Web Site - http://aeas.skku.edu/eng/index.jsp

VICE DIRECTOR OF ACADEMY
  - Insub MAH
INSTITUTE PROGRAMS
  - Institute of Confucian Philosophy and Culture
  - Daedong Institute for Korean Studies
  - Institute of East Asian Regional Studies
EDUCATION PROGRAMS
  - Graduate School of Interdisciplinary program in East
  - Undergraduate Inter-faculty Initiatives for East Asian     Studies
  - China Specialist Project

Sungkyunkwan University, the former Joseon Dynasty's royal academy for higher education, celebrated its 600th anniversary in 1998, and many of its academics had already been envisaging an independent research center that will preserve the academic heritage of the university's 600-year scholarship, This research center particularly had to meet the demand arising from the new academic situation of the world, that from local to global and from disciplinary to interdisciplinary.

In the following year, 1999, Sungkyunkwan University launched a sizeable research and education complex purporting to the study of various issues relating both to the past and the future of East Asia. It was named as the Academy of East Asian Studies(AEAS). Considering its long and glorious history of Confucian studies and research activities relating to Korea, China and Japan, and after being transformed into a modern university, Sungkyunkwan University became the ideal institution to run such a research center. The Korean Ministry of Education, recognizing Sungkyunkwan University as being the most important place for East Asian studies, commissioned the university to develop the East Asian Confucian Project as part of the 'Brain Korea 21 Projects'. The Brain Korea 21 Project is the largest national programme supporting academic research and education in Korea. Sungkyunkwan University designed a special support programme for the AEAS and also designated East Asian Studies as one of the four major areas to be developed under the Vision 2010+ plan.

The AEAS is a combined of interdiscipling research, education, and referental collection as a whole, and its aim was to create such a system from its foundation in 1999. Since its foundation, one of the Academy's aims was to create a system which combines research and education. Research units, postgraduate courses, three specializing institutes, which are the major features of the AEAS, are all designed to carry out the dual task of research and education.
Under such systems, the AEAS encourages its researchers and participating outside researchers to choose topics which are based on interdisciplinary multi-regional subjects without its academic activities being confined to the scopes demarcated by conventional institutions. In addition, the AEAS is running a special reference collection suitable for its complicated and diverse research areas for the convenience of researchers and students.

Being affiliated to Sungkyunkwan University, the AEAS does not solely involve academics of the university for its research activities. Instead, the AEAS tries to invite researchers overseas to hold lectures, research activities as well as regular and irregular seminars.
It also publishes the Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies, a biannual periodical with contributions from renowned East Asian Studies scholars around the world.

The AEAS consists of 4 subordinate institutes for research: Institute of Confucian Philosophy and Culture, Daedong Institute for Korean Studies, Institute of East Asian Regional Studies, and Survey Research Center(SRC). Institute of Confucian Philosophy and Culture is specialized in various academic issues related to Confucianism and culture in East Asia. It inherits traditions from the Old Sunkyunkwan and seeks to adapt the traditional East Asian way of thought to globalized world of today. Founded in 1957, Daedong Institute for Korean Studies covers the classical culture and critical issues of East Asia.

Including a strong interest in Confucianism it expands relations with other world-level institutes and receives a number of visiting scholars every year. The aim of the Institute of East Asian Regional Studies is to study economic, social, and political issues of East Asian countries including Korea in order to enhance co-prosperity and help mutual understanding among those countries.
For the research activities, we promote exchange and accumulation of information and human resources. The SRC strongly believes that a steady progress in social scientific knowledge is made possible by an accumulation of factual data sets that are faithful to rigorous empiricism. The SRC generates new data that adhere to strict guidelines in conducting the survey and disseminates new and existing survey data to an active network of scholars throughout the world.

The AEAS also has a specialized library, Jon'gyeong'gak. The original Jon'gyeong'-gak was established in 1475 during the reign of King Seongjong (1469~1494) during Joseon Dynasty to support the academic research of students of Sungkyunkwan. Present Jon'gyeong'gak was launched along with the opening of the AEAS in expectation of special, international and intelligent library.