Koreaforschung in Deutschland – Geschichtlicher Überblick und Perspektiven

Abstract

In German academia, Korean Studies still counts among the so-called “small subjects.” Only a handful of universities even offer degrees in Korean Studies. While Korean Studies has long been associated with the Humanities, especially Linguistics and Literature, it is now increasingly oriented toward the Social Sciences. With the absolute number of those focusing their research on Korea being only very small, the range of research topics in German Korean Studies is still fairly limited when compared to Sinology or Japanese Studies, to give just two examples. Put positively, Korean Studies in Germany has considerable potential to widen its ambit and to freshly explore a vast range of interesting and meaningful topics.