SUNGKYUNKWAN UNIVERSITY (SKKU), SEOUL, KOREA

As the first event of 'CORE Promotion Week', the CORE (Initiatives for Colleges of Humanities' Research and Education) Project organization of SKKU invited William Adams, Chair of the National Endowments for the Humanities, to give a special lecture entitled "The Reason why humanities are important: Cultivate humanities for STEM generation" on Oct 25^th at 10 AM in the 1^st meeting room of the 600^th Anniversary Hall in SKKU.

Dr. Adams received his Ph.D. at the University of California at Santa Cruz with a dissertation in history of consciousness entitled "Digging in the Same Place: An Essay in the Political and Social Philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty". He served for five years as president of Bucknell University and became Colby's 19th president. After being nominated by President Obama, Mr. Adams has been serving as the 10th Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities since July 2014.

At the lecture he spoke about three big themes: (1) Technology won't adduce answers to our generation, (2) Crisis of democracy and community in the society of technology and knowledge, and (3) Democratic citizens with professionalism on alternatives, integrated, and comprehensive viewpoints.

The special lecture from William Adams was planned as part of the government's CORE Project for 16 selected universities including Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul National University, and Korea University.

Prof. Ho Duk HWANG (Korean Language and Literature) who organized this event mentioned the purpose of the lecture: "Since Korea and the USA have been confronted with similar problems in global society, the experiences and knowledge that Dr. Adams has could help to find solutions in Korean society where the appeal of humanities has been blunted."