Dongduk Women's University Launches "K-Silk Road Turkology" and "Silk Road Korean Studies Track"

Dongduk Women's University announced on October 10 that, effective March 1 of next year, it will simultaneously launch the world's first comprehensive graduate program in Turkic Area Studies, titled "K-Silk Road Turkology," as well as an undergraduate "Silk Road Korean Studies Track" within its International College.

Dongduk Women's University Campus.

This new initiative aims to institutionalize the academic achievements of Korean humanities while also cultivating practical specialists to meet the needs of businesses and society.

The "K-Silk Road Turkology" program is the first comprehensive Turkic area studies department that encompasses both the humanities and social sciences, going beyond existing limitations. It is being recognized as a model that presents a new academic paradigm not only in Korea but also globally. While Western academia offers various area studies majors such as Middle Eastern Studies, Central Asian Studies, and Eurasian/Slavic Studies, there has been no comprehensive area studies department that focuses on Turkology and also covers politics, economics, society, and international relations.

This program also aligns with the needs of Korean industry. Recently, more Korean companies have been entering Turkic countries, but there is a lack of professionals and research infrastructure with specialized understanding and the ability to collaborate in these regions, resulting in significant practical challenges. To address this imbalance in talent development, Dongduk Women's University has established this program within its Graduate School of Special Studies, with the goal of producing practical experts required by Korean society and industry.

The newly established "Silk Road Korean Studies Track" in the International College is a customized Korean Studies program designed to enable humanities majors from universities in Turkic regions to earn a bachelor's degree in Korean Language and Literature or Korean Culture. Students can earn their degrees through a 2+2 joint degree program or by transferring as seniors, and can then advance to the "K-Silk Road Turkology" graduate program. As the world's first international education model linking Turkology and Korean Studies from undergraduate to graduate level, it is expected to greatly contribute to the global expansion and broader dissemination of Korean Studies.

In particular, the "K-Silk Road Turkology" program has been designed to accommodate a diverse student body, including businesspeople and working professionals. The curriculum includes weekend and evening classes to help working students balance their studies, a variety of customized courses based on student needs, and, in cases where there are no specialized instructors in Korea, remote lectures via Zoom by renowned professors from the Turkic region.

This new department was spearheaded by Professor Oh Eunkyung of Dongduk Women's University, who authored the world's first "Encyclopedia of Turkology in the Humanities." Professor Oh earned her master's and doctoral degrees in Turkey in 1999 and, in 2014, became the first foreigner to receive a national doctorate in the humanities in Uzbekistan. In 2016, she established the "Eurasia Turkic Research Institute," Korea's first and only Turkology research institute, and has since worked to establish and popularize Turkology in Korea.