AKS Core 2.0 Grant: The Yearly Report

AKS Core 2.0 Grant: The Year Two Report

Since securing the AKS Core 2.0 grant, MUKSRH members have worked hard to complete AKS Core Grant-related research, education, and engagement activities. This has not been a straightforward task since all members have also had to continue with their everyday teaching and administrative duties on top of all their Hub work. In addition, the entire team took on additional loads to cover for Andy Jackson while he was on OSP between July and December 2024. In the interim, Lucien Brown held the fort as Project Director in addition to his other busy tasks. Associate Professor Brown also organised the Indigenous Student support Program Korean Studies, the February 2025 Research Session for Teaching and Technology which is dedicated to Decolonising Teaching and Research in Korean Studies. He is also responsible for coordinating the research funding scheme for MUKSRH members and the Future-proofing Korean language programs at Monash Project.

Dr Hyein Cho has been acting as the MUKSRH International and Community Collaboration Coordinator, and has run the HDR (Graduate) Student Nurture and Promotion Program, which saw two vital events this year – an April 2024 Monash Korean Studies graduate talk on working in South Korea and the August 2024 Annual HDR Information Session aimed to recruit more PhD and MRes students to Monash Korean Studies. Dr Cho’s professionally produced video highlights the benefits of pursuing further study at Monash Korean Studies.

Assoc Prof Andy Jackson who is responsible for generating the annual report, overall coordination of the project, budget management and coordinating all strands of the project plan and also liaising with project team members over their budget, roles, duties and reports spent 6 months on OSP. On his return, he was also responsible for the short courses scheme, student TA scheme, Korea Week and the HDR student support programme.

Sandy Nguyen, our MUKSRH Hub Coordinator, has continued to play a central role at the centre of the operation, managing the day-to-day running of the Hub’s many engagement and research activities. Crucially, in 2024, she played a vital role in expanding MUKSRH’s short courses to Hampton Park Library and Collingwood College. Short courses are a central plank in our MUKSRH outreach scheme which aims to introduce Korean language and culture classes to the Melbourne area. In addition, she organised the annual Korea Week in April 2024, which included a hugely fun Quiz on Korea which pitted the skills and knowledge of Monash Korean Studies students with those from our partner universities in Vietnam – Da Nang and Van Lang Universities. Finally, the MUKSRH Hub Coordinator successfully created our first series of Korean language exchange sessions between Monash Korean Studies and partnered Vietnamese universities Van Lang, Da Nang and Hanoi Pedagogical Universities.

Over the past year, Dr Daniel Pieper managed the 2024 MUKSRH Beyond Borders seminars Series, which saw a total of seven Korean Studies research seminars with speakers coming from New Zealand, South Korea and Australia. Dr Pieper also organised the 2024 7th Annual Korean Speech Contest, the second time the contest was held in hybrid mode, with contestants competing in Melbourne and in collaboration with our partner universities in Vietnam. Many observers commented that this was the best contest in the series so far and there was a fair share of students competing at introductory, intermediate and proficient levels and winners from Vietnamese partner universities as well as Monash. Dr Pieper also ensured a solid Korean Studies presence at the annual LLC Languages Week in August 2024

MUKSRH’s Research Fellow Dr Soyeon Kim also had a busy 2024 organizing the October 2024 visit of award-winning Korean author Kim Yu-dam for a hybrid seminar. Dr Kim also organized the visit and collection, and distribution of Korean language materials for Ormond Primary School as a way to ensure the expansion of Korean language education in Melbourne. and Academic Research Workshop. Dr Kim also organized three Academic Research Workshops for Feedback and Discussion of work over the course of 2024 including talks on journal submissions by Assoc. Prof Lucien Brown, Dr Daniel Pieper and Dr Alexander Hynd from Melbourne University. Dr Kim recently was awarded the prestigious 2025-2026 Korea Foundation Fellowship for Postdoctoral Research and is scheduled to join the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalization (ADI) at Deakin University as a visiting scholarship following the conclusion of her research fellowship with the Monash University Korean Studies Research Hub.

MUKSRH also welcomes new students as part of Korean Studies HDR student expansion. We welcome Jeong Yoon Ku, Eva Richards, Carolyn Kropp, Danae Smith and Anthony Kourakis. We look forward to closer collaboration and seeing the fruits of their fascinating research over the next few years.

Thanks also to our in-class student support assistants Anthony Kourakis, Larissa Carberry, Ahin Kim, Pick Kulbul, Giang Dam, Grace Burke and Farzana Afzali for all their work helping us in our classes and for organizing their fantastic teaching activities and teaching work in our outreach scheme.

The second year also saw the expansion of the MUKSRH Core Team with six additional members, who are now entitled to apply for MUKSRH Korean Studies research funds:

 

Affiliation

 

Jacky Watt

LLCL/Korean Studies

PhD topic: ‘Impacts of Consuming Korean Entertainment Media on the Gender Attitudes of Australian Audiences’

Eva Richards

LLCL/Korean Studies

PhD topic: ‘Heterosexuality in South Korea: feminists’ experiences of intimate relationships with men’

Jeong Yoon Ku

LLCL/Korean Studies

PhD topic: ‘The meanings of Korean Food from Different Perspectives: The government, Korean Language Learners, and Overseas Koreans’

Hiromi Ikeda

LLCL/Korean Studies

PhD topic: ‘Family language policies and children's motivation for heritage languages: Japanese-Korean cross-cultural families in Australia and South Korea’

Dr Jiyoung Kim

LLCL/Korean Studies

Research Fellow, Korean linguistics

Matt Skidmore

MITS

PhD topic: “Language of Australian-ness in South Korea.’

In addition to the aforementioned Korean Studies engagement, education and research events, MUKSRH members have also been busy over the past year with their own research and teaching activities. Here are some highlights:

  • Dr Hyein Cho has been particularly busy with her extensive work on Domestic and Family Violence presenting on gender equality in Australia at Ewha Women’s University in Seoul and winning a commendation for her work as well. Thanks to Dr Cho’s work, DFV has been established as a core area of research at MUKSRH.
  • MUKSRH member Dr Jessica Huynh was also nominated for the 2024 ‘Inspiring Woman Award’ in the Monash Student Association’s annual awards.
  • Assoc. Professor Lucien Brown and Dr Daniel Pieper presented on Korean Language, Society and Identity in November 2024. In addition, in association with Japanese Studies, they co-organised the 31st Japanese-Korean linguistics Conference 2024 (October 31-November 2).
  • MUKSRH member Dr Soyeon Kim recently put together professionally produced and engaging educational video materials on bilingual parenting.
  • MUKSRH member Jae Roh submitted her PhD thesis entitled “Isolation and Struggle to Belong: Older Korean-Australian Migrants’ Managing Emotions through Homeland Digital Media” and will be teaching at the School of Media, Film and Journalism, and  also presented her PhD project at the Perspectives on Contemporary Korea conference hosted by the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in November 2024.
  • MUKSRH members Dr JY Ryu and Dr Jessica Huynh will both be starting work as CDPAEs at Monash Korean Studies.
  • Assoc. Prof. Andy Jackson and Dr Daniel Pieper in collaboration with Professor Felix Siegmund from Ruhr University Bochum and Sandy Nguyen have created the first online Hanmun (Chinese characters used in dynastic Korea) dictionary as a tool for researchers of pre-modern Korean historical and literary texts.

Prior to the end of the second year of the 2023-2028 AKS Core Project (on June 30, 2025), Dr Pieper will be planning a full series of research seminars as part of our ongoing MUKSRH Beyond Borders Seminars Series. In addition, we will be hosting our annual Korea Week in week 4, and for the first time, an Employment/Jobs Fair in week 6 of semester 1 in conjunction with Monash Chinese Studies, Japanese and Indonesian Studies. On May 15, we plan to organize a special one-off event to mark the end of the first 2017-2022 AKS Core Project (officially finished December 19, 2024) and celebrate its achievements.

AKS Core 2.0 Grant: The Year One Report

Since securing the AKS Core 2.0 grant in June 2023, Monash University Korean Studies Research Hub (MUKSRH) members have worked flat out to put the project plan into practice. There have been some major changes in the way the project is managed as well. Sandy Nguyen, our MUKSRH Hub Coordinator has been handling the day-to-day management of the Hub’s many engagements and some research activities. Individual members have also assumed responsibility for different strands of the project. Daniel Pieper has managed the conversation circles programme, language exchange and 2023 Korean Speech Contest. 2023 was the first time that the contest was held in hybrid mode with contestants competing in Melbourne and in collaboration with our partner universities in Vietnam. Andy Jackson has been responsible for the 2023 Korean Screen Cultures Conference (KSCC), short courses scheme, student TA scheme, the MUKSRH Beyond Borders seminars Series and the HDR student support programme. MUKSRH also welcomes a new Korean Studies PhD student Ms Jacky Watt. Lucien Brown has been running the Monash University Korean Studies Research Hub Melbourne and Metropolitan Korean Studies Biennial Meeting 2023, the Indigenous Student Support Program,  Korean Studies Research Session for Teaching and Technology, and Future-proofing Korean language programs at Monash Project. Hyein Cho has been acting as the MUKSRH International and Community Collaboration Coordinator, and has run the HDR (Graduate) Student Nurture and Promote Program as well as developing a new unit amongst her many other activities. As part of the HDR Student Nurture and Promote Program, Dr Cho has also been responsible for promoting HDR pathways to our students. MUKSRH’s new Research Fellow Soyeon Kim is also responsible for the Korean author and translator reading evening and Academic Research Workshop.

This has been a phenomenally busy period for Korean Studies, since starting the project in June 2023 MUKSRH has organised:

  • 7 academic Korean Studies seminars
  • 1 Biennial Meeting workshop bringing together Korean Studies educators and researchers from all over Victoria to discuss the place of Korean Studies in universities
  • 1 international conference on Korean Screen culture bringing in 38 speakers from Europe, North America, South and East Asia for 2 days of discussion of all aspects of Korean screen culture
  • 1 Korean speech contest 2023 bringing together budding Korean language students from Melbourne and Vietnam together in an international contest.

We have created:

We have hosted:

Many thanks to everyone who has worked so hard to make this a successful start to AKS Core 2.0. Special thanks go to Sandy who has worked at breakneck speak to keep all the different strands of the project going.