IUB Institute for Korean Studies

IU’s Institute for Korean Studies promotes interdisciplinary approaches to the understanding of Korea, on campus and beyond. We advance cultural fluency by providing programs for students, faculty, and the community.

Our institute was founded in 2015, and is housed within the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies (HLS). HLS has a dual emphasis that distinguishes it from other schools in the United States, placing equal emphasis on cultural fluency and applied social policy. To influence and change U.S. and transnational businesses, governments, and nonprofits, our students and faculty need to understand the languages, literatures, and ways of life of various parts of the world, in addition to critical issues, such as global governance, security, trade and development, human rights, migration, health, and climate change, that transcend any one nation or region.

In 2016, we were selected by the Academy of Korean Studies to be a recipient of a Core University Program grant totaling $1 million over a five-year period. As part of this program, our institute works with faculty at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; the University of Kentucky; the University of Louisville; and Purdue University to sponsor cultural and academic programming related to Korea at these institutions.