Divisions, Reconciliation and Unity: the Korean Experience

The summer school Divisions, Reconciliation and Unity: the Korean Experience is a unique opportunity for graduate and undergraduate-level students to explore Korean identity, culture, division, and the prospect of reunification. The program is built around three themes: (1) the Cold War History of Korea, (2) inter-Korean relations in the post-Cold war era, (3) current North-South Korean relations, and (4) the two Koreas in the current international environment. This intense and highly interactive two-week summer school will feature a mixture of lectures, group work, and excursions. The first week of the summer school will be dedicated to the Cold War period, and will give students some background information to better understand the current state of the two Koreas. The second week will then be dedicated to more contemporary topics. The course will also include some guest lectures from German professors from the University of Rostock, and some presentations by myself on the relations between Germany/ Canada and the two Koreas. These guest lectures will hopefully show some avenues of learning between  students of the three participating countries.

Syllabus (PDF)

In 2021, the uncovering of 751 unmarked graves at the site of the former Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan sparked a national uproar across Canada, pushing reconciliation to the forefront of the minds of Canadians. Reconciliation covers a broad range of current and historical issues including the recognition of legal rights, governance, land tenure and ownership, and various social issues including health, education, and policing.  First Nations, Inuit and Métis people are making considerable advances toward self-determination, the right to freely pursue their own governance and socio-economic development. Once the long road to reconciliation is finally achieved, how can Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples of Canada live in harmony with each other? To become a unified nation where all can live harmoniously, a renewed nation-to-nation relationship of legal and cultural pluralism is essential. But what does it look like in concrete terms?  From an Indigenous perspective, this Summer School will explore the complex historical and present-day divisions and experiences of their peoples.

Examining how reconciliation can be achieved via politics, law, economics, and culture, we will then explore how future unification between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples can occur through governance, decolonization, and socio-economic development. The Summer School will also include some guest lectures from German professors from the University of Rostock, who will compare the Canadian experience of divisions, reconciliation and unity with the German experience. These guest lectures will hopefully show some avenues of learning between the two countries.

This course is offered in English to Master's students and 4^th year undergraduate students, from August 5^th to 19^th, 2023.

When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 nobody could imagine that – not even a year later – Germany would be a unified country. The separation was too long; the political, economic and personal differences that resulted from that division seemed too big to overcome. Yet, things have changed quite a bit since then, not only in terms of city landscapes, but also in terms of cultural and political landscapes. The process of unification was also an enormous economical undertaking. Nobody could be certain if it would/could work. But once the decision was made, there was no going back.

Through a two week long intensive field research course our aim will be to discover and live Germany’s and Berlin`s vivid recent history from 1945 to today. We will understand and decode the processes that led to the division of Germany in the late 1940s, as well as the dynamics that allowed the country to become reunited 40 years later. We will also extensively discuss the cultural, economic and social life before and after reunification, as well as the challenges citizens of East and West Germany have faced after reunification. The course is embedded in the Summer Academy Reunification conjointly organized by the University of Rostock, Ehwa University in Soul and the University of Ottawa. The course will be taught in a very practical way: we will visit and discover the innumerable layers of memory that remain present and alive in the Berlin’s and East Germany’s landscape. To help students connect the themes, which we will elaborate in the seminar, there will be several practical exercises that help students connect with Germany’s past and present. To underline the international character of the summer school, there will also be plenty of opportunities to connect with students from Rostock and South Korea.

Please visit the University of Rostock Summer School of (Re-)Unification (SARU) for more information.