K-GSP Forum Officially Launched (May 5, 2026)
A New Intellectual Bridge for the Korean Diaspora and the Knowledge It Carries Across Cultures
May 5, 2026
The Korean-American Global Scholars and Professionals (K-GSP) Forum officially launched on May 5, 2026, with an inaugural virtual Opening Ceremony attended by founding editors, invited authors, contributors, and readers from across the United States and abroad.
The Forum is grounded in a long-standing yet often underrecognized conviction within Korean diaspora life: those who think and live between cultures occupy a uniquely fertile intellectual space. From this position emerge insights that neither the homeland nor the host country can fully generate on its own. The K-GSP Forum provides a public platform for these perspectives and seeks to bring them into meaningful dialogue with a broad readership in Korea, the United States, and the global Korean diaspora.
Though formally established only one month earlier, on April 5, 2026, the Forum has already published approximately 130 essays, reflections, reviews, and research contributions. This early body of work reflects a strong demand among both writers and readers for a space where Korean-American and diaspora voices can engage across disciplines, generations, and traditions, while reaching a global audience in real time.
In his opening remarks, Editor-in-Coordination Jeonghwan (Jerry) Choi (University of Maine at Presque Isle) described the Forum’s mission as one of bridge-building: linking Korea and the United States; connecting rigorous scholarship with lived experience; fostering dialogue across academic disciplines; and cultivating a shared intellectual life among generations of Korean-American scholars and professionals. He emphasized that the Forum is neither a conventional academic journal nor an institutional voice, but rather a voluntary, intellectually serious, and welcoming community committed to ideas that extend beyond the boundaries of any single institution.
During the ceremony, each founding editor offered brief reflections on the Forum’s launch and future.
Professor Young B. Choi (Regent University) expressed his hopes for the Forum’s continued flourishing and conveyed his gratitude to the colleagues and readers whose support has made its first steps possible.
Distinguished Professor Paul C. Hong (University of Toledo) addressed the structural gap the Forum seeks to fill. He noted that traditional academic publishing often delays the circulation of ideas by months or even years, by which time the cultural moment may have passed. Drawing a parallel to the way a new generation of Korean voices — including BTS — reached global audiences by moving beyond traditional gatekeepers, he suggested that scholars likewise need platforms capable of engaging audiences in real time. The K-GSP Forum, he emphasized, provides such a space: one where Korean diaspora thought can circulate quickly, connect Korea and the United States, and engage a public eager for thoughtful perspectives on Korean books, films, and ideas.
Professor John J. Han (Missouri Baptist University) joined briefly from his university’s commencement ceremony to share his greetings and to express his hopes for the Forum’s continued development as a meaningful platform for Korean diaspora voices.
Professor Yoon G. Kim (California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt) reflected on the intellectual community emerging among the Forum’s editors. He spoke of his admiration for their dedication, the depth and quality of the contributions, and his own commitment to both learning from and contributing to the ongoing conversations the Forum seeks to cultivate.
Professor Lea Lee (Old Dominion University) celebrated the multicultural mission at the heart of the Forum's founding. She expressed her honor at joining the Editorial Board and affirmed the value of cultivating a space where Korean and American intellectual traditions can meet and enrich one another — not merely placed side by side, but allowed to illuminate each other in the service of readers across both worlds.
The Forum's editorial vision is guided by three interrelated aims. First, diaspora contribution: to amplify the voices of Korean-American and diaspora scholars and professionals whose cross-cultural perspectives merit broader recognition. Second, multicultural bridging: to make Korean intellectual, literary, and artistic traditions accessible to global audiences in English, while bringing global ideas into conversation with Korean thought. Third, innovative knowledge creation: to cultivate original insights at the intersections of disciplines, cultures, and generations — spaces where some of today's most important ideas are emerging.
The Forum publishes essays, reflections, book and film reviews, research insights, and narratives drawn from both professional and personal experience. Its primary readership includes professionals engaged in teaching, leadership, creative work, and ongoing intellectual inquiry. In the coming seasons, the Forum will feature contributions from an expanding network of invited authors across the humanities, social sciences, arts, and professions, with the long-term aim of building a distinctive English-language archive of Korean diaspora intellectual life.
The K-GSP Forum publishes regularly on Substack (kgsp.substack.com) and maintains a companion website at k-gsp.org. Readers are warmly invited to subscribe, share, and contribute to the ongoing dialogue.
About the K-GSP Forum The Korean-American Global Scholars and Professionals Forum is an independent intellectual community committed to amplifying Korean diaspora voices, bridging Korean and global thought, and creating knowledge that serves readers across cultures.
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Media Contact: jeonghwan.choi@gmail.com
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