met with high expectations and drew considerable attention. The subject of the academic exchanges chosen by Ewha students for this year was “Achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs).” The conference was composed of academic lectures from guest speakers and Ewha faculty, campus tours, and several cultural exchange programs such as visiting a traditional market, Gyeongbokgung Palace, and museums. Along with Ewha-HCAP, Ewha maintains a close relationship with Harvard University as the only Korean partner for its exchange programs, including jointly operating Harvard’s Summer School Program since 2006. It is expanding its international networking, including by holding the “Harvard Model Congress Asia (HMCA) 2023” on the Ewha campus in January.
