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IKS Lecture: John DiMoia, "Interrogating Security Roads, Transport Infrastructure, and Emerging Forms of Knowledge: Southeast Asia (Thailand, Vietnam) and South Korea's Engineering Culture, Mid-1950s-Early 1970s"

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March 26, 2019
1:00PM - 2:30PM
TBA

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Add to Calendar 2019-03-26 13:00:00 2019-03-26 14:30:00 IKS Lecture: John DiMoia, "Interrogating Security Roads, Transport Infrastructure, and Emerging Forms of Knowledge: Southeast Asia (Thailand, Vietnam) and South Korea's Engineering Culture, Mid-1950s-Early 1970s" The Institute for Korean Studies Presents: John DiMoiaAssociate Professor of Korean HistorySeoul National University"Interrogating Security Roads, Transport Infrastructure, and Emerging Forms of Knowledge: Southeast Asia and South Korea's Engineering Culture, Mid-1950s-Early 1970s"Flyer: John DiMoia FlyerAbstract: This talk considers South Korea’s relationship to Southeast Asia as a site for knowledge production through the pair of Thailand and South Vietnam, looking at the “new” relationships reconfigured in the aftermath of the Korean War. From the Sino-centric world, to Japanese empire, the region now came under the influence of emerging Cold War concerns, fostering Asian-Asian technical exchange under the guise of promoting “Free World” security.With diplomatic ties restored in the mid to late 1950s, the ROK began to make inquiries while pursuing its first infrastructure projects, often connecting with the same pool of international contractors who had previously assisted with post-Korean War recovery. For its part, Hyundai sought to intervene in the Thai northeast in the early 1960s with the building of Thai airfields, and later, roads. For Vietnam, the context would become famous as the site for numerous South Korean projects, with the first civic actions (medical outreach) dating to late 1964.The talk takes up the conjoined questions of new knowledge production and security interests, recognizing here a shared economic community with common interests between NE and SEA. The learning experience of directing engineering and medical / public health projects, especially that taking place in Thailand, has been overlooked as a foundational basis for South Korea’s skill acquisition and the formation of its early developmental impulses. Engineers and technicians trained under colonial Japan often received their first field experience during this period, and interacted with a younger generation of Koreans trained in new contexts, including Europe and the United States. Even the major scientific institutions of the period, including KIST (Korea Institute of Science and Technology) have their origins in the Southeast Asian experience, and this period continues to hold implications for present-day ROK developmentalist impulses and relations with the region.Bio: John P. DiMoia is Associate Professor of Korean History (Kuksahakkwa) at Seoul National University (SNU). where his research / classes focus on (1) the broader history of technology (esp. in Korea, EA, 18th century-present), (2) the history of medicine (tropical, global, 18th century-present), and (3) Modern Korea (mid-19th century-present). He holds a Ph.D. in the History of Science (HOS) from Princeton University (2007), and has previously taught in Japan (Kanagawa University), Singapore (NUS), and the United States. He is working on two new projects: he first of these is a book on energy issues in NE Asia and the Korean peninsula, centering in particular on the decision by South Korea to develop control over its built environments in the late 1960s.The second, an edited volume, "Engineering Asia," a project jointly co-edited with Associate Profs. Hiromi Mizuno (University of Minnesota)and Aaron S Moore (Arizona State), linking NE (Japan, S Korea) and SE Asia (Burma, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam) after 1945 in terms of construction and infrastructure has just been published by Bloomsbury (August 2018).In addition to the first book, he has published essays and reviews in Cross-Currents (UC Press), EASTS (Duke), Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences (UC Press), Technology & Culture (JHU) and Theory, Culture and Society (Sage), among others.Free and open to the publicThis event is supported by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to The Ohio State University East Asian Studies Center.  TBA Department of East Asian Languages and Literature deall@osu.edu America/New_York public

The Institute for Korean Studies Presents: 

John DiMoia
Associate Professor of Korean History
Seoul National University

"Interrogating Security Roads, Transport Infrastructure, and Emerging Forms of Knowledge: Southeast Asia and South Korea's Engineering Culture, Mid-1950s-Early 1970s"

Flyer: John DiMoia Flyer

Abstract: This talk considers South Korea’s relationship to Southeast Asia as a site for knowledge production through the pair of Thailand and South Vietnam, looking at the “new” relationships reconfigured in the aftermath of the Korean War. From the Sino-centric world, to Japanese empire, the region now came under the influence of emerging Cold War concerns, fostering Asian-Asian technical exchange under the guise of promoting “Free World” security.

With diplomatic ties restored in the mid to late 1950s, the ROK began to make inquiries while pursuing its first infrastructure projects, often connecting with the same pool of international contractors who had previously assisted with post-Korean War recovery. For its part, Hyundai sought to intervene in the Thai northeast in the early 1960s with the building of Thai airfields, and later, roads. For Vietnam, the context would become famous as the site for numerous South Korean projects, with the first civic actions (medical outreach) dating to late 1964.

The talk takes up the conjoined questions of new knowledge production and security interests, recognizing here a shared economic community with common interests between NE and SEA. The learning experience of directing engineering and medical / public health projects, especially that taking place in Thailand, has been overlooked as a foundational basis for South Korea’s skill acquisition and the formation of its early developmental impulses. Engineers and technicians trained under colonial Japan often received their first field experience during this period, and interacted with a younger generation of Koreans trained in new contexts, including Europe and the United States. Even the major scientific institutions of the period, including KIST (Korea Institute of Science and Technology) have their origins in the Southeast Asian experience, and this period continues to hold implications for present-day ROK developmentalist impulses and relations with the region.

Bio: John P. DiMoia is Associate Professor of Korean History (Kuksahakkwa) at Seoul National University (SNU). where his research / classes focus on (1) the broader history of technology (esp. in Korea, EA, 18th century-present), (2) the history of medicine (tropical, global, 18th century-present), and (3) Modern Korea (mid-19th century-present). He holds a Ph.D. in the History of Science (HOS) from Princeton University (2007), and has previously taught in Japan (Kanagawa University), Singapore (NUS), and the United States. 

He is working on two new projects: he first of these is a book on energy issues in NE Asia and the Korean peninsula, centering in particular on the decision by South Korea to develop control over its built environments in the late 1960s.

The second, an edited volume, "Engineering Asia," a project jointly co-edited with Associate Profs. Hiromi Mizuno (University of Minnesota)and Aaron S Moore (Arizona State), linking NE (Japan, S Korea) and SE Asia (Burma, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam) after 1945 in terms of construction and infrastructure has just been published by Bloomsbury (August 2018).

In addition to the first book, he has published essays and reviews in Cross-Currents (UC Press), EASTS (Duke), Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences (UC Press), Technology & Culture (JHU) and Theory, Culture and Society (Sage), among others.

Free and open to the public

This event is supported by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to The Ohio State University East Asian Studies Center.