About HK3.0

  • About HK3.0
  • About HK3.0

Director’s Message

Greetings..

We are the HK3.0 Research Consortium, The Futuristic Turn of K-Humanities in the Era of Civilizational Transformation.

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Our HK3.0 Research Consortium, The Futuristic Turn of K-Humanities in the Era of Civilizational Transformation is a collaborative organization of four research institutes.

  • International Research Center for Korean Language and Culture, Korea University (est. 2006)
  • Institute for the Comparative Studies of Society and Culture, Yonsei University (est. 2011)
  • Center for Korean Studies, Inha University (est. 1986)
  • Hallym Academy of Sciences, Hallym University (est. 1990)

Bringing together institutes, each with its own distinctive character in Korean language and literature, comparative social studies, Korean studies in East Asia, conceptual history, and digital research methodologies, we are carrying out the “Humanities Korea 3.0” (HK3.0) project, supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea from July 2025 to February 2031.

As the diagnosis of our time as an “era of civilizational transformation” suggests, Korea today is experiencing a situation in which the universal ideas and values that have prevailed since the late nineteenth century, with Western modernity as their standard, have reached their limits. From Intra-state hostility and the crisis of democracy to global ecological problems and the reconfiguration of communal orders, as well as the shock of digital media and artificial intelligence, humanity is confronted with unprecedented disasters and crises. To overcome these challenges, we urgently need practical movements that, going beyond critical reflection on entrenched mainstream discourses, can propose new coordinates for thought.

“K-Humanities,” as a response to this demand for reflection and practice, seeks to cultivate the autonomous capacity to lead a “futuristic turn of civilization,” grounded in Korea’s modern and contemporary experience, which has emerged as an original model in the social, economic, and cultural spheres since the twenty-first century. Beginning with “K-Pop” and taking on different forms in areas such as “K-Democracy,” “K-Literature,” and “K-Food,” the various articulations of “K” indicate that Korea stands at the forefront of the task of creating new models that can replace the modern Western model. Whether Korea’s experience of achieving self-reliance and prosperity by standing on its historical experience of colonialism and underdevelopment can truly move beyond colonialism, developmentalism, and bipolarism— It may be a challenge for Korea, but it is also a challenge for the world.

At the Research Consortium for The Futuristic Turn of K-Humanities in the Era of Civilizational Transformation, we seek to contribute to the creation of a “K-Humanities” that can lead Korea’s future through six thematic areas: “Crisis and Connection,” “History and Place,” “Concepts and Values,” “Knowledge and Institutions,” “Culture and Canon,” and “Convergence and Media.” By tracing the histories of crisis and transformation in Korea, pursuing new concepts and forms of knowledge within the geopolitics of (East) Asia, and refining information and renewing the canon alongside technological and media innovations, we seek to enhance the publicness and situatedness of the humanities and to fulfill our responsibility to the spirit of our communities.

We look forward to engaging in dialogue with our fellow citizens and with researchers of different generations.

The Futuristic Turn of K-Humanities in the Era of Civilizational Transformation
Kwon Boduerae Director