About
About IACKS
The International Association of Comparative Korean Studies is an international learned society devoted to the globalization of Korean studies through interdisciplinary collaboration, and to deepening its distinctiveness through comparative perspectives.
Founded in Berlin in December 1991 by scholars from Germany, Mongolia, Japan, the United States, Kazakhstan, and France, the association has spent more than three decades cultivating a network of Korean studies research spanning Europe, the Americas, and Asia. It was registered as an association under French law in 1992 and took its present name, IACKS, in 1994.
The association pursues interdisciplinary research centered on the comparison of literatures and cultures. Scholars of Korean literature, foreign literatures, linguistics, history, philosophy, film, and sociology gather under the banner of Korean studies to widen its horizons through comparison.
Its principal activities are the publication of the KCI-accredited journal Comparative Korean Studies (three issues a year), domestic and international conferences, and the publication of scholarly books. The journal, founded in 1995, is now in its 34th volume; the conference series — having passed through Berlin, Almaty, Leuven, Istanbul, Buffalo, Berkeley, Kyoto, and Poznań — has reached its 51st meeting.
History
1991. 12.
Founding assembly and inaugural symposium held in Berlin as the Association Internationale d'Études Coréennes et Comparées, joined by six scholars from Germany, Mongolia, Japan, the USA, Kazakhstan, and France.
1992. 05.
Registered as an association under French law; the society's emblem created.
1992. 10.
2nd International Conference co-hosted at the Kazakh Academy of Sciences in Almaty — the first large-scale Korean studies conference after the collapse of the Soviet Union (c. 80 participants).
1994
Renamed The International Association of Comparative Korean Studies (IACKS).
1995. 12.
Volume 1 of Comparative Korean Studies published — the beginning of a journal now in its fourth decade.
2001. 12.
Selected as a KCI candidate journal by the Korea Research Foundation.
2003–2004
Centennial conference on Korean emigration to the USA; the volume Diaspora in Korean (Immigrant) Literature published by Seoul National University Press.
2006. 12.
Comparative Korean Studies accredited by the Korea Research Foundation (now the National Research Foundation of Korea / KCI) — accreditation maintained to this day.
2009
The journal moves to three issues per year (published April 30, August 31, December 31).
2011
20th anniversary — commemorative conferences held at USC (Los Angeles) and Sogang University.
2012–2019
International conferences at Rutgers, Doshisha, Rikkyo, Adam Mickiewicz, and Shandong universities extend the network across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.
2020. 12.
From Volume 28, Issue 3, the journal is published as an e-book.
2020–2023
During the pandemic the society moves its conferences online, taking up timely themes such as Comparative Korean Studies in the Age of COVID-19.
2024. 09.
The 18th executive board takes office (President Lee Jae-bok, Hanyang University).
2026
The 51st conference held and Volume 34 of the journal published — together with a complete renewal of the society's website.