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Vierthaler, Patrick
The HAKUBI Center for Advanced Research Program-Specific Assistant Professor
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Last Updated :2026/04/02
Basic Information
Email Address
Email Address
vierthaler.patrick.7a
kyoto-u.ac.jp
Professional Memberships
- Association for Contemporary Korean Studies in Japan
- The Society of Historical Research
- International Society for Korean Studies
- Research Society for Korean History
Academic Degree
Academic Resume (Graduate Schools)
- Kyoto University, Graduate School of Letters, Contemporary culture doctoral course, Graduated
- Kyoto University, Graduate School of Letters, Contemporary culture M.Litt. course, Graduated
- University of Vienna, Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies, Department of Japanese Studies, Left Early
Academic Resume (Undergraduate School/Majors)
- University of Vienna, Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies, Department of Korean studies, Graduated (B.A.)
- University of Vienna, Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies, Department of Japanese Studies, Graduated (B.A.)
High School
High School
Höhere Technische Bundeslehranstalt Steyr, Austria
Research History
- From Apr. 2024, To PresentKyoto University, The Hakubi Center for Advanced Research / Institute for the Research in Humanities, Assistant Professor
- From Apr. 2021, To PresentKyoto University of Foreign Studies, Faculty of Foreign Studies Department of German Studies, Part-Time Lecturer
- From Aug. 2023, To Sep. 2023The Academy of Korean Studies, Research Fellow
Profile
Profile
Thank you for visiting my Researchmap. I am specializing in Korean contemporary history, with a specific focus on the 1990s and 2000s. In particular, I have been working on the following topics:
- South Korea's "New Right" movement (2020 EJKS article). This topic is the starting point and core of my research. Albeit, due to bad publishing timing, the article tends to get overlooked.
- August 15 in Korean collective memory (2018 VJEAS, 2025 Korea Journal articles). Connected to the New Right, I have traced how this day has become a focal point of dispute between conservatives and progressives.
- Mass media and memory-making in Korea (2022 EJKS, 2024 Korean Studies articles). As a crucial actor to connect politics and academia, I have conducted detailed empirical analysis of newspaper reporting and newspaper conglomerates' role in mnemonic controversies.
Recently, I have also been working on history museums in South Korea (2026 Shirin aritcle), and on mapping South Korea's mnemonic polarization in a global Cold War context (2026 edited volume chapters). I am currently preparing a monograph with Nagoya University Press (in Japanese) to be released in 2027, and further analysis regarding the collaborator discourse and mass media in 1990s-2000s South Korea.
researchmap URL
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Last Updated :2026/04/02
Research
Research Interests
- Contemporary History
- Korean Studies
- Contemporary South Korea
- Global History
- Disputes over Historical Views
- Historical Revisionism
- History Textbooks
- History Museums
- New Right
- Kim Ku
- Cold War
- Historical Memory
- Historical Disputes
- The South Korean New Right
- Cultural Memory
- Media and Memory
- Syngman Rhee
Research Areas
- Humanities & social sciences, Local studies, Korean studies
- Humanities & social sciences, History - Asia/Africa, Korean Contemporary History
- Humanities & social sciences, History - General, Global History
- Humanities & social sciences, History - General, History of the Cold War and the Post-Cold War
- Humanities & social sciences, History of thought, Mnemohistory
Papers
- Between Post-Revisionism and Neo-Orthodoxy: The Origins of the Korean War and ROK State Foundation in South Korean National History MuseumsPatrick VierthalerShirin, Mar. 2026, Peer-reviewed, Invited
- The Dispute on how to Place August 15th in South Korean History: The New Right and HistoriographyPatrick VierthalerMaster's Thesis (Kyoto University, Graduate School of Letters, Department of Contemporary History), 05 Jan. 2018
- Asymmetric Remembering in Post-Authoritarian South Korea The Contested Cultural Memory of Liberation, Division and State Foundation, 1987-2022Patrick VierthalerDoctoral Thesis (Kyoto University Graduate School of Letters, Dept. of Contemporary History), Mar. 2024, Peer-reviewed
- The Life of Francesca Donner-Rhee: A Biographical Sketch of an Austrian who Became South Korea’s First LadyPatrick VierthalerAndreas Schirmer, ed., Central Europeans in Korea: Alice Schalek, Alma Karlin, Fritz Hansgirg, and many others. Vienna: Praesens (Koreans and Central Europeans: Informal Contacts up to 1950; 3), 2020
Misc.
- Disputes over the Memory of Division and Anti-Communist Dictatorship in 1990s South Korea: Focusing on the Changing Memory of ProgressivesPatrick Vierthaler研究報告書 三島海雲記念財団, 2023
- Disputes over the Memory of the Promulgation of the Government and Division in Early 1990s South Korea: Focusing on the Changing Collective Memory of ProgressivesPatrick VierthalerNewsletter of the Research Society for Korean History, 2023
- Conflicting Historical Awareness of How to Evaluate August 15 in South Korea: Focusing on the Emergence of the So-Called "Foundation View" and the 2008 "Foundation Day Dispute"Patrick VierthalerNewsletter of the Research Society for Korean History, 2019
- Korean Bathing Culture: Tracing the Roots and Variations of Public Bathing Culture in KoreaPatrick VierthalerThe Fourth Annual Korea University Graduate Student Conference Proceedings, Apr. 2016
Presentations
- (Rountable Discussion) Confrontation and Cooperation in Japan-Korea Relations, 1868 to the PresentPatrick Vierthaler; Igor Saveliev; AhRan Ellie Bae; Ágota Duró; Robert Winstanley-ChestersThe 2026 ASCJ Conference, Jul. 2026, Invited
- Transitional Justice and Political Polarization in Post-Authoritarian South Korea: The Collaborator Issue and Mass Media Reporting, 1990s–2000sPatrick VierthalerThe ASCJ 2026 Conference, Jul. 2026
- (Presentation) South Korea’s Collaborator Issue and the (Post-) Cold War: A World History PerspectivePatrick VierthalerThe World History Association Conference 2026, Jun. 2026
- (Presentation) "My Desire is Unification": Reflections on the Cultural Memory of Kim Koo in South KoreaPatrick Vierthaler26th ASCJ General Meeting, 25 Oct. 2025
- (Presentation) Post-Revisionism or Neo-Orthodoxy? Division and the Korean War in South Korean National History MuseumsPatrick Vierthaler18th Kyujanggak International Symposium on Korean Studies, 06 Nov. 2025
- (Comment) Keiran Macrae: "Historiography and the Conservative Pursuit of a Post-1987 Political Formula in South Korea"; Benjamin A. Engel: "Justifying the Unjust: South Korea’s Authoritarian Image Management Campaign in the United States under Chun Doo Hwan"Patrick VierthalerThe Asian Studies Conference Japan 2025, 06 Jul. 2025, Invited
- (Presentation) Repositioning South Korea’s Collaborator Issue as a Global Cold War HistoryPatrick Vierthaler2026 American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Jan. 2026
- (Presentation) Right-Wing Historical Memory and Mass Media in Post-Authoritarian South Korea: Where did “Rational Conservativism” Fail, and Why?Patrick VierthalerWorkshop: (Un)Democratic Pasts: Historical Memory in Hyperpolitical Times in East Asia and Beyond, 13 Jun. 2025, Invited
- 【Lecture】History Museums in South Korea: The Cultural Memory of Colonialism, the Korean War, and Anti-CommunismPatrick VierthalerUniversity of Vienna, Department of Korean Studies, 12 Jun. 2025, Invited
- (Panel Presentation and Organizer) The Alternative Founding Father: The Kim Koo Memorial Hall and its Place in Democratic South Korea’s Cultural MemoryPatrick VierthalerThe Asian Studies Conference Japan 2025, 06 Jul. 2025
- (Panel Presentation and Organizer) “My Desire is Unification”: Commemorating Kim Koo in Democratic South KoreaPatrick Vierthaler32nd Association for Korean Studies in Europe (AKSE) Conference, Edinburgh University, 22 Jun. 2025
- (Presentation) How have liberation and division been remembered? A social history of historical memory in post-authoritarian South KoreaVierthaler PatrickKorean Studies Camp 2024, 02 Nov. 2024
- (Presentation) Discourses on Reunification in 2000s–10s South Korea and 1970s–80s West Germany: Parallels, Differences, and Historical LessonsPatrick Vierthaler2025 IKSU Annual International Conference: The Korean Peninsula and Other Divided Nations, 17 Feb. 2025
- Presentation: The cultural memory of August 15 in South Korea: focusing on state-led commemorations and conservative-internal changes from the 1990s to the mid-2000sPatrick Vierthaler104th Humanities and Societz Research Meeting of the ISKSJ, 29 Feb. 2024, Invited
- Fellowship Colloquium: The Contested Memory of Liberation, Division and Foundation South Korea’s “History Wars” in a Mid-Durée, 1988–2022Patrick Vierthaler178th AKS Fellowship Colloquium, 26 Sep. 2023, Invited
- Panel Presentation and Organizer: Transcending the Movement Sphere: Progressive Memories of Liberation, Division and Anti-Communism in the late 1980s and early 1990sPatrick VierthalerAAS in Asia 2023, Kyungpook National University, 26 Jun. 2023
- Panel presentation: Cold War triumphalism, transitional justice and high school textbooks: the Japanese and South Korean right-wing backlash and its influence in the corridors of power since the 1990sPatrick VierthalerThe Korean Peninsula – A Multidisciplinary Perspective, Bar-Ilan University, 22 Jun. 2023
- Disputes over the Memory of the Promulgation of the Government and Division in Early 1990s South Korea: Focusing on the Changing Collective Memory of ProgressivesPatrick VierthalerMonthly Meeting of the Research Society for Korean History, Kansai division, May 2023, 27 May 2023, Invited
- Panel presentation: The Anti-Chosun Movement: Journalism, Activism, Politics, and Historical Memory in Post-Authoritarian South Korea, 1998–2002Patrick VierthalerThe 2022 Asian Studies Conference in Japan, Sophia University, 02 Jul. 2022
- Presentation: Korean Mass Media and the ‘Re-Evaluation’ of Syngman Rhee: Chosun Ilbo and the 1995 ‘Syngman Rhee and State-Building’ ExhibitionPatrick VierthalerThe Asian Conference on Asian Studies 2022, 08 Jun. 2022
- Presentation: From Journalism towards Academia: Conservative Memory Constructs of Syngman Rhee since the late 1990sPatrick VierthalerThe Ninth Annual Korea University Graduate Student Conference, Korea University, 27 May 2022
- Panel presentation: Korean Conservative Historical Consciousness after Democratization: the Post-Cold War Era and the “Re-Discovery ” of Syngman Rhee in the early 1990sPatrick VierthalerCultural Memory of Past Dictatorships: Narratives of Implication in a Global Perspective, University College Cork, 19 May 2022
- Presentation: Ostasiatische Geschichtsdispute in globalem Kontext: Täterschaft, Elitenkontinuität und umstrittenes Kulturelles Gedächtnis als Globalgeschichte des Kalten KriegesPatrick Vierthaler22. Weg Kolloquium, Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, 05 Feb. 2022, Invited
- Presentation: Founding Father or Traitor to the Nation? Disputed Memories of Syngman Rhee mid-1990s South KoreaPatrick VierthalerThe Sixth Korean Studies Workshop, Bar-Ilan University, 05 Dec. 2021
- Presentation: The relationship between mass media and collective memory in historical disputes: the case study of the Chosun Ilbo "re-evaluation" of Syngman RheePatrick Vierthaler2021 Korea Foundation Scholarship Student Workshop, 06 Nov. 2021, Invited
- Presentation: The Anti-Chosun Movement as an Omen of South Korea’s ‘History Wars’, 1998-2004Patrick Vierthaler2021 Early Career Researchers and Graduate Students Conference, Edinburgh University, 03 Sep. 2021
- Presentation: Mass Media as a Contested Space of Historic Memory in Post-Democratization South KoreaPatrick VierthalerThe Eight Annual Korea University Graduate Student Conference, Korea University, 28 May 2021
- Presentation: (Not) Coming to Terms with the Past: Mnemonic Disputes over Contemporary History in Post-Authoritarian South Korea in a Domestic and Global ContextPatrick VierthalerOstasienforum, University of Vienna, 21 Apr. 2021, Invited
- Panel presentation and organizer: Beyond Revisionism: A Reconsideration of Korean Conservative Historical Consciousness in the Mid 2000sPatrick VierthalerAAS in Asia 2020, 31 Aug. 2020
- Presentation: The conflict over the Republic of Korea's origins as a "Cultural trauma": focusing on the co-existence of two memory communities in post-democratization South KoreaPatrick VierthalerThe 25th Gendaishi Kenkyukai, 27 Jul. 2019, Invited
- Presentation: The New Right and the 1948 Foundation View: Historical Revisionism in Contemporary South KoreaPatrick VierthalerEntangled Pasts in the Global Present: Gender, Labor and Citizenship, Heidelberg University, 09 Nov. 2018, Invited
- Presentation: Japanese Wives ‘Returning’ to North Korea: The Expatriation Movement from the Perspectives of Race and GenderPatrick VierthalerEntangled Pasts in the Global Present: Gender and Race, Heidelberg University, 01 Dec. 2017, Invited
- Presentation: Challenging the public memory on ‘August 15’ in South Korea: The New Right and HistoriographyPatrick VierthalerEntangled Pasts in the Global Present: History and Memory, Kyoto University, 01 Dec. 2017, Invited
- Presentation: “‘Establishment of the Government’ or ‘Foundation of the Nation’? The Legacy of Colonialism and the Cold War in South Korean HistoriographyPatrick VierthalerEntangled Pasts in the Global Present: Gender, Labor & Citizenship Project Kick-Off Workshop, Kyoto University, 03 Apr. 2017, Invited
- Austrians in Korea 1945-53: the wife of Syngman Rhee, a journalist, a diplomat, a doctor, and missionariesPatrick Vierthaler28th Meeting of the Kyoto Korean Studies Consortium, 06 Nov. 2015, Invited
Awards
Media Coverage
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Last Updated :2026/04/02
Education
Teaching subject(s)
- From 01 Apr. 2025, To 31 Mar. 2026Contemporary History (Seminars)8448, Fall, Graduate School of Letters, 2
- From 01 Apr. 2025, To 31 Mar. 2026Basic course of Modern Culture & History (Seminars)8655, Spring, Faculty of Letters, 2
- From 01 Apr. 2025, To 31 Mar. 2026Contemporary History (Seminars)8448, Fall, Faculty of Letters, 2
- From 01 Apr. 2025, To 31 Mar. 2026European History (Seminars)6955, Spring, Faculty of Letters, 2
