Sang-Bong Kim, Ph. D.

Director, Gwangju Center for Social Integration

Professor Sangbong Kim was born in Busan 1958. After graduating from the Department of Philosophy at Yonsei University, he majored in Philosophy, Classical Philology and Theology at Mainz University in Germany.

With his dissertation on Immanuell Kant’s Opus Postumum, he earned a Ph.D. from Mainz University. Just a few years into a professorship in Religious Philosophy at Korean Christian University, Prof. Kim was caught up in a strife within the school and got fired.

After years of serving as Principal of Minyechong-affiliated Literary Academy, he is now a professor with the Department of Philosophy at Chonnam National University. Cutting the quintessential figure of a scholar who keenly engages in social issues, Prof. Kim founded the Society of Antihakul, a non-governmental organization campaigning against schooling-based discrimination and entitlement; and worked as the Director of the Board of the organization.

In the meanwhile, Prof. Kim spurred into the movement of reformation of Moral Education in order to get rid of the historical moral-fascism residues, which is inherited from under late President Park Chung-hee’s Yushin dictatorship in the year 1970.

Prof. Kim also worked as a co-chairperson of Professors’ Council for Democratization; and was on the Board of the Foundation of Memorial to the 5.18 Democratic Movement.

While working as a Philosophy professor, he is now in charge of the Center for Social Integration, whose mission is to research into issues involving social integration, labor relation and corporate governance structure; and to do educational activities/tasks promoting social integration. As attested by his credentials, Prof. Kim’s abiding interests go beyond theory-oriented philosophieren and into the roles which social activities can play in addressing various social issues involving conflicts and constructively solving these conflicts.

Sun-Geun Baek, Ph.D.

President, Korean Educational Development Institute

Dr. Baek is currently the president of Korean Educational Development Institute. He also holds various positions at international and domestic level: Professor, Department of Education, Seoul National University; Board Member, Center for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI), OECD; Board Member, Korean National Commission for UNESCO; Member, Special Committee for Creative Economy, the Federation of Korean Industries. He served as the Dean, Office of Admissions, Seoul National University as well as the President, Korean Society for Educational Evaluation. Dr. Baek held both his B.A. and M.A. degree from the Seoul National University and his Ph.D. degree from the University of California at Berkeley.