Han Sang-jin

Han Sang-jin is a South Korean sociologist in the tradition of critical theory, known for his Joongmin theory. He is professor emeritus at the department of sociology, Seoul National University, Korea, and a distinguished visiting professor at Peking University, China. He has lectured as visiting professor at Columbia University in New York, United States, School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris, France, the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina, and Kyoto University in Japan. His major areas of interest are: social theory, political sociology, human rights and transitional justice, middle class politics, participatory risk governance, Confucianism and East Asian development. From childhood to college years Han was born in a small rural village in Imshil, North Jeolla Province, Korea in February, 1945. The village he was born in was famous for the upbringing of intellectuals and was called "doctors’ village" because it produced many Ph.D.'s in various fields. The year 1945 was the time when Korea was liberated from the colonial rule of Japan. As one of the so-called "emancipation babies" he later served as the executive chairman of the committee for the 1960s commemoration of Gwangbok (Regaining light and liberation) in 2005 and began to explore the complex meaning of Gwangbok. His life was inevitably intertwined with the turbulent history of Korea. Han experienced the Korean War (1950–53) in his early childhood and the April student revolution (1960) when he had just entered high school. In 1963, he became a student of sociology at Seoul National University. From 1964 a strong nationalist movement against the Korea-Japan normalization treaty swept over university campuses. While supporting such opposition to the Japanese colonial legacy, he felt the need to explore the constructive goal of development for the future of Korea and thus founded a "Study Group of the Korean Thought" with classmates of social sciences in 1965. Later when he became a graduate student, he led the student movement for academic freedom and autonomy against the dictatorial regime of President Park Chung-hee. Just before the presidential election in 1971 he was arrested and put in jail and prosecuted for the violation of the Anti-communist law after severe investigation. But he was found innocent and acquitted.