A Ram Park

Ever since I began studying as an international student in the UK, my field of study has been concretised in art, photography, and art history. At Goldsmiths College, I took a BA in Fine Art (Studio Practice and Contemporary Critical Studies, 2008). I was devoted to making installation works and participated in the collaborative group exhibitions both at London and South Korea. However, to pursue disciplined academic cultivation in Asian art history, I took two MA degrees at Seoul National University (2014) and SOAS (2018). The additional religious education that I received from Korean Buddhist monks further centralised my academic foundation in researching the topics on East Asian Buddhist art.

Before embarking on a PhD course, I worked as an intern in the Department of Fine Art at the National Museum of Korea (2014). The internship provided the essential opportunities in cultivating the project management skills such as participating in exhibition plans and archiving the annual reports on museum collections. My primary task was assigned in organising the collected data on the Buddhist Art Research Series - Buddhist Sculpture in the National Museum of Korea - which announced the decades of studies accumulated in Korean wooden Buddhist statues, and their scientific conservation process. Other work involved in assisting the special exhibition on the East Asian landscapes paintings entitled, Landscapes: Seeking the Ideal Land.

My decision to pursue a PhD course at SOAS is to widen the knowledge of Korean Buddhist art, following East Asian religious culture. The focus of my academic interest is keenly related with an interdisciplinary approach which bridges East Asian Buddhist art with gender issue and social communities. To reach out towards this new research horizon, the intensive training of SOAS offered (and is still providing) pivotal assistance in developing my studies on Buddhist visual culture. I firmly believe that, soon, it will become my scholarly duty to disseminate the invaluable cultural assets of Korean Buddhism, thus making it more easily understandable to the contemporary audience, regardless of their age and social occupation. Consequently, the vital experience at SOAS will contribute immensely to my academic route in Korean studies, where this ultimate reward will be manifested in my career plan as a museum curator in Korean Buddhist Art.

My research interests encompasses art, religion, pre-modern history, and literary studies.