Digital Humanities and Korean History

Course Overview

This course explores the process of analyzing key concepts in modern and contemporary Korean history through the lens of Digital Humanities.
Based on 18 years of scholarly output, comprising 14 academic papers, it takes a data-driven approach to trace how epoch-defining concepts such as “gaebyeok,” “minjung,” “jeguk,” and “munmyeong” emerged and transformed over time.
Ultimately, it goes beyond the simple application of digital tools to demonstrate how historians interact with data to formulate novel questions and uncover new answers.

Learning Objectives

1. Understand the foundational concepts and methodologies of digital history, including distant reading, semantic network analysis, and topic modeling.
2. Trace the formation and evolution of core concepts in modern and contemporary Korean history, such as minjung, jeguk, munmyeong, and munhwa.
3. Recognize the complementary relationship between traditional close reading and digital distant reading.
4. Critically reflect upon the potential and limitations of data-driven approaches in historical research.