German Kim

German Nikolaevich Kim (Герман Николаевич Ким; ; born 16 July 1953) is Director of the Institute for Asian Studies at Al-Farabi University, Kazakhstan and one of the leading internationally recognized scholars on ethnic Koreans in the former Soviet Union: Koryo-saram.

Kim was born 16 July 1953 in Ushtobe, Taldy-Kurgan Oblast, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, one of three sons of Nikolai Kim (also known by his Korean name Kim Dyunbin), a safety engineer and premises manager at the Korean Theatre of Kazakhstan.

He jokingly refers to his hometown as the "Korean capital" of the former Soviet Union.

He entered Kazakh National University (now known as Al-Farabi University) in 1971 as a student of world history and German language; after his graduation in 1977, he found work as a teacher of German, which he continued until the mid-eighties.

In 1985, with the onset of perestroika and glasnost, it became permitted for the first time to speak openly of the deportation of Koreans in the Soviet Union and other tragedies which had afflicted the Koryo-saram.

This piqued Kim's interest in the history of his ancestors, and in 1987, he returned to Kazakh National University as a doctoral candidate, writing his thesis on the topic of "Socio-Cultural Development of Koreans in Kazakhstan in 1946–1966"; after graduation up until today, he has continued his work in the field of Koryo-saram and Korean diasporas studies.

German Kim has written and edited a large number of books and papers published internationally.

Of those three volumes of the History of Korean Immigration are particularly noteworthy on the history of the Korean Diaspora.

Over 70 of his books and papers are available for downloading in academia.edu.

Kim received research and field work grants from the Korea Research Foundation (1991, 2001), Korea Foundation (1992, 2004), British Academy (1992), Soros Foundation (1998), Japan Museum of Anthropology in Osaka (2002), IREX (2003), Academy of Korean Studies (2005, 2006), A. Mellon Global Foundation (2006), POSCO (2007), IDE JETRO (2008) and Center for Slavic Studies Hokkaido University (2008).

Since 1996 he is the Chief-editor of the journal Newsletter of Korean Studies in Central Asia and is a member of the editorial board of the journals Acta Koreana (Los Angeles), Korea Forum (New York), International Area Review (Seoul); “Studies of the culture of Koreans abroad” (Institute for the studies of the Culture of Koreans abroad, Kongju National University); Journal of Contemporary Korean Studies (National Museum of Korean Contemporary History, Seoul);

Editorial Board of the Journal “Studies of Koreans Abroad” of the Association for the Studies of Koreans Abroad (Seoul).

Aside from teaching and research, Kim also holds the position of Vice-Chairman of the Association of Koreans in Kazakhstan, from 2000 he is a member of the NUAK (National Unification Advisory Council); of Scientific Expert Council of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan; of the National Council for Sciences under the President of Kazakhstan; of the Expert Council for Overseas Korean Policy by the Prime Minister of the ROK.

He additionally was a historical consultant for the documentary film Koryo Saram: The Unreliable People.

НТО Кахак, Алматы, 2002 с.

401-404.

Корейцы Казахстана: кто есть кто.

Москва, Российская Академия естественных наук, 2003, с.

915-916.

Элита Казахского Национального университета им.

аль-Фараби.

He taught special courses as a visiting professor at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (Seoul, 2004), the Institute of Humanities at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (2006); Slavic Research Center of the University of Hokkaido (Sapporo, 2008–09); Visiting Professor of the Department of Political Science & Foreign Affairs, Sungshin University, Seoul (2015–16); Professor of the Department for History, Konguk University (2015–2020); Visiting Professor of CSES Kyoto University, Japan (2019).

НТО КАХАК, Алматы, 2005, с.

37-39

Алматы.

Two of his books published in Korean were awarded by the commissions of the Ministry of Culture Republic of Korea for the best book in both 2006 and 2014.

He presented papers in over 150 international conferences, seminars and workshops in Asia, North and South America, and Europe.

He is a member of the International Commission on Sources of the History of Korea; Korean Studies Associations in Europe, Asia and USA.

He gave over 50 public lectures in the top universities internationally.

For academic, educational and social efforts he was awarded the highest title of the “Honored worker of the Republic Kazakhstan” (2007); Medal “Merit for the outstanding contribution in the Development of sciences in the Republic of Kazakhstan” (2009); Golden Medal “Birlik” (Unity) for the outstanding contribution in the Friendship of the peoples of Kazakhstan (2013); 제18회 KBS 해외동포상, Korean Compatriots award of KBS for 2014 in the field of Humanities and Social sciences; Medal “20 Anniversary of Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan”, 2015; Order of Republic of Korea “Civil Merit” (국민포장. Kukmin p’hojang), 2015; Medal of the outstanding Professor of the Kazakh National al-Farabi University 2016.

Корейцы Казахстана в науке, технике и культуре.

Энциклопедия, 2009, с.

223

Ученые Казахстана.

А-К.

Казахская энциклопедия, 2012, с.

227-228

Энциклопедия корейцев России.

Том 2., 2013

Kim German Nikolayevich.