Professor Nam Jong-kuk Selected for Excellent Scholars Program by National Research Foundation of Korea
- 작성처
- Date2021.10.12
- 6962
Professor Nam Jong-kuk Selected for Excellent Scholars Program by National Research Foundation of Korea
Professor Nam Jong-kuk from the Department of History under the College of Liberal Arts has been selected for the “2021 Excellent Scholars Program” by the National Research Foundation of Korea.
The “Excellent Scholars Program” is aimed at supporting the establishment of a stable research environment that allows outstanding scholars in the field of humanities and social sciences to compile and further develop their research achievements to date, and promote the social dissemination of such achievements. A total of eight researchers were selected this year based on their research creativity, research capabilities, and excellence in research planning. Professor Nam will be supported by a research fund amounting to a total of 150 million KRW for the next three years to carry out an in-depth study under the theme of “Rediscovering Shylock: Changing Perceptions in Interest-based Moneylending.”
Shylock, a fictional character in Shakespeare’s play, The Merchant of Venice, is portrayed as the epitome of vicious Jewish moneylenders who extort poor Christians. Through his study on interest-based moneylending, which was condemned as a vice in the medieval Christian society, Professor Nam plans to explore the historical origins of modern capitalism by tracing how the perception of interest-based moneylending changed from ancient to early modern eras and how these changes affected the direction and outcomes of economic development in Europe.
Professor Nam has previously conducted studies on the history of civilizational exchanges in the medieval Mediterranean region, medieval Italian merchants and commodities, the history of East-West exchanges during the Pax Mongolica era, the rise of capitalism, and medieval Christian pilgrimages, and published approximately 30 papers to date. He has written Le[BS1] commerce du coton en Méditerranée à la fin du Moyen Age (Leiden and New York: Brill, 2007), How Did Medieval Mediterranean Trade Change Europe? (Minumin, 2011), The Great Adventure of Medieval Italian Merchants: The Origin of Modern Capitalism and Innovation (LP, 2015), and Venice: The Medieval Maritime Empire (Ewha Womans University Press, 2020), and translated The Merchant of Prato: Francesco Di Marco Datini: Daily Life in a Medieval Italian City (LP, 2009) and The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, Volume II [BS2](Kachi Publishing, 2017). In addition, he is active in giving lectures on the EBS program Insight and has been expanding the educational horizon by launching a lecture series titled “The Story of Three Civilizations: The History of Medieval Mediterranean Exchanges” on the Korean Massive Open Online Course (K-MOOC) in the first semester of 2021.
The College of Liberal Arts, which has shared the history and tradition of Ewha since the establishment of the Humanities Division in 1925, has produced future talents who will lead the Fourth Industrial Revolution by providing courses in literature, history, philosophy, foreign language studies, Christian studies, and convergence humanities major and interdisciplinary programs. It ranked first for the humanities employment rate in the 2019 JoongAng Ilbo University Assessment, and continues to demonstrate excellent educational and research capabilities by making remarkable achievements in various government-sponsored research projects, including the University Innovation Support Project.