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Seong-Yawng Park

Photo of Seong-Yawng Park

Seong-Yawng Park

An accomplished academician as well as entrepreneur, Seong-Yawng Park earned his Ph.D. at Yale in 1965 and has taught economics at the University of California at Berkeley Business School. He went on to a successful career in business, building his father’s transportation business into one of Korea’s top 10 corporate conglomerates. Described as one of Yale’s most loyal and generous international alumni, Park is active as a member of the President’s Council on International Activities. He has also been a member of the board of advisers for the Yale Economic Growth Center and president of the Yale Club of Korea. A philanthropist with a strong interest in the fine arts and especially music, he has been named a Sterling Fellow in recognition of his generous support to the University. 

The Seong-Yawng Park GRD ’65 and Marguerite Clark Park Memorial Lecture was made possible by a generous gift from the estate of the Park family. The principal objective of this gift is to foster the study of Korea at Yale by bringing recognition of the Korean peninsula and its affairs and achievements to Yale and the wider community. 

Seong-Yawng Park GRD ’65 and Marguerite Clark Park Memorial Lectures

2023-2024

Namhee Lee, Professor of Modern Korean History and Director of the Center for Korean Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

"History, Politics of Time, and the Poetics of Remembrance"

2022-2023

Laurel Kendall, Curator of Asian Ethnographic Collections, American Museum of Natural History

Comparing Gods and Things: Looking At and Beyond Korea

2021-2022

Jin Y. Park, Professor of Philosophy and Religion, American University

Women and Buddhism: The Case of Kim Iryŏp

2019-2020

Carter Eckert, Yoon Se Young Professor of Korean History, Harvard University

“Back to the Future in a U.S. Satellite: Park Chung Hee and the May 16 (1961) Coup: A Genealogy”

2018-2019

Victor Cha, D.S. Song-KF Professor of Government and International Affairs, Georgetown University

“The North Korea Playbook: Five Facts You Need to Know”