Honam University Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences Holds Roundtable on 'Foreign Identity Literacy'

Koryoin Adolescents Living in Kyrgyzstan
Reconstructing Identity by Mixing and Transforming Diverse Cultures

Honam University Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences held the 8th roundtable of the 3rd year as part of the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Institute Support Project by the National Research Foundation of Korea. Provided by Honam University

The Honam University Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences announced on the 23rd that it held the 8th roundtable of the third year as part of the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Institute Support Project by the National Research Foundation of Korea (supervised by Professor Yoon Young).

The roundtable, held on the 20th, was attended by principal researchers, co-researchers, full-time researchers, and assistant researchers. At this event, Moon Eunhee, a full-time researcher at the Honam University Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, gave a presentation titled "A Study on the Identity Literacy of Koryoin Adolescents Living in Kyrgyzstan."

Researcher Moon defined "identity literacy" in this study as the ability to understand and express one's own identity and to form relationships with others within social, cultural, and historical contexts.

Based on this theoretical background, in-depth interviews were conducted with six Kyrgyzstani adolescents to analyze how individual identity interacts with sociocultural factors and how the same questions are understood differently depending on sociocultural backgrounds.

The results showed that Koryoin adolescents do not define their identity within a single culture but rather reconstruct it by mixing and transforming various cultures. It was also found that the identity of Koryoin adolescents is not fixed or stagnant but exists fluidly depending on their circumstances. Researcher Moon expects that these studies will serve as foundational data for future Koryoin policy design.

This was followed by a comprehensive discussion among the institute's members. The researchers engaged in in-depth discussions about the types and characteristics of Koryoin residing in Kyrgyzstan. The institute's members were able to deepen their understanding of Koryoin living in Kyrgyzstan through Researcher Moon's experience working for two years as a Korean language teacher at the S King Sejong Institute in Kyrgyzstan.

Meanwhile, Honam University is the only private university in the Honam region to be selected for the National Research Foundation's "Humanities and Social Sciences Research Institute Support Project." Under the theme "Research on Liberal Arts Education to Foster Humanities Literacy in a Hyperconnected Society," the university has been conducting the first phase of research with national funding since 2019. It has now been selected for the second phase and will continue its research until August this year.

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