UNDERSTANDING THE TWO KOREAS- THE PAST, THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE

Guest Speaker Dr. Donald N. Clark, Professor of History, Trinity University

Co-Director, East Asian Studies, Historian of Modern Korea

The event will begin with a lecture covering the background and history, the present situation and the future of relations between the two Koreas, and will be followed by questions and open discussion.

Dr. Clark is a renowned and well-published specialist on Korean affairs. He is a Professor of History at Trinity University in San Antonio, where he also directs the program in East Asian Studies. Dr. Clark’s roots in Korea go back to the early twentieth century when his grandparents and parents, who originated in Minnesota and Pennsylvania, were Presbyterian missionaries stationed in Pyongyang, the capital of what is now North Korea. He grew up in Seoul in the years following the Korean War, during which he witnessed Korea’s struggle to rebuild. He then developed an academic interest in Korean affairs which evolved into a Ph.D. at Harvard University and a career teaching East Asian history at Trinity in Texas. His total time living and working in Korea over the decades amounts to more than twelve years.