2023 Student-Faculty Fellows: Roanoke College

The Legacy of American Protestant Missionaries in Contemporary South Korea

Mentors: Whitney Leeson, History and Anthropology; Stella Xu, History

Students: Owen Collander, Ashton Howard, Cameron McDonald, Jake Strohl, and Elizabeth Walton

Project Abstract Our collaborative research project focused on how contemporary South Koreans choose to remember the legacy of US Protestant missionaries. The six student fellows come from different academic backgrounds, and they applied their interdisciplinary training to conduct effective research. Pre-departure research laid a solid foundation for in-country fieldwork. Our Washington D.C. trip to the Library of Congress, The Old Korean Legation Museum, Korean War Memorial, and the Freer Gallery of Art gave students the opportunity to bond with one another while gathering necessary background information for the project. Dr. Xu also arranged for students to conduct on-line, zoom interviews with important scholars in the field such as Dr. Elizabeth Underwood, professor at Eastern Kentucky University and the great granddaughter of Horace Underwood, and Donald Clark, Professor Emeritus at Trinity University and a third-generation Korean missionary. These were invaluable experiences that improved students’ interviewing skills and provided them with a certain comfort level in terms of content knowledge to interact more easily with local people once in Korea. In-country fieldwork greatly strengthened students’ understanding of their research project.  The number and different types of churches they saw, the number and different types of people they interviewed is truly astounding.  Students gathered a wealth of data about how individuals from different age cohorts, genders, social positions, professions, and political persuasions varied in their understanding of, and opinions about, the legacy of US Protestant missionaries in contemporary Korea. Site-visits, tours, presentations, formal and informal interviews, dinners with our Asian partners, and many, many casual conversations with helpful acquaintances, some of whom became friends, provided vided students with the raw material they need to produce their podcast series.  The students also received leads on additional secondary source materials from several leading South Korean scholars who shared their collective wisdom regarding the impact of US Protestant missionaries on the religious, political, social, and economic landscape of South Korea. Their deepened understanding of the project is already evidenced by comments Lewis Edwards made in an interview he gave to WDBJ-7, our local television station. Likewise, the insights of Cameron McDonald and Elizabeth Walton strengthened an article published about their Korea research trip in the August 2023 issue of the Roanoke Valley Sister Cities Newsletter.

Owen Collander
As for my practical and professional development, I feel like my communication skills developed greatly on this trip. It is hard enough to communicate with a native speaker in one’s own country, yet being in a place where you only know how to say “hello” and “thank you very much” meant that I had to think about every action or word. Having to go up to people and cold call introduce myself was also an interesting challenge. Additionally, I continued to hone my skills as an interviewer. I interviewed people like Kim Kyusik’s granddaughter, the director of Kyungshin school, and many more. I also had the opportunity of getting to practice networking. Everywhere I went, people handed me their business cards and seemed interested at continuing our relationship. As this project continues, I plan to further develop my skills in storytelling, editing, and researching. As we are steering away from a “traditional” paper route, I look forward to the challenges that await. I also look forward to this project being another round of practice in organization, collaboration, and public speaking.

Lewis Edwards 
. In terms of this project however, having learned a lot while on the ground in South Korea, partnered with the research myself and the other students have been conducting, is providing me extremely valuable experience to carry forward into my professional career. A big part of why I chose Roanoke for my undergraduate degree was because of the small classroom sizes and the desire for hands-on, experiential learning. To earn a spot on this research team was a dream come true, and I cannot wait to see where this project takes us. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. That is how I would summarize this experience. When I was first approached by Drs. Xu and Leeson about spending three weeks during my summer doing research, I was skeptical given that this could be my last summer in college as I am going into my senior year. However, once I found it was on-site in South Korea, I could not say no. Our days were long during our visit to this wonderful country, but I look back now and will be forever grateful for the experiences we shared as a group. I believe that this immersion into both South Korean life and research about the impact of missionaries will be integral to the future of some our students and will have a profound impact on our personal and professional lives.

Ashton Howard 
Being able to talk to these South Koreans about their lived experiences was priceless and a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We were able to learn why Korean culture is the way it is, and why these people think, react, and speak the way that they do. We were able to better understand the opinions and legacies left because we were able to see the culture and society itself. Being on site, afforded all of us the opportunity to observe and let our natural curiosity guide us in asking questions of the people we met. The skills I have gained from being able to do this sort of research in a foreign country will be applicable in every single aspect of my life from here on out. I was able to refine my speaking skills as well as interview and human interactive skills as well. It has also kick-started my desire to learn another language, so that the next time I get to do things like this, I will be of more use. This has also prepared me for anything graduate school will throw at me once I graduate in May. The applied skills I have learned will be useful for the rest of my professional career, not just because I learned to be smart and professional, but also because I learned to be more empathetic with those who come from all walks of life.

Cameron McDonald 
I had the once in a lifetime opportunity to visit South Korea and aid in research concerning the legacy of US missionaries and their influence within Korean life today. With unending thanks towards the ASIANetwork Student-Faculty Fellows (SFF) Program, our two advising professors, Dr. Stella Xu and Dr. Whitney Leeson, and the rest of the Roanoke College research team, Ashton Howard, Elizabeth Walton, Jakob Strohl, Lewis Edwards, and Owen Collander, a solid foundation for this project has been established and is now being prepared for the next phase of research. To begin, we prepared ourselves for the research throughout the spring semester by analyzing the literature surrounding US missionaries in Korea and even traveling to Washington D.C. to speak with experts on the subject and visit Korean museum exhibits. This research abroad took place from May 26th to June 15th 2023, in Seoul, South Korea, while also traveling to the cities of Incheon, Wonju, Gunsan, Jeonju, Pusan, and even the DMZ. During this three-week period of nonstop research, traveling, speaking with Korean churchgoers and historians, and experiencing new cultural opportunities, I can firmly say this expedition greatly influenced my view of Korean Christianity and has left a profound impact on my life.

Jake Strohl 
Trivial as it may seem, this initial immersion was everything to me. It set the tone for the entire trip and pervaded my every thought. I went into every church, every school, and every conversation with the majesty of this country in the very front of my mind. Every word I listened be spoke and every site I stood witness to rang with the memory of this first humbling spectacle.  As evidence of what I learned about the contemporary legacies of nineteenth-century Protestant missionaries in the Korean context and how I learned about it through interaction with local people, I will concentrate on two primary examples: Jeong-dong Church and Saemun’an Church. Whether I am going to pursue a career as a journalist, ambassador, or in domestic politics, I am certain that this research has given me an immeasurable leg up on my younger self. Wherever I am in the world, wherever I end up, I will always be a citizen of the United States but a product and a child of my time in Seoul.

Elizabeth Walton 
Our trip encouraged us to emerge from our comfort zone when we discussed our research with people. For example, we took an Ewha University student out to dinner one night to talk about our trip and our research, and then we bonded together more because of our similar ages. She was easier to talk to and seemed more open to answering more subjective questions that had been avoided in the past by previous interviewees. On the other hand, those who avoided our intense questions also gave us information, whether they knew it or not. It could be they were hiding something unsavory, or they wanted to make it look better than the situation was. A splendid example of this is the young generation not being as religious. In many of the interviews, the idea would come up about young people and religion, but the answer would skirt around the question showing that it could be a touchy subject in the minds of some as to why congregational composition skewed more elderly.