Carter J. Eckert Steps down as KI Director after Eleven Years

Sue Jean Cho

Prof. Carter J. Eckert, Director, Korea Institute 1993-2004

On May 10, 2004 the Korea Institute honored Professor Carter Eckert for his stewardship of the Institute that began in 1993. The Korea Institute hosted a dinner honoring Professor Eckert, and it was evident from the accolades given by faculty, staff, and students that the past eleven years had been an extremely successful period for the Institute.

From the beginning of his tenure as Korea Institute director, Professor Eckert believed that an active and financially secure Institute was essential to the growth of Korean studies at Harvard. Building on the foundation established by Professor Edward Wagner, the Institute has expanded the Korea Colloquium Series and has organized international conferences such as the 2001 Conference on the Annexation of Korea that brought together scholars from North America, South Korea, and Japan. The Institute has also supported the annual Korean Studies Graduate Student Conference and workshops organized by post-doctoral fellows at Harvard. These are enormous administrative tasks that required the ongoing attention of the Korea Institute's Susan Lee Laurence and Myong-suk Chandra, who along with Professor Eckert comprised a team that was essential to the Institute's growth.

Professor Ezra Vogel (Asia Center Director, 1997-1999 and Fairbank Center Director, 1995-1999) commented on the energy and enthusiasm Professor Eckert brought to the Institute, "He brought high quality scholarship, created good relations with Korean institutions, worked with visiting scholars and Americans studying Korea, raised money - all in an atmosphere full of vitality and fun."

Indeed, the vibrancy of intellectual activity associated with the Korea Institute could not have been possible without the financial resources that Professor Eckert has sought out. Professor Eckert's arrival coincided with the establishment of the Korea Foundation, a Korean government sponsored organization dedicated to the advancement of Korean studies. The Foundation understood the need for a well-established Institute of Korean studies and research at Harvard, and in 1993, the Foundation's first president, Lew Hyuck-In, committed to invest in the Korea Institute. Professor Eckert's cooperation with the Korea Foundation in this endeavor did not go unnoticed as Suh Ah-Jeong, Director of the Korean Studies Support Department, Korea Foundation explains, "Throughout the entire process, he made us all feel like part of a team, waging a courageous struggle against an adversary that was ignorance and the under-appreciation of Korean Studies."

With Foundation support, Professor Eckert's first order of business was to establish a chair in Korean literature, since he believed "literature [is] the key to understanding Korean culture." Korean literature professor David McCann came to Harvard in 1998, and his presence here has been invaluable to the Harvard Korean studies community as Chong Bum Kim, a recent PhD graduate in the history of religion in Korea will attest. A student of both Professor McCann and Professor Eckert, Kim sees the current state of Korean studies at Harvard as its "golden age" and cites the various poetry workshops and the larger Cheju Conference (both organized by Professor McCann) as excellent examples of the ever-burgeoning field of Korean literature. Korean literature has recently received another boost from the International Communication Foundation of Seoul, a $1.5 million endowment in support of the translation and publication of Korean literature. Mrs. Namhi Kim Wagner, retired Director of the Korean Language Program and wife of the Korea Institute's founder Professor Edward Wagner, has seen the Institute "change tremendously in a positive way over the years" and points to the fundraising efforts of Professor Eckert as one of the key reasons for this change.

Professor Andrew Gordon (Director of the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, 1998-2004) highlighted another important benefit of the Institute's strong presence, "dialogue and dialectic" between students of Korea and Japan. "Interacting with Professor Eckert and his students has been greatly helpful in the learning process of the students in Japanese history," he said. Indeed, the Reischauer and Korea Institutes have cooperated substantially in recent years, supporting events that fostered discussion and exchange among scholars and graduate students, including the aforementioned Annexation Conference and the Settler Colonialism Conference, which brought together scholars from around the world.

Having been established by Professor Wagner and expanded by Professor Eckert, the Korea Institute now looks forward to the continued growth of Korean studies under the leadership of Professor David McCann, who became Institute director on July 1, 2004.