Fulbright Forum

The Korean-American Educational Commission invites you to attend the next Fulbright Forum for a talk entitled
“U.S. Involvement in the Gwangju Uprising: 1980”
by Dr. George Katsiaficas, Fulbright Scholar at Chonnam National University in Gwangju.

The Fulbright Forum serves as a periodic gathering for Fulbright grantees and members of the community. This month’s Forum will be held at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, March 28th in the 6th  floor conference room at the Fulbright Building in Mapo-gu, Seoul, with a snack reception to follow on the 3rd  floor. Please reply to executive.assistant@fulbright.or.kr by Wednesday, March 26th in order to confirm your attendance, and feel free to share this invitation with others. For a map and directions, see the KAEC website at http://www.fulbright.or.kr.

Summary:
Drawing from US Embassy documents, World Bank statistics, and memoirs of former US Ambassador Gleysteen and Commanding General Wickham, US actions during Chun Doo Hwan’s first months in power are examined. The Embassy’s chief concern in this period was liberalization of the Korean economy and securing US bankers’ continuing investments. Political liberalization was rejected as an appropriate goal, thereby strengthening Korean anti-Americanism. The timing of economic reforms and US support for Chun indicate that the suppression of the Gwangju Uprising opened the door for the imposition of the neoliberal accumulation regime in the ROK. With the long-term success of increasing American returns on investments, serious strains are placed on the US/ROK alliance.

Biography:
Dr. George Katsiaficas is a professor of Humanities and Social Studies at Boston's Wentworth Institute of Technology and an Associate in Research at Harvard University's Korea Institute. In 2001 he lived in Gwangju and researched the Gwangju uprising of 1980. The May 18 Institute at Chonnam National University (CNU) published two volumes of his interviews with members of the Citizens Army. He is the author of several books including The Subversion of Politics: European Autonomous Social Movements and the Decolonization of Everyday Life and Imagination of the New Left: A Global Analysis of 1968. He has also edited several books, most recently South Korean Democracy: Legacy of the Gwangju Uprising (with Na Kahn-chae). Prof Katsiaficas will stay at CNU as a Fulbright Senior Scholar this year. Visit his homepage http://www.eroseffect.com to find some of his articles.