Koreans Across Borders: Korea and Its Global Diaspora

1 Course Unit

Where does "Korea" end? Today, over 7.5 million Koreans live outside the peninsula. This seminar challenges the peninsula-centric view of Korean history by tracing the trajectories of Korean migrants to various destinations. We will examine the causes of displacement—from famine and subsistence crises to imperial labor mobilization, political exile, and economic aspiration—and how these communities navigated their host societies. Students will compare, for instance, the experiences of the Zainichi Koreans in Japan, Chaoxianzu in China, the Koreitsy (Koreans of the former Soviet Union) in Central Asia, and Korean Americans, analyzing how each group reinvented "Koreanness" in the face of marginalization, discrimination, and, for some groups, statelessness. Not Offered Every Year Mutually Exclusive: EALC 2772 1 Course Unit