Complicit mobility: Southeast Asian students in Korean Studies and their inter-Asia knowledge migrations

ABSTRACT

This study examines the knowledge migrations of Southeast Asian students to South Korean universities with the purpose of pursuing postgraduate degrees in the discipline of Korean Studies. By deploying an ethnographic approach, this study illuminates their academic processes of becoming academics in Korean Studies – from sponsored students in South Korea to professors in their home countries. In order to conceptualise their inter-Asian knowledge migrations, we suggest the term ‘complicit mobility’, which illuminates the strategic choices of these Southeast Asian students, their adjusted aspirations in choosing Korean Studies as their majors, as well as their negotiated collaboration with the Korean Government, institutes and personnel.

KEYWORDS:

• Complicit mobility
• Korean Studies
• Southeast Asian students
• South Korean university
• sponsored mobility
• inter-Asia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 From GKS’s official site. https://www.studyinkorea.go.kr/en/sub/gks/allnew_invite.do. Accessed on 3rd February 2021.

2 From the King Sejong Institute site. https://www.ksif.or.kr Accessed 19th February 2021.

3 The nationalities and numbers of the interviewees are as such: Laos 1, Myanmar 1, Vietnam 3, Sri Lanka 1, Indonesia 2, and Thailand 2.

4 Here K uses the honorary title 'seonsaengnim' which means teacher towards his fellow (Korean) PhD students.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Research Fund; Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea [grant number NRF-2021S1A5B5A17047139].