In 1994 Rob Provine established an e-mail Korean Studies discussion list under the name "korean-studies" for the purpose of keeping the often isolated members of the Korean Studies community in touch with each other and in fruitful communication. A year later he was joined by Stephen Epstein and between 2000 and 2006 by Frank Hoffmann. In November 2001 the list welcomed three more moderators, Hyung Il Pai, Marion Eggert, and Tschung-Sun Kim. After Hyung Il Pai left, Min Paek joined as moderator in October 2003, and became a co-owner upon the retirement of Rob Provine in 2008. From November 2000 to November 2001 the original list was split into an unmoderated list (ks-open) and a moderated list (korean-studies). The unmoderated list has now been discontinued, but its messages are archived.

koreanstudies is an international, English-language, nonpartisan, moderated electronic discussion group on Korea. The list welcomes academic discussions on any aspect of Korean Studies. It may also be used for posting announcements of publications, job vacancies, and so forth. However, the KoreanStudies list adheres to strict academic standards and limits frequent participation to academics and other professionals in Asian studies. Presently, the list has over 1,000 subscribers, many of whom are established Korea specialists. Only messages with substantial Korean Studies content or with content that will be of wide interest within the discipline will be posted. Please also note that a scholarly discussion list such as this should not be used as a source for people's e-mail addresses, except as a last resort; discussion is the primary purpose. Therefore, requests for bibliographical information or e-mail addresses should be sent to the list only after all other means of search have been exhausted. All postings will be permanently stored online. While the KoreanStudies discussion list is similar to an academic seminar, open only to those with a serious academic commitment to Korean Studies, its Mailing List Archives as well as the Korean Studies Review (an electronic review journal of works pertaining to Korean Studies) are available to all. Postings from this forum may be quoted but, with the exception of job and conference announcements, are not to be reprinted in full elsewhere without the express permission of the author. In any case, we ask that proper credit be given to the author and to the KoreanStudies list, and that the date of posting be given.

The primary purpose of KoreanStudies is to enable Korea scholars to communicate current research and teaching interests; to discuss new articles, books, papers, approaches, methods and tools of analysis; to test new ideas and share comments and tips on teaching. Relevant academic job announcements, and fellowship announcements may also be posted. Organizers of conferences and symposia in Asian Studies are encouraged to post calls for papers and program contents. Similarly, we encourage graduate students to post abstracts of their doctoral dissertations. Reports on new archival or bibliographic sources, new software, datasets or CD-ROMs are also welcome.

We emphasize that KoreanStudies is a moderated list. Posts are to be solid, thoughtful, and to the point. The list moderators will screen all incoming messages to eliminate "spam" and other inappropriate commercial solicitations, private e-mail, messages that do not fit adequately into scholarly debate, and attachments of any kind. Chitchat is to be kept to a minimum, as is disproportionate quotation of other messages. We also discourage discussion so heated that it may be construed as personal, and we will not publish messages that pursue debate in an overly aggressive fashion or contain ad hominem attacks. Although we realize that this is a controversial position, we maintain it because we believe that a professional tone is conducive to academic inquiry—as well as to the comfort of the subscribers of the moderated list. The list moderators will not censor ideas that are presented, but we will do our utmost to ensure that clearly irrelevant, unprofessional and impolite materials do not appear on the list.

We also reserve the right to make minor editorial changes (e.g. spelling corrections) as needed. If the message is accepted but more substantial editing is required, the message will be returned to the author with changes for approval or with a request for rewriting.

Please note that while the list moderators' decision about messages is final and list moderation policy will not be discussed on the list itself, the moderators are happy to respond to concerns privately.

Joining the KoreanStudies list entails agreement with the principles outlined above.



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Korean Studies Review The Korean Studies Review is an online series of book reviews, published under the auspices of the Korean Studies discussion list by Stephen Epstein (Victoria University of Wellington), that endeavors to provide timely reviews of the latest work in Korean Studies.