In this Talk at the Library, Professor
Martina Deuchler discusses how the role of Confucianism and traditional rituals in Korea have changed over the past decades. Deuchler is a founding figure in the study of Korean history in the West, and a witness of South Korea’s transformation since visiting Seoul and remote rural areas for the first time in 1967.
Prof. Martina Deuchler, born in Switzerland in 1935, received a BA in Chinese classics from the University of Leiden and a Ph.D. in History and Far Eastern Languages from Harvard University. From 1967 to 1969 and again from 1973 to 1975 she conducted research on Korean diplomatic and social history in Korea. From 1988 to 2000 she was professor of Korean Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She is the author of