Building a Think Tank in Seoul: Adventures of a Yalie off the beaten path in Asia
Emanuel Pastreich
A live YIA Virtual Lecture on May 14 at 9pm direct from Seoul, South Korea! The talk will be broadcast live on our UStream channel
When Emanuel Pastreich arrived in Korea after ten years as a professor in the United States, he wanted to tap into the growing need for a serious think tank that would focus on the shifts in technology, international relations, and society as a whole that are transforming the region. He worked together with a dedicated group of big thinkers to build the Asia Institute (asia-institute.org) into one of the leading sources for new ideas and approaches in the region. Along the way, Pastreich worked together with figures in science and technology, culture, international relations, local and central government, industry and NGOs. He discovered a different Korea and became an author of three books in Korean that became best sellers and unique as an American who writes for an Asian audience in Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
A Chinese major (EALL @ Davenport, 1987), Pastreich is fluent in Chinese, Japanese and Korean and is working on multiple projects at the Asia Institute for international collaboration across Asia. He shares his insights on how to establish yourself in Asia off the beaten path. He taught at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, George Washington University and currently is at Kyung Hee University. He is a regular contributor to Joongang Daily, Foreign Policy in Focus, the Huffington Post and has six books out (three in Korean and three in English).
