epastreich[at]asia-institute[dot]org
Emanuel Pastreich Pastreich founded the Asia Institute in 2007 while working in Daejeon, Korea. He has overseen the Korea India Business and Technology Initiative (with the Indo-Korea Business and Policy Forum), the Biotechnology Initiative (with the Korea Research Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology), the Nuclear Power Program (with Korea Institute for Nuclear Safety), 3E (Environment, Energy, Economy) Program (with Tsukuba University), the Asia Ecocity Coalition (with Ecocity Builders) and the Convergence Technology Program (with the Korea Research Institute for Standards and Science).
Pastreich is a professor at the Humanitas College, a new liberal arts program at Kyung Hee University. His research work concerns the convergence of technologies in an age of unprecedented technological change and its implications for society. At the same time, he continues his original research on the classical novel in China, Japan and Korea.
Pastreich serves as co-director of the Global Convergence Forum and founding member of the Korea Industry Convergence Association, a coalition of industry, government and research institutes that explores the full potential of convergence technology internationally.
Pastreich worked previously as an associate professor at Woosong University’s SolBridge International School of Business in Daejeon. Pastreich served as advisor for internationalization and foreign investment for Daejeon Metropolitan City, and advisor for international cooperation for Gwangju Metropolitan City. Pastreich has been a columnist for MK Business News (Maeil Gyeongjae Sinmun), Korea’s leading business newspaper. Pastreich has written articles about the environment, technology, globalization, international relations and business in Asia for such journals as Japan Focus, Foreign Policy in Focus & the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. He has published three books in English: The Novels of Park Jiwon: Translation of Overlook Worlds (Seoul National University Press) & The Observable Mundane: Vernacular Chinese and the Emergence of a Discourse on Popular Narrative in Edo Japan (Seoul National University Press. He has also published a book in Korean: Record of a Robinson Crusoe in Korea: Life is a Matter of Direction, not Speed (Nomad Books).
Pastreich’s consulting includes work for Daedeok Innopolis, Korea’s premiere technology cluster, special advisor for the governor of Chungnam Province, the Korea Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology, the Korea Institute for Nuclear Safety, the Korea Institute for Geoscience and Materials, Korea Research Institute for Standards and Science and numerous companies.
Pastreich served as Director of the policy think tank KORUS House (2005-2007), which he founded, at the Korean Embassy in Washington D.C. best known today for its lecture series on East Asian politics and business. He was also editor-in-chief of the official on-line newspaper of the Korean Overseas Information Service “Dynamic Korea.” Pastreich determined content, edited articles, suggested advertising and marketing policy and wrote frequently about contemporary affairs.
Pastreich started his career as assistant Professor of Japanese literature at the University of Illinois (1998-2004) and has taught at Harvard University, George Washington University and the Korean Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security.
Pastreich has a B.A. in Chinese literature from Yale University (1987), Master’s Degree in comparative culture from the University of Tokyo (1992) and a Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University (1997).
He is fluent in Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
