To All Grad Students

                Next term Melody Graulich will be teaching a course on American Indian Literature that will have spaces for both advanced undergraduates and graduate students.


From Dr. Graulich:  

I would like to assign more reading for the grad students and meet with them separately perhaps every three weeks.  Ideally, I would ask the grad students to participate in “teaching” the undergrad class by leading class discussion on a particular book and/or doing smaller group discussions.  But the structure of the class will depend on how many grad students are interested in taking it.  At the moment, I plan to focus on works by N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Silko, Louise Erdrich, and Louis Owens, but that may change.
               

 I know THIS semester is only just beginning but I have to order the books for the class in a month.  So if you are interested, please let me know either by email at melody.graulich@usu.edu or by stopping by my office to discuss the course at Ray B. West 211.  I’ll be in much of MWF this term or could make an appointment.

                                                                                                                                  --  Melody Graulich

Difference between "Creative Writing Workshop" and "Seminar"

There has been some confusion about these terms when students are enrolling for classes.  The terms are often used interchangeably in our department.  Typically, "seminar" is a term indicating a semester-long graduate course with low teacher-student ratio.   Our graduate level creative writing workshops, English 6882, 6883, and 6884, are also "seminar" classes and fulfill the "seminar" requirements of our program.  They are listed in the Fall and Spring Schedules as "workshops" or "WS" on class schedules, and here "workshop" here indicates the method of instruction.   These regular semester long writing workshops are different from "Summer Workshops," which are short, intensive courses of one week and may or may not be creative writing courses; however, students may also count "Summer Workshops" toward their seminar requirements.

Book Review: The Korean Church Under Japanese Colonialism

Title: The Korean Church Under Japanese Colonialism
Author: Choi Jai-keun
Softcover: 262 pages
Publisher: Jimoondang (August 31, 2007)
ISBN-10: 8988095235
ISBN-13: 9788988095232

A follow-up to 2006's The Origin of the Roman Catholic Church in Korea, Choi Jai-keun briefly walks the reader through the Korean Protestant church's jarring beginnings from nationalistic rebellion against Japanese colonial rule to ubiquitous religious dominance. The author selectively cites from both Western and Korean sources to tell a history worth sharing. However, it may not be the story you're expecting.

The church's origins are multifaceted and its growth was directly related to a divisive national identity crisis that occurred in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Choi narrates this transition somewhat free from subjective commentary other than to occasionally comment on how inept the Korean monarchy had become just prior to colonization and how Christian conviction proved steadfast. The progression from early foreign missionary influence to domestic governance is steady, however, the book loses steam when it reaches the 1910s. A fair amount of the first half of the book is spent discussing and dissecting the 105 Man Incident of 1910-1912. It picks back up with the controversy surrounding Christians participating in state-mandated Shinto rituals. Unfortunately, those two are the only main topics to be found here.

Regarding the book's overall presentation, one could hope for a more finished product. The layout isn't anything to look at; apart from a bland design that feels stiff and visually unappealing, there's no illustrations or pictures of any kind. Instead, the author needlessly numerates points of interest that could have been better expressed in well-developed paragraphs. Furthermore, despite looking and feeling like a master's thesis, frequent minor editing mistakes run rampant and unchecked. Although they generally don't detract from the intended meaning, they certainly do make the book feel entirely too unpolished and not yet fit for publishing.

In unusual academic fashion, there's a dearth of not only primary sources like official church histories but also modern interpretations; most of Choi's sources are from the 1960s. Disappointing, too, is that only a negligible amount is written about pioneering missionaries such as Horace N. Allen, Henry Appenzeller, Horace G. Underwood and the like. If the title of the book had instead been lengthily named "The Korean Conspiracy Case and Subsequent Rebellion Against Obligatory Shinto Rituals" perhaps the reader would be better prepared for the secluded path that Choi takes.

That's what disappoints the most about this book. It feels like a concealed path that's too narrow in scope and not quite authoritative enough to be mandatory reading for a college course nor entertaining enough to be a celebrated history book to be passed around. It reads like a rough draft to something more important; a review copy for a larger work that begs for native English-speaking editing and a good publisher's sense of flair. The contents speak of good history worthy of discussion. However, you might want to read about them elsewhere. It's not a bad book, but not exactly exhilarating nor polished enough to recommend.

- - -

I was expecting something more lucid, I suppose. I can say, at least, that I learned more about the 105 Man Incident (105인 사건).

This event, also known as the Korean Conspiracy Case, was the culmination of the recently fully instated Japanese colonial government's aim of their distrust of natively Korean organizations. By this time, all officially registered politically-orientated groups had been legally abolished. However, perhaps by either oversight or underestimation, the small but growing number of Christian churches were still allowed to operate making them breeding grounds not only for quiet, nonviolent religious expression but also for underground nationalistic camaraderie. As the colonial government was still reeling from the 1909 assassination of the first Resident-General of Korea Itō Hirobumi, the incumbent Resident-General, Terauchi Masatake, took no chances. Under the pretense of a mass assassination plot, the gendarmerie rounded up around 700 Koreans; among these, a few were killed, many were tortured, and most made false confessions under duress. All told, 105 men were incarcerated after a farcical trial. This event marked a turning point in religious and national rebellion. Hence, for many Koreans of the time, association with Christianity became synonymous with association with nationalism.

Welcome to the new Graduate Instructors!

 

Please join us welcoming the new class of GIs to the department. Pictured here on day two of their GI "Boot Camp" (along with Professors Brock Dethier and Evelyn Funda and Assistant Directors Bethany Zonner and Diantha Smith), the new GIs are coming to us from a variety of backgrounds and locales.  Included in this year's class is a folklore student from Missouri who has done fieldwork with Boy Scouts, a former Anthropology major from California who has experience in archeological curation, a student who wants to study the political power of folk music during contemporary wars, and a former Oregonian double English/Philosophy major who won multiple Scribendi prizes for writings about her brother's tragic death.   This is just a sampling of the interesting backgrounds they bring to our department, and we are fortunate to have them join us. 

Book Review: Park Chung-Hee: From Poverty to Power

Title: Park Chung-Hee: From Poverty to Power
Author: Chong-sik Lee
eBook: 327 pages
Publisher: The KHU Press (March 29, 2012)
ISBN-10: 0615560288
ISBN-13: 978-0615560281

Former ROK army general and self-appointed "democratic" president Park Chung-hee (1917-1979) is still quite possibly the most controversial political figure in Korean history. Interpreting his legacy remains a contestable notion of whether infrastructural matters such as economic security and public services take precedence over domestic matters like citizen rights and public programs. Appropriately aimed at an English-speaking audience outside of Korea, the author writes in hopes for the foreign reader to gain a better understanding of Park's legacy and why it still matters. This thorough biography of Park's early life sets the stage for discussions about not only Park but his first daughter, conservative assemblywoman and presidential hopeful Park Geun-hye, as her father's legacy is inexorably tied to hers. Unsurprisingly, the elder Park has one of the most turbulent, fascinating background stories to support his questionable, yet dynamic legacy.

One couldn't ask for a more qualified author, either. Professor Lee's multilingual confidence in writing makes you wonder whether if English is his first language (which it isn't). Lee's narrative is concise and informative. Unfortunately, his ability is underutilized;  Lee takes the reader on somewhat of a glossed tour of the late president's life, leaving out key events such as a play-by-play breakdown of the 1961 military coup, the October Yushin reforms of 1972, a failed assassination attempt that instead took his wife's life in 1974 and even his own eventual assassination on October 26, 1979. How these crucial events could be left out in a biography of the man is beyond me. Why include an entire chapter on Park's elementary school performance but leave out him stepping down from the military junta and entering into the realm of debatably democratic politics? Surely, it's not asking too much for the author to have added just a few more chapters to continue the story that he spent so much time and effort building up.

However, it can be said with confidence that Lee's research is meticulous and relatively objective; which is to say that he draws from not only liberal but also conservative sources as well as sources based on languages other than Korean. Make no mistake that the author is ready to defend his position and has solid ground to do so; each chapter ends with more than enough footnotes loaded with interesting comments and context. Lee's expertise is well-suited for this type of internationally spanning biography.

Without a doubt, this book had the potential to be the authoritative English-language reference on one of Korea's most influential men to date. However, due to the book's abrupt end while leading up to the 1961 coup, it regrettably removes this title from a wide-reaching non-Korean audience and instead places it in obscurity for history nerds like me to rip apart. Much like one of the author's previous works Syngman Rhee the Prison Years of a Young Radical, this book, too, begs more from the author's clearly capable hands. After such a brilliant build up in the first and second acts, for Professor Lee to flat out leave out the most memorable and talked about moments of Park Chung-hee's life really makes this book hard to recommend.

Apartment for Fall

JoleenWidmark will be renting out her basement. From Joleen: "Its in a fabulous location to downtown area. 2 bedroom, 1 bath. Huge kitchen. Washer/dryer included. Prefer 1-2 people and pets are a maybe. I'd have to meet the rascal before I say yes. $600 which includes all utilities. Upstairs will be a vacation rental and realistically only rented out for 60-75 nights a year, and mostly during summer months. So for the most part it will be quiet. Perfect for Phd student."

The home is at 21 North 200 East. Contact Joleen Widmark at 436-938-8044

The NSF’s SBE Postdoctoral Research Fellowship

is a research opportunity to be considered by recent PhDs (since Oct 2010) and those candidates who will have earned their degree by August 2013.

Applicants must be US citizens or permanent residents.  Application is made by the sponsoring faculty member’s institution.

There are two research tracks for this opportunity:
1.      Broadening participation – outreach, training or research activities that address increasing the participation of under represented groups in SBE sciences
2.      Interdisciplinary research (which must include SBE science)

Proposal is due Oct 29.
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2012/nsf12591/nsf12591.htm?WT.mc_id=USNSF_25&WT.mc_ev=click



INST mailing list
Instructional Technology & Learning Sciences
Utah State University
Inst@lists.usu.edu

To EDIT your profile:  http://lists.usu.edu/wws/inst