Fed Event: Korean Americans in a New Century

Wednesday, May 11th @ 10:45am-1:00pm | Guest Lecture and Luncheon

Korean Americans in a New Century
Speaker: Larry Hajime Shinagawa, Ph.D., Director, Asian American Studies Program, University of Maryland

Hosted by: Embassy of the Republic of Korea

Location: Korean Cultural Center (KORUS House) – 2370 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20008

Contact/RSVP: Adam Wojciechowicz, AWOJ@koreaembassy.org or (202) 587-6168

Details Online: http://tinyurl.com/FORUM-RSVP02

OPEN, Korean lunch provided



DESCRIPTION:

The Korean American population has increased substantially in the past thirty years. As part of the Asian American Studies Program’s efforts to publicize the findings of Census 2010 and the American Community Survey of 2009, Dr. Larry Shinagawa and Mr. Chang Won Lee will be presenting the latest demographic and socio-economic information about the changing dimensions of the Korean American community. It is an excerpt of a much larger pan-Asian American press conference presentation that will be held during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month at the U.S. Capitol building. The size of the population, the growth rate, regional dispersion, socioeconomic status, and educational and occupational attainments of Korean Americans will be highlighted in this session. Unlike what many believe because of the model minority imagery, Korean Americans are highly diverse in their socioeconomic backgrounds. This presentation will demonstrate that Korean Americans are rapidly growing, are heterogeneous in their background, increasingly becoming dispersed and yet concentrated throughout the United States, and are quickly diversifying in their educational and occupational paths.



SPEAKER BIO:

Larry Hajime Shinagawa is the Director of the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Maryland and an Associate Professor of the Department of American Studies at the University of Maryland. An author of numerous books, articles, and research monographs, Dr. Shinagawa is widely recognized as one of the leading authorities on the demographics of Asian Americans. He currently serves on numerous national academic and non-profit boards related to the education and welfare of minorities and Asian Americans. He was recently appointed as the Commissioner of Immigration for the State of Maryland by Governor O’Malley.



Chang Won Lee is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Maryland. His primary interest areas are Asian Americans, race relations in labor markets, and inequality and social mobility in a global perspective. He has published a peer-reviewed article in Ethnic Studies Review. He is currently working on his dissertation, which examines the effects of South Koreans’ international migration on their social mobility in global stratification. This dissertation project recently received a dissertation scholarship from the Research Center for Korean Community at Queens College.