Arts and Humanities Seminar, Darwin College:
Modern Korea: two perspectives on its extraordinary ascent

John Swenson-Wright and Harry Bhadeshia

Consensual politics, justice, education and a competitive economy are the hall-marks of a happy nation. There is no country other than South Korea which has shown a meteoric advance along all of these goals over a period of just three decades, beginning with abject poverty in all four contexts.

We present our personal experiences on (a) the state of the social and political systems; (b) the rise of higher education and research. We hope to explain why other countries, the latest being Bahrain and Indonesia, look towards South Korea in order to emulate rapid development. The subjects will be described in the context of the sometimes tragic history of this divided nation.

This was a seminar given in the Darwin College Arts and Humanities Group, which meets on Tuesdays, lunch time. John is a Senior Lecturer in in Modern Japanese Studies, with a huge experience in Korea, both North and South. Harry is a Physical Metallurgist who spends significant time at POSTECH in Korea.



Yan Pei, James Nygaard, Hector Pous and Bob Keown of Beta Technology


Ashwin Pandit, Danyi Lou, Steve Ooi


Bob has come over for discussions on niobium


John Swenson-Wright, who along with Harry, gave the lunch talk: Modern Korea: two perspectives on its extraordinary ascent


Anke PLAGNOL on the right is the organiser of the talk


In the Darwin College Entertainments Room, ready for action






Pat wilson, Steve and Bob, after the talk and lunch


The final rouges' gallery




ε-carbide Envelope 3d Cyclic Bain
Residual stress Phase field review Thermal stability Hot-strength Strain partitioining
Uphill diffusion Tiny Dissilmilar friction stir welds Polish Academy European welds

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