The Nam Center for Korean Studies at the University of Michigan is pleased to announce the Michigan Korean Studies Summer Institute (MiKSSI), to be held in Ann Arbor from June 28-July 3, 2026. PhD students in any discipline whose research concerns Korea are encouraged to apply. This one-week residential intensive program will focus on collaborative learning, collective thinking, and interdisciplinary agenda-setting around a key critical issue central to Korean Studies.

This year’s theme is Confucianism in Korean History. What is Confucianism? And what about Neo-Confucianism? Some scholars state that Neo-Confucianism was adopted as the state ideology at the time of the founding of the Chosŏn dynasty. Others discuss the Confucian transformation of Korea society during this period. Still some others note that late Chosŏn scholars and officials regarded their own country as the true inheritor of Confucian civilization, resulting in Chosŏn becoming more Confucian than any other East Asian polity. Many blame Confucianism for the Chosŏn dynasty’s ultimate inability to maintain its independence, citing such presumably Confucian factors as factionalism, anti-commercialism, rigidity in the social order, and short-sighted Korean reliance on its tributary relationship with China. Nonetheless, the strong Confucian historical legacy is believed by some to have had an enormous impact on Korea’s modern transformation, and Korea is still dealing with its legacy today. The ongoing debate about whether Confucianism has any place in contemporary Korea and the wider world continues.