I applied to the Korea Institute Graduate Summer Research Grant to visit Presidential Archives in Sejong City, South Korea. Besides visiting Sejong City, I also conducted research at Kuksa-p'yŏnch'an-wiwŏnhoe (National Institute of Korean History library) located in Gwacheon-si, Gyeonggi-do. The grant enabled me to travel to South Korea, pay for food and lodging, as well as cover internal transportation expenses during this crucial period of collecting material for preliminary dissertation research and preparing for dissertation prospectus writing the coming fall semester.
At the National Institute of Korean History library, I focused on finding primary sources, mostly general economic policy documents during the Park Chung Hee era. This included reports made by the U.S. embassy, carrying estimates and statistics of Korea’s imports, exports, market share by foreign countries, and overview or evaluation of the structure of the South Korean industry at the time.
At Sejong City, where I spent most of my research time, I became friends with the staff at the Presidential Archives who were generous enough to provide me assistance in gaining material and navigating the institution’s database. Central to my research examining consumerism and capitalism in South Korea during the Park Chung Hee era was getting access to government documents that specified policies concerning consumption, waste, leisure, and foreign products. At the archives, I was able to gain access to drafts of cabinet meetings of the Park administration that delineated policies and blueprints of frugality campaigns, proposals for legislation of special taxation for regulating foreign products, and photos and video recordings of the public attending frugality campaigns as well. This was my first fieldwork experience, and I am excited to incorporate the material I gathered over the summer with the KI research grant into my prospectus in January and May.