On March 6, at 2:00 p.m., the fifth lecture in the doctoral dissertation lecture series organized by the Modernity and Development Team of the SNU Contemporary Korean Studies (서울대학교 현대한국종합연구단 ‘근대성과 발전사팀’) was held.

This seminar, held under the theme “The Cold War and Development in East Asia: Across Militarism, Science and Technology, and Local Society,” brought together recent doctoral dissertation research from various fields of modern Korean history—including militarism, science and technology, and local society—to present findings and discuss the issues they raise.

The fifth presentation was given by Dr. Jeong, Dahye (정다혜) of the Institute for Women’s History of Medicine at Korea University, under the title “Social Development Discourse and Community Health Programs in Korea, 1960s–1980s (1960-1980년대 한국의 사회개발 논의와 지역사회 보건사업).” By weaving together social development discourse in Korea from the 1960s to the 1980s through the keywords of local community and public health, it sought to examine the underside of development.

In the discussion that followed, held simultaneously in the in-person classroom and online, early-career researchers—including graduate students from the Department of Korean History at Seoul National University—led a lively question-and-answer session. Centered on cases of community health programs, the conversation largely focused on how the various case studies were conducted and on how the government’s social development policies should be evaluated.