Sharing the lecture held on November 7, 2023.

Why Were They Arrested? Religious Leaders and the Gwangju Democratization Movement

SPEAKER: Don Baker

SUMMARY:

I am a historian. That means that I try to unravel puzzles in past events, trying to figure out why things happened the way they did. One puzzle I have been trying to unravel recently is why more Catholic priests were jailed by the Chun Doo-hwan government in Gwangju in May, 1980, than Protestant pastors and Buddhist monks were. A related  puzzle is why did the YWCA play such an important role during the 10 days of terror Gwangju residents had to endure. In my talk, I will examine what I have discovered so far about the role those different religious communities played in helping people cope with the traumatic events they were confronting.

BIO:

Don Baker is Professor of Korean Civilization in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia. He has published extensively on the history of Korean philosophy, religion, and science. His latest book is A Korean Confucian’s Advice on How to be Moral: Tasan Chŏng Yagyong’s Reading of the Zhongyong (University of Hawai’i Press). Prof. Baker first came to Korea as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1971. He worked as an English teacher in Gwangju from 1971 to 1974 and has ever since considered Gwangju to be his “second hometown.