'John Duncan Fellowship in Korean Studies' Fund Enacted in Honor of Professor John Duncan

John Duncan Fellowship in Korean Studies

The 'John Duncan Fellowship in Korean Studies' Fund will support graduate and undergraduate students in Korean Studies at UCLA.

Professor John Duncan, who began teaching at UCLA in 1989 and served as the director of the Center for Korean Studies (CKS) from 2001 until 2014 (and Co-Director until 2016), retired in 2019. He has helped to build a world-class Korean Studies program at UCLA, but his research extends much further. He also has expanded Korean Studies to Latin America, organizing the UCLA-UANL (Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León) Latin America Project which offers intensive courses in Argentina, Columbia, and Mexico. He has also helped to build the Inter-University Center at Sungkyunkwan University to train graduate students from around the world in advanced Korean language for academic careers. 

Professor Duncan has taught thousands of undergraduates, advised 25 PhD students, and sat on many more doctoral committees. He has also published extensively including: The Origins of the Chosŏn Dynasty (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000); Rethinking Confucianism: Past and Present in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, co-edited with Benjamin Elman and Herman Ooms (Asia and Pacific Monograph Series, UCLA, 2002); and Reform and Modernity in the Taehan Empire, co-edited with Kim Dongno and Kim Dohyung (Seoul: Jimoondang International, 2006). He has also been an editor of the Korean Classics Library's Historical Materials series, and has a few more forthcoming publications with the series. He has received numerous honors for his service, such as the Manhae Grand Prize in 2010 and the 2017 Yongjae Award.

In honor of his contributions to the field of Korean Studies and his accomplishments, the Center has established the John Duncan Fellowship in Korean Studies to support both graduate and undergraduate students in Korean Studies at UCLA. A minimum of $100,000 is needed to establish an endowment and ensure continued support for our students. Please consider giving a gift of any amount to: https://giving.ucla.edu/jduncan. Gifts are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. 

Please contact Dr. Hyung-Wook Kim, Assistant Director of the Center for Korean Studies, at hyung-wook.kim@international.ucla.edu if you have any questions regarding this fellowship, including methods to make donations. 

Published: Wednesday, October 17, 2018