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The Second Congress of the Asian Association of World Historians (AAWH), sponsored by the NAHF, was held in April 2012 under the two themes 'Global Exchange Networks of Asia' and 'Alternative Modernities in Asia.' It was the largest in scale of all history-related conferences ever held in Korea. Professor Cho Ji-hyung at Ewha Womans University, elected the next president of the AAWH during this event, talks about the Second AAWH Congress and its significance in an interview with NAHF Research Fellow Kim Min-kyu.

"Gathering of Open-Minded People for In-depth Discussion Needed to Promote Korean History"

Kim 》 Congratulations on the successful conclusion of the Second AAWH Congress and on your election as the next president of the AAWH. First of all, please tell us briefly about the AAWH.

Cho 》 The AAWH is an association of world historians either based or interested in Asia, historians who take a novel, multifaceted approach, instead of a Western-centric approach, to history, and view world history from Asian perspectives.
The AAWH Congress held every three years is designed to offer new viewpoints on history beyond Western-centric perspectives. It is also a place for world historians to communicate with fellow historians, learning and understanding political, economic, diplomatic, and academic interests intertwined among countries within Asia. The inception of the AAWH goes back to four years ago when a few historians gathered together in Tianjin, China to start discussing the idea, and it was made official three years ago with the First AAWH Congress held in Osaka, Japan. The AAWH is a relatively new association, with its Second Congress held this year.
It is still in the embryonic stage of its members getting to know one another, and has a long way to go.

Kim 》 For the congress of a new association, the Second AAWH Congress was an international conference of unprecedentedly large scale and scope. How did it attract such a large turnout? How does it compare with the Fist AAWH Congress? What progress has been made since?

Cho 》 At the First AAWH Congress held in Osaka, about 90 papers were presented and 60 percent of the participants were Japanese. At the Second AAWH Congress, including the Round Tables, we had about 150 papers presented, and 59 panels organized for presentation and discussion. And the participants came from about 20 countries.
Even the Organizing Committee didn't expect such a large turnout, although it did promote the Second AAWH Congress by visiting a few scholars in Japan and attending the World History Association conference held in Beijing in July 2011 for the distribution of promotional leaflets.
As it turned out, many of the Japanese and Chinese scholars at that WHA conference paid themselves to attend the Second AAWH Congress. It was very encouraging to see them participate with interest at their own expense when the AAWH didn't have enough funding to offer them financial aid or invitation. No less effective than the AAWH's promotional activities was its network of people. The Second AAWH Congress owes its success to Patrick Manning, one of the initiators of the AAWH, and scholars well connected to the WHA who have used their connections to promote and support the event.
In addition, support from the Northeast Asian History Foundation, Ewha Womans University, Korean historians and students of history have been also very helpful over the last two years of preparation for the Second AAWH Congress.

Kim 》 What you've said makes me all the more look forward to the Third AAWH Congress to be held in three years. As a participant in the Second AAWH Congress myself, I would like to see many Korean scholars working on National Research Foundation of Korea projects participating in the next AAWH Congress.

Cho 》 As this event was so large in scale and had so many participants that they couldn't receive as much individual attention as they deserved. In fact, many of the participants were world-renowned scholars. The participants also included the authors of world history textbooks, and those in close relations with the makers of American or European world history textbooks.
If Korean scholars studying Korean history or Eastern history participated in the Congress to voice their opinions and present the positions of Korea, it could be a turning point that leads to make changes in American or European world history textbooks. Unfortunately, the turnout of Korean scholars was low. I think the reasons were that they didn't have sufficient English skills, that they were not connected to any international scholars to include in their panel, and/or the pressure to provide financial aid, even partially, to their international panel if organized. But there were some Korean scholars who dared to try organizing a panel of their own, however incomplete it may be.
Although the AAWH Congress encourages its participants to include multinational members in their panels, it also allows exception, as it did to the Korean scholars, when their circumstances don't permit it. Given such panels, they could at least joint the Congress, and have an opportunity to meet scholars from overseas, talk to them, and get to know one another, building a new network that allows them to discuss possible collaboration in future projects. I would like to see more Korean scholars participating and networking in the next AAWH Congress.

Kim 》As I listen to your words, I can't wait to see your future moves as the President of the AAWH. Please tell me about your thoughts on the topics that the AAWH will present for discussion and the roles it will play in explaining the past, the present, and the future.

Professor Cho Ji-hyung

Cho 》I think I can give you three bullet points. First, the AAWH will publish an international journal, inviting the world's great scholars as editors. To ensure that the journal is full of quality papers, they will be given an extended period of continued review, even after the final decision is made on papers to be published. Second, the AAWH is preparing to pave the way for a variety of international joint research projects. For instance, the AAWH has opened its own Facebook page to facilitate communication among researchers from countries around the world. Third, the AAWH is preparing to actively engage in the 'Collaborative Project for World History Information Analysis' directed by Patrick Manning. This project gathers world history information from countries around the world through collaborative effort and compiles it into a data bank available for joint studies of phenomena in modern history.
With these three initiatives, the international journal, the international joint project, and the collaborative project for world history information analysis, I am thinking of creating a kind of world history research platform that invites participation of historians from countries around the world. In addition, I am considering options to enrich the AAWH organization by steadily expanding its primarily Korean/Chinese/Japanese membership to include Southeast Asia and the Arab world.

Kim 》 I read an article that the 'Big History Timeline Project' by Microsoft would include resources on Korean history, such as Armored Turtle Boat, Dosan Academy, Exemplar of Korean Medicine, Daily Records for Royal Introspection, Castle of Suwon, etc.. Please tell us about the concept and significance of 'Big History' and elaborate on the future plans for this project announced during the Second AAWH Congress.

Cho 》 Big History is a field that covers time from the Big Bang to the present in studying history because, for example, understanding Korean history requires understanding the history of East Asia, which requires understanding Eurasian history, which requires world perspectives. By extension, it requires the context of the universe, which began with the Big Bang. Hence the name 'Big History.'
It covers the history of mankind and the history of the Earth along the timeline from the Big Bang to the present. In the U.S., Big History is evolving into an interdisciplinary field which teaches not only history but also natural sciences with the storytelling technique of history. Big History targets 9th and 10th graders (corresponding to seniors of middle school and freshmen of highschool in the Korean education system), aiming to develop their creativity through an interdisciplinary field that combines humanities with natural sciences.
The Big History program launched a pilot project in five US and two Australian schools last year. This year, the pilot project will be expanded to include fifty US and twenty Australian schools. Starting from next year, the history data in the hands of Bill Gates will be made available to anyone willing to put it to good public use. One of the results of this project is the Chrono Zoom site (www.chronozoomproject.org), where Chrono Zoom refers to a more layered version of the Internet Explorer which allows the user to click their way to zoom in and out of the 13.7-billion year timeline in a single screen, navigating historic events down to the unit of day. Crono Zoom presents information, including videos and reference materials as well as related documents, configured in a layered fashion, instead of a linear presentation of events. When they contacted me, asking to recommend resources on Korean history to include on this site, I gave some thoughts to a list of proud achievements of Korea in the context of world history before handpicking Armored Turtle Boat, Dosan Academy, Exemplar of Korean Medicine, Daily Records for Royal Introspection, Castle of Suwon etc. I believe it important to think of 'comparable events,' though they may not be directly related to world history, and find and study resources relevant to world history, and present them in other languages to communicate with the world. The Chrono Zoom site is also in its infancy, and in the process of steady technical update. The historical associations of countries around the world are providing contents that add to this layered site.

Kim 》 I understand that you are also directing the Institute of World and Global History (IWGH). Please tell us about the Institute and its past achievements and future projects.

Cho 》 The original name of the IWGH in Korean is 'The Institute of Earth History (Jigusa Yeonguso),' a term that is still unfamiliar to many. Some mistake it as an institute of Earth Science and others ask me, like a joke, if it is home to five heroes defending the Earth. But as its English name suggests, the IWGH is an institute that studies 'Global History,' a term easier to grasp than 'Earth History.' In Korean, however, I stick to the terms 'Earth History (Jigusa)' and 'the Institute of Earth History' for them to take root in the next five to ten years. The IWGH has been publishing annual series, with its fourth series on the topic of history and climate scheduled to be released around fall this year. The IWGH has been also holding annual international conferences. Fortunately, perhaps thanks to the IWGH's activities, increasingly more people in Korea are using the Korean term 'Earth History' instead of the English term 'Global History.' Even a book company published a series of 'Earth History' books. I am delighted to see that the Korean term 'Earth History (Jigusa)' is getting more widely used and taking root in Korea.

NAHF Research Fellow
Kim Min-kyu.

Kim 》 If you had any suggestion for the NAHF in relation to your current activities, what would it be?

Cho 》 I believe that 'how to utilize the network of people' is critical because, after all, it is people that study and make history. In my opinion, historians, particularly scholars studying both world history and the history of their nation, are more open-minded than others. Before we could tell people from other countries about our national history and exchange opinions on controversial issues, it is basically necessary for open-minded people to gather together for in-depth discussion. Doing so, I believe, will increase the likelihood and opportunities for communication. In this respect, I would like to ask the Northeast Asian History Foundation to create opportunities for such people to gather together, and to create funds and environments to help Korean researchers initiate and lead joint projects with researchers from other countries. While correcting the wrong history is important, I think that promoting the less-known, excellent aspects of Korean history is also equally important. As a scholar of global history, I hope that the NAHF will take this into consideration when they set up programs to support such initiatives.

Kim 》 Thank you for your time and words.