As part of an effort to build a system of shared courses with Korean content among Big Ten schools, the Big Ten Academic Alliance, with funding from the Korea Foundation and coordination from the University of Michigan, offers a series of area studies courses on a variety of Korean topics. These course offerings have small enrollments and are simulcast among multiple universities. The East Asian Studies Center and Institute for Korean Studies coordinate and support the offering of these courses at The Ohio State University. In Spring 2022, OSU will participate in the following course:

Korean 5256: "Dating, Sex, and Marriage in Korea"

Tuesdays & Thursdays, 4:55 - 6:10 p.m. EST
Taught by Prof. John Finch of Indiana University and shared via videoconference with The Ohio State University and University of Illinois

Course Description: This course examines the ever-changing social phenomena of dating, sex, and marriage in contemporary South Korean society. The turbulent recent history of Korea has produced a society that is engaged with a variety of local and global social forces in complex and contradictory ways. The sweeping social changes in South Korean society have redefined and forced its people to re-examine itself, and its relation to such basic ideas as gender, sexuality, class, family and tradition. This course pays special attention to the process of compressed modernization that South Korea experienced in recent decades and to its
resultant social changes that came into being during this process. The behavior of Koreans’ dating, sex, and marriage have been the focal site where these changes have been reflected most saliently. The two main questions that are explored throughout the course are: What kind of modern society is South Korea becoming as a
consequence of all these rapid economic and social changes? How do Koreans adjust and negotiate these changes in the realm of dating, sex, and marriage?

For Further Information

Students may register for the courses via Buckeye Link. Contact Professor Mitch Lerner, director of the East Asian Studies Center, with any questions.

These courses are made possible with the support of the Korea Foundation.