Council on East Asian Studies and Hotel Shilla Sign Agreement to Increase Support for Korean Studies
In August 2025, Hotel Shilla and the Council on East Asian Studies at the MacMillan Center signed a revised agreement to increase support for Korean Studies at Yale University. The partnership, which originated in June 2023, was spearheaded by Dr. Hongnam Kim (’85 Ph.D., Art History) in consultation with Boo Jin Lee, President & CEO of Shilla, and Ingyu Han, President & COO of Shilla. Their generous gift to Yale was designed to facilitate academic engagement and research on Korea by providing accommodations for Yale researchers.
Yale’s Korean Studies program has expanded significantly in response to students’ growing desire to engage with Korea’s history, culture, and global influence more deeply and critically. Under the original agreement, two rooms at any Hotel Shilla branch in Korea were made available annually, for up to one month each, to Yale students and faculty conducting research. The program has proven highly successful: four undergraduate students and three faculty members have participated to date, with one senior student completing her thesis through the program and receiving a thesis prize.
As student interest in Korean Studies continues to grow each year, particularly among those preparing senior theses or research papers, Hotel Shilla has substantially expanded its support. With the help of Hotel Shilla Vice President Zihoon Kim, the revised agreement increases the total number of accommodation days from 60 to 150 annually—a 150 percent increase that will enable more researchers to benefit.
Yale’s Council on East Asian Studies is deeply grateful to Hotel Shilla for this generous support of research conducted in Korea by our professors and students. This is a precious opportunity for even more members of our faculty and students to deepen and broaden their understanding of Korean history, society, and culture.
Hotel Shilla, part of the Samsung Group, is South Korea’s leading hospitality and travel retail operator, with 20 hotels and resorts across South Korea and Vietnam under three brands: The Shilla, Shilla Monogram, and Shilla Stay.
This enhanced support provides Yale students and faculty with comfortable accommodations while leveraging Hotel Shilla’s nationwide network of branches in major Korean cities. The expanded program reflects both the growing academic interest in Korean Studies at Yale and Hotel Shilla’s continued commitment to supporting scholarly research.
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