The Society's Post-Graduate Bursary Programme

The Anglo-Korean Society, through the Bursary Committee of the British Association for Korean Studies, awards annual bursaries to post-graduate students.

The bursaries are open to British students studying for a post-graduate degree at a British university. Their programme of study or research must be largely if not wholly focussed on Korea, past or present. For more details visit the BAKS website.

Bursary Recipients

Academic year 2008-2009

This year, thanks to the generosity of our corporate sponsors, the committee have been able to award two bursaries. The following candidates were selected by the BAKS Bursary Committee:

Kevin Cawley

Kevin Cawley is a candidate for a PhD in Korean Studies at the University of Sheffield, where he also received an MA with Distinction in 2006.

His PhD thesis, “Deconstructing Sagehood (聖學) on the Way to Shangdi (上帝): Tasan’s Monotheistic Odyssey,” aims to investigate to what extent Tasan 茶山 Chŏng Yagyong’s 丁若鏞 (1762-1836) philosophy was influenced by Catholic doctrine.

During the academic session 2008-09, Kevin is in Korea conducting research on Confucian texts in Sungkyunkwan University, and Catholic texts in Sogang University, both in Seoul.

Read what Kevin says about his work and an overview of his research topic: download pdf

Ben Jackson

Ben Jackson is a candidate for an MA in Korean Literature at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, and is also working as a translator in Seoul – currently on one of the Korean Literature Translation Institute’s selected literary works for a forthcoming anthology.

After graduating with a BA in Korean Studies with Japanese from the University of Sheffield (England) in 2004, Ben worked in Sheffield on two documentary films about North Korea, before moving to South Korea in 2006.

Ben intends to use the Anglo-Korean Society Bursary for a forthcoming project on pohosu, or “protected trees” in the Seoul area, including an investigation into famous historical and literary trees, resulting in a paper on the subject and setting a course for further research on and translation of material concerning natural history and literature.

Academic Year 2007 - 2008

Beccy Kennedy

Beccy Kennedy is a PhD student at Manchester Metropolitan University. The AKS Bursary enabled her to spend two weeks in South Korea during August 2007 and was very beneficial in her study of contemporary Korean art.

Read her report on her visit to Korea, which she presented to the AKS AGM in January 2008.

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