Stony Brook University Faculty of Sciences and Humanities

2025 Spring SUNY Korea Distinguished Seminar "Korean Wave, Why the Global Craze?"   Date: Wednesday, April 30th, 2025 Time: 12:00 PM - 1:45 PM Venue: SUNY Korea Academic Building C105   Speaker: Dr. Ki-pung Yoo Dr. Ki-pung Yoo is currently an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Sogang University. He previously served as the 4th President of KEPCO International Nuclear Graduate School and the 14th President of Sogang University. He has also held invited professorships at the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany, as well as at Purdue University and Washington State University in the United States. Dr. Ki-pung Yoo earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Chemical Engineering from Korea University and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Connecticut, USA, supported by a government scholarship.   Abstract From the personal perspective of a senior Korean engineer, born in a post-war impoverished nation and living here, this lecture introduces 'Korea and Koreans' as if to his grandchildren living overseas. It offers an overview of how today's Korean youth are leading the K-culture wave and captivating audiences worldwide, encompassing Korea's history, traditions, passion for education, food, music, arts, lesser-known realities, and current challenges.          

2024 FSH Fall Special Seminar I The "August 15 Unification Doctrine" and Human Rights Situation in North Korea Date: Wednesday, November 20th, 2024 Time: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM Venue: IGC Small Theater Speaker: Yung Ho Kim (Minister of Unification), Hyeon Soo Lim (Pastor Emeritus, Canada Light Presbyterian Church)   This special event features a lecture by Minister of Unification Kim Yung Ho and a discussion with Minister Kim Yung Ho and Pastor Lim Hyeon Soo to promote the values of freedom and human rights. It invites students and faculty from five universities at Incheon Global Campus, as well as students from the Community College and local residents, providing a unique opportunity to gain in-depth insights into the lives and perspectives of North Koreans. Through discussions addressing the human rights situation in North Korea, this event aims to provide a deeper understanding of the significance of freedom and human rights. Furthermore, it seeks to raise awareness about the necessity for enhanced social recognition of Korean unification and the protection of human rights.    

2024 FSH Spring Seminar III GREAT TRANSFORMATION OF THE SECURITY PARADIGM_Economic Security and Technology Alliance   Date: Wednesday, May 29th, 2024 Time: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM Venue: SUNY Korea Academic Building C105   Speaker: Dr. Soyoung Kwon Dr. Soyoung Kwon is associate professor of Global Affairs and director of the Center for Security Policy Studies - Korea of Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University. As a political scientist and security expert, Dr. Kwon has led numerous research projects on the pressing contemporary security issues and policies, producing policy reports and recommendations for the government and think tanks. Her recent works involve the intensifying US-China competition in critical and emerging technology, the restructuring of semiconductor supply chains, and the trust and regulation dilemma in artificial intelligence. Dr. Kwon holds a B.A in Political Science and Diplomacy from Ewha Women’s University and M.Phil and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Cambridge (UK).   Abstract During rapid technological advancement, the security paradigm is undergoing a profound transformation. The convergence of economic security, technological innovation, and geopolitical competition has challenged traditional notions of defense and resilience, leading to rethinking of strategic alliance between the United States and South Korea. This talk outlines the complexities of modern security dynamics to explore the relationship between technological competition, economic stability, and the intensifying rivalry between the United States and China in key emerging sectors. It also highlights the critical role of strategic partnerships in safeguarding national interests in this fast-changing security landscape.    

2024 FSH Spring Seminar II Smart Textile Electronic Systems for Future IOT Applications   Date: Wednesday, May 1st, 2024 Time: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM Venue: SUNY Korea Academic Building C105   Speaker: Dr. Jong Min Kim 1999 – 2012:  Samsung Group Fellow, Senior Vice President, VP, Samsung Elect. Corp R&D (SAIT) 2012 – 2015: Chair Professor (Head) of Electrical Engineering, Fellow of St. Hugh’s College, Dept of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, UK 2016 – 2023:  The 1944 Chair Professor of Electrical Engineering, Fellow of Churchill College, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, UK 2024 – Present: Emeritus Professor, Director of Research, Fellow of Churchill College, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, UK Professor Kim has various world-first inventions and publications: Smart textile displays/ lighting with fibre sensor/ energy (Nature Comm. 13, ’22, /Cambridge News) Machine learning embedded Smart QD lighting (Nature Comm. 13, ’22, /Cambridge News) Textile Integrated electro-optics networks (Science Advances, 9, 2023) Samsung QLED display initiated in 2000 and was first in the market in 2015 under my leadership Samsung Foldable display initiated by me in 2004 and was first commercialized in 2019   Abstract The first smart textile electronics systems woven by various sensors semiconductor transistors, LEDs, and batteries, will be presented with foldable, bendable, rollable, and stretchable large area displays and lightings. Each fibre type of electronic devices are integrated into the smart textile electronic system by way of conventional textile weaving technology and advanced semiconductor technologies. The future applications of this smart textile electronic system as technology convergence will be further discussed for Smart Home with ubiquitous sensor networks, AR/VR embedded displays, form factor free indoor/outdoor automotive display/lighting systems, smart wearable electro-photonics systems in ambient assisted living and eco-friendly bio environments.       

2023 FSH Spring Seminar I GLOBAL DEVELOMPENT AGENDA: From MDGs to SDGs Date: Wednesday, March 27th, 2024 Time: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM Venue: SUNY Korea Academic Building C107   Speaker: Dr. Booyuel Kim Booyuel Kim is an associate professor of Graduate School of B.A. In Economics at Handon University in 2003, and a Master of International Affairs and his Ph.D. In sustainable Development both from Columbia University in 2009 and 2014, respectively. After completing his Ph.D. he worked as a post-doctoral research scholar at the Earth Institute of Columbia University while participating in the Millennium Villages Project and the One Million Community Health Workers Campaign. From January 2015 to February 2020 he worked as an assistant professor at KDI School of Public Policy and Management.   Abstract After the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS) were introduced in 2015 as a comprehensive global initiative. The international community is actively working towards meeting these objectives by the 2030 deadline. This lecture aims to briefly review the MDGS accomplishments and shortcomings and to discuss about the progress and future outlook of the SDGs.    

2023 FSH Fall Seminar II Decline of The Liberal International Order and South Kroea   Date: Wednesday, October 25th, 2023 Time: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM Venue: SUNY Korea Academic Building C105   Speaker: Dr. Young-Kwan Yoon Dr. Young-kwan Yoon is Chairman of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Political Science and International Relations, at Seoul National University. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea from 2003 to 2004. He taught at Seoul National University from 1990 to 2018. Professor Yoon also worked as a Visiting Scholar at various universities including Harvard University (2021), Stanford University (2005) and Johns Hopkins University (1997-1998). Professor Yoon worked as Chairman of the Advisory Committee of Parliamentary Diplomacy of the Korean National Assembly (2019-2020), and as Korea’s Eminent Representative to, and co-chair of, the East Asia Vision Group II (ASEAN+3 Summit) (2011-2012). Before joining the faculty of Seoul National University in 1990, Professor Yoon taught at the University of California at Davis for 3 years. He published a dozen books and some 80 articles in the fields of international political economy, Korea’s foreign policy, and inter-Korean relations. Professor Yoon received his doctoral degree from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.   Abstract The liberal international order has faced significant challenges in recent years, including Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the escalating confrontation between the United States and China. This lecture aims to provide an analysis of the nature of these challenges and their implications for South Korea, as well as strategies for how South Korea can effectively address them.    

2023 FSH Fall Seminar I Global Poverty and Korea's ODA   Date: Wednesday, September 20th, 2023 Time: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM Venue: SUNY Korea Academic Building C103   Speaker: Dr. Chang, Hyun Sik Prof. CHANG, Hyun sik, former Vice President of KOICA, has received his Ph. D. in Political science at Pennsylvania State University in 1991. He had joined KOICA as a founding member and has served many posts including Chief Representative office in China. He also served at OECD/DAC secretariat as a visiting scholar for two years. After his retirement in 2014, he has taught in Seoul National University, Incheon National University and   Ewha womans University as a visiting professor. In addition to numerous papers and books, he is the author of "A Comparison of Management Systems for Development Cooperation in OECD/DAC Members" (OECD, 1999).   Abstract Korea has achieved economic, social, and political development in a short period of time with the support from other countries. Now that Korea is a member of the OECD, she is making great efforts to eradicate the global poverty by expanding ODA volume and sharing Korea's development experience. This lecture will talk about ODA's policies, organizations, and strategies that share Korea's experience including Korea’s Saemaul Movement ODA.    

2023 FSH Spring Seminar II   Scientific Approach in Social Studies: Inter-Korean Relations with Big Data Analysis   Date: Wednesday, April 26th, 2023 Time: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM Venue: SUNY Korea Academic Building C103   Speaker: Dr. Yi, Seong Woo Dr. YI is a research fellow of the Gyeonggi Research Institute(GRI). He received his Ph. D. in international relation at University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. His academic specialty is the interstate cooperation particularly in relation with quantitative analysis methods.  Abstract Political Science in Korean academia has been relying on case-gathering and descriptive explanation rather than analytic and scientific method, although the name of the subject is political science. There are several questions regarding scientific approach: what is science? what is knowledge? what is purpose of science; explanation, understanding, or prediction? As an example of using a big data, GDELT data for inter-Korean relations shows the direction of social science with computer science and statistics.  

2023 FSH Spring Seminar I    Environment and Development  - An insight into global, regional, national and local projects of Hanns Seidel Foundation   Date: Wednesday, March 22nd, 2023 Time: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM   Speaker: Dr. Bernhard Seliger Prof. Dr. Bernhard Seliger is currently representative of Hanns Seidel Foundation Korea, based in Seoul, consulting NGOs, academic and public institutions in questions of unification. He frequently travels to North Korea, where he implements capacity-building projects, among others in forestry, biodiversity, organic agriculture and the introduction of the clean development mechanism. He serves as associate of North Korean Review as well as founding editor of the website . For 15 years, he has also worked on sustainable development issues in the inner-Korean border area and in February 2015 participated as an expert on the DMZ for UNESCAP. In 2006, he was conferred with honorary citizenship of Seoul by then mayor Lee Myung-Bak, who was later president of South Korea. In 2012 he became an honorary citizen of Gangwon province, partner province of Hanns Seidel Foundation, for implementing projects of sustainable development in the border area. Abstract Global environmental challenges like climate change and threats to biodiversity have to been tackled on various levels of governance: global, regional, national and local. Hanns-Seidel-Foundation in Korea is active on all levels, and tries to link local projects with national and international governance approaches.  

2022 FSH Fall Seminar II: British Monarchy: Symbol of Continuity and Stability Date: Wednesday, November 23, 2022 Time: 12:00 PM - 13:30 PM Speaker: Dr. Yongmin Kim Dr. Yongmin Kim is an Assistant Professor at Konkuk University. He earned his Ph.D. in Politics at Exeter University in Exeter UK. His main research areas include Constitutional Monarchy, Political History, and Diplomatic History. Abstract Recently Queen Elizabeth II passed away, her reign was a great example of constitutional monarchy which remain after World War II. Why can the constitutional monarchy remain as one of the political systems 21st century? What is the charm of the British monarchy and what are its advantages and disadvantages? Let's talk about the reign of Elizabeth II, the representative of modern British politics, along with the history of British politics.    

2022 FSH Fall Seminar I: The Biography of a Black Hole: How an Idea Once Hated by Physicists Came to Be Loved Date: Wednesday, November 2, 2022 Time: 12:30 PM - 14:00 PM Speaker: Dr. Marcia Bartusiak Dr. Marcia Bartusiak has combined her undergraduate training in journalism at American University with a master’s degree in physics from Old Dominion University, Marcia Bartusiak has been covering the fields of astronomy and physics for more than four decades. A Professor of the Practice Emeritus in the Graduate Program in Science Writing at MIT(Massachusetts Institute of Technology), she is the author of seven books on astrophysics and the history of astronomy, including Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony on gravitational-wave astronomy (winner of the 2001 American Institute of Physics Science Communication Award) and The Day We Found the Universe (winner of the History of Science Society's Davis Prize). In 2008 she was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, cited for “exceptionally clear communication of the rich history, the intricate nature, and the the modern practice of astronomy to the public at large.” Abstract For more than half a century, physicists and astronomers engaged in heated dispute over the possibility of black holes in the universe. The strange notion of a space-time abyss from which no light can escape seemed to confound all logic. This lecture will recount the frustrating, exhilarating, and at times humorous battles over the years as physicists, from Albert Einstein to Stephen Hawking, wrestled with this dazzling idea. Dr. Bartusiak will show how the black hole helped revive Einstein’s greatest achievement, the general theory of relativity, after decades of languishing in obscurity. Not until astronomers discovered such surprising new phenomena as neutron stars and quasars did the once-sedate universe transform into an Einsteinian cosmos, filled with both black holes and sources of titanic energy that can be understood only in the light of relativity.    

2022 FSH Spring Seminar II: The Politics of Nationalism Date: Wednesday, May 25, 2022 Time: 12:30 PM - 1:50 PM Speaker: Dr. Leonie Huddy Dr. Leonie Huddy is a Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Stony Brook University. She is the co-editor (with David O. Sears and Jack Levy) of the 2nd edition of the Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology, served as co-editor of the journal Political Psychology from 2005 till 2010, is past-president of the International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP), serves on the American National Election Studies Board of Overseers, appears regularly on CSB Radio as an exit poll analyst, and serves on numerous editorial boards in political science. Huddy has written extensively on social and political identities, emotions, reactions to terrorism, gender and politics, and race relations. She is the co-author (with Stanley Feldman and George Marcus) of Going to War in Iraq: When Citizens and the Press Matter published by the University of Chicago Press. Abstract Many populist parties promote nationalistic country-first policy platforms. In the United States, for example, the Republican Party has increasingly adopted nationalistic policies such as opposition to immigration and multilateralism, culminating in the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Similar agendas have been adopted by political parties in Western European multiparty systems. The increased salience of nationalism in the platforms and rhetoric of political parties raises an important question about the extent to which a nationalistic agenda has broad public appeal. Have democratic publics become more nationalistic over time in the US, Western Europe, and elsewhere? Or are levels of nationalism relatively stable in a population and it is the political relevance of nationalism that has increased over time? To address these questions, this seminar will examine the political psychology of national attachments, differentiating between patriotism or love of country and nationalism which is more akin to a sense of national superiority. This seminar will then show that political parties can increase the political salience of nationalism, although its appeal may be limited to those from the majority ethnic and religious group within a country. This raises important questions about the success of nationalistic appeals in immigrant nations marked by ethnic and racial diversity.  

2022 FSH Spring Seminar I: Humanities, Digital Humanities, and Meta Humanities Date: Wednesday, April 6, 2022 Time: 12:30 PM - 1:00 PM Speaker: Dr. Eunsoo Lee Dr. Eunsoo Lee is a professor at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). He earned a Ph.D. in Classics at Stanford University, Stanford, U.S.A. His research areas include classics, history of sciences, and digital humanities.  Abstract Digital humanities, as the intersection of computing and the disciplines of the humanities, have offered new opportunities for teaching and research innovation that complement the traditional approach in the humanities. While surveying the past, present, and future studies in the humanities, this lecture explores how the digital transformation will influence humanities studies, and vice versa.   

2021 FSH Fall Seminar II: Religion, Science, and Cultural Conflict in U.S. Politics Date: Friday, December 3, 2021 Time: 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM Speaker: Dr. Stephen T. Mockabee Dr. Stephen T. Mockabee is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Cincinnati where he directs the Graduate Certificate in Public Opinion & Survey Research. His research interests include elections, public opinion, survey research methodology, and religion and politics.  His work has appeared in a variety of professional journals such as Political Research Quarterly, Political Analysis, Political Behavior, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, and Politics and Religion, as well as in numerous edited volumes. His research on poll workers, conducted in collaboration with colleagues at the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University, where he has served as a visiting scholar, was funded by the Pew Center on the States' Make Voting Work project. Prof. Mockabee currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion and has served as Program Chair of the Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association. His recent research has examined public opinion about human origins and the teaching of evolution in public schools.  Prior to joining the faculty at Cincinnati, he served for several years as a research associate of the Center for Survey Research at Ohio State University. Abstract American politics has often been described in terms of a “culture war” over controversial social issues, such as abortion or same-sex marriage, that divide the traditionally religious from the secular. However, this lecture will argue that “cultural” politics should be understood more broadly as a style of political argumentation that focuses on symbolic community boundaries. The lecture will discuss contemporary examples of cultural politics in the U.S. including denial of scientific consensus on human origins, climate change, genetically modified foods, and vaccinations – including lingering resistance to COVID-19 vaccines. This lecture will explore how strategic politicians have connected science-related policies to religiously charged messages, transforming what might otherwise be uninspiring, technical issues into cultural flash points.  

2021 FSH Fall Seminar: The Other and a Communicative Life Date: Wednesday, November 3, 2021 Time: 12:00 - 1:00 pm Speaker: Dr. Hochul Kwak Dr. Hochul Kwak is a professor of Christian Ethics at United Graduate School of Theology, and a university chaplain at Yonsei University. He earned Ph.D in Theology, Ethics and Culture at Claremont Graduate University, California, U.S.A. His research areas include human rights and religion, climate crisis, and the study of the other. Abstract This lecture deals with the issue of communication with those who are different. We are living in a multicultural, multi religious, and multiethnic society. In a globalizing era, migration has brought salient differences to everywhere in the world. In a fast-changing society, the older generation has difficulty in understanding the younger generation. We are exposed to diverse kinds and levels of differences. While cultural differences can enrich our capacity to understand those who are different, we are witnessing exacerbation of cultural conflicts in every dimension of social life. Based on the concept of the other which is sophisticatedly developed by Emmanuel Levinas, this lecture aims at addressing such conflictual relationships among people in such a way as to build a constructive relationship with the other.