Week 14: Contemporary North Korea

April 25 – May 1

This week we round off our journey of Korean history with a closer look at the more recent history of North Korea. While it is tempting to just make fun of the weird antics of the leaders Kim Jong-Il and Kim Jong-Un (father and son), we should remember that human rights abuses are rife in the country, and that the military possesses nuclear weapons: no laughing matters!

Remember to prepare in advance of class sessions: meetings always require work before and after!

Good to know:

  • This page use “Accordion menus”: click on the title (“Wednesday, 11:00AM”) or on the little + sign to open up the details. [If you don’t like this set-up, let me know and I can change things.]
  • All times are listed in “Muhlenberg time” (Eastern Standard Time)
Reminder: By Monday April 25, 11:59PM –– 5-15 report

Submit a blog post that is a 5-15 report. Your “Reading Journal” comprises the texts you read for Week 13, and anything you are reading for your Pressbooks Chapter project.

Remember to also add any tasks that are on your to-do list (not those scheduled for the whole class, but for you individually, e.g. sorting out a blog-related issue), and any open questions or issues you want to flag up for follow-up with me. These weekly reports are extremely useful for me to get an insight in how you’re working, what you make of the course and the materials, and how I can best support your learning and adjust the course.

TIP: for anything you’re not comfortable putting in a blog where others can read it, you can just drop me a message on discord OR post anonymously on the Padlet!

Prepare by Wednesday, 11:00AM –– Discussion on the readings [Class meeting in Ettinger 212]

Please prepare before class! Time estimate: 2-3hrs to prepare, 75mins meeting

  • Background: Seth, Michael. A Concise History of Korea, 3rd edition.
    • Chapter 15 covers the time period of our focus
    • Read if you feel lost in names, dates and want to get a clearer sense of what’s happening when.

Focus for class:

  • Demick, Barbara. Nothing to Envy : Ordinary Lives in North Korea. 1st ed. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2009.
    • PDF
    • Chapters 7-8; when the death of Kim Il Sung was announced, many people had intense emotional reactions, and this is where the story picks up. In the book, Demick uses interviews with defectors from North Korea to create a portrait of the lives of ordinary men and women, from different social classes.
  • Zivotovsky, Mason. “The Oddity of the East: Imagining North Korea.” In Korean History: A Student-Authored Textbook, ed. by Tineke D’Haeseleer, Muhlenberg College, 2014.
  • Ward, Alex. “The serious message behind Kim Jong Un’s silly horse photos.” Vox, Oct. 17, 2019. https://www.vox.com/2019/10/16/20917212/kim-jong-un-horse-photos-snow-paektu
  • TASK: North Korea appears in the news regularly. Pick a “current affairs” item (can be from the past few years), and add it to this Google Doc. If your regular choice of newspaper doesn’t turn up anything exciting, explore the following options:
  • If you want to go straight to the North Korean websites, and your ISP allows, have a go!
By Thursday, 11:59PM –– Feedback on each other’s blog posts (Hypothes.is)

Time estimate: 30-45mins (a generous estimate I think)

Below you find links to four blog posts from your fellow students. If one of the websites is your own, or it is twice the same person’s, refresh the page, and you should get new sites. [Updated links coming on Tuesday.]

  • Post 1:   
  • Post 2:    
  • Post 3:   
  • Post 4:   

Leave feedback, questions, thoughts, insights about the contents of the posts of your fellow students, using Hypothes.is group HST259. You can ask for clarifications, point out similarities and differences with the material you covered, or with your interpretation. This should encourage you to nose around in the other materials you did not read in the first round.

Use the “Architect’s Model” of giving feedback, and engage with concrete issues. Go beyond “Yeah, I agree,” “I like” or “I think the same”, and instead explain why you have that reaction, or if you disagree, you can try to persuade the original poster of your idea or interpretation.

Remember that Hypothes.is allows for hyperlinks, e.g. to materials that support your argument, or you can include pictures (memes! [yes, there she is again]), videos etc. that help the original poster to learn more.

TIP: It’s all random, and it’s all good, so if you return to this page after commenting, you will see four different posts. As long as your comments are on four different posts in total, you’re fine! OR you can right-click and ask your browser to open the link in a new tab/window.

By Friday 11.00AM –– Pressbooks and chapter workshop

Time estimate: 75 mins for the meeting.

Congratulations! You made it through the fourteenth week!

Coming soon:

By Monday, May 2, 11:59PM

Submit a blog post that is a 5-15 report. Your “Reading Journal” comprises the texts you read for Wednesday’s class, and anything you may have read in addition, e.g. for your Pressbooks Chapter project

Where to get assistance

  • Tea Room is open for “Get Stuff Done Club” (aka “office hours”): Tue 2-3PM; Wed. 10AM-11AM; , or by appointment via Google Calendar
    • All online in our Discord Channel Tea Room
  • Discord Channel #hst259-classroom and the (anonymous) Padlet (both also useful for chatting, sharing fun stuff)
  • Password for the PDFs: on this Canvas Page
  • DLAs: Digital Learning Assistants:  Check the schedule
  • Writing Center:  Online appointments and in-person drop-ins available: Drop-in: Sunday-Wednesday: 3:30 – 5:30 pm and 7-11 pm; Thursday: 3:30 – 5:30 pm and 7-9 pm; by appointmentnts and in-person drop-ins available: [coming soon!]
  • Trexler Library Course Subject Guide: our own dedicated subject guide for the course!
  • Safety on/around campus: report an incident