Professor Song Ki-sook, honorary professor of CNU, was selected as the 12th winner of the Hugwang Scholarly Award, which was established to commemorate the spirit of former President Kim Dae-jung.

The award committee (Director: Professor Im Seong-mo, Yonsei University) selected Emeritus Professor Song as the winner of the award and held a ceremony of the 12th Hugwang Scholarly Award during the ceremony of CNU’s 67th anniversary on June 5.

To commemorate the accomplishment of Emeritus Professor Song, CNU held a special lecture entitled “Life and Literature of Song Ki-sook” by Professor Im Hwan-mo (Department of Korean Language and Literature) in the Kim Nam-ju Memorial Hall at 2pm June 5. 

The award committee announced that Emeritus Professor Song was recognized for his exemplary deeds as an intellectual who actively participated in the reality of Korean society with his life and novels as medium for criticism on contradicting reality.

Emeritus Professor Song had been a professor of the Department of Korean Language and Literature for over 30 years from 1973 to 2000. In 1978, Professor Song, together with 10 CNU Professors, announced "Our Principles of Education," which criticized the National Education Charter, which resulted in him being arrested and imprisoned for a year in contravention of Emergency Measures before he was dismissed from the college. During the May 18 Democratization Movement in 1980, he served for the student council and was sentenced to 10 months for the alleged offense of going against the safety of the state.

After coming back to CNU, Song published the Collective Works of Historical Record of the May 18 Gwangju Democritization Movement in 1978 and established the National Council of Teachers for Democratization in the same year. He also served as the President of the Writers Association of Korea in 1994 and was the founding member and the first director of the May 18 Institute at CNU in 1996.

In his 40 years of writing since his debut, he has embodied the structural contradiction of society through his works with historical context. His novels articulate the fact that people are the subject of the nation and establish them as the subject of history. His novels such as Amtaedo and Nokdujangkun are prime examples of this principle.

The Hugwang Scholarly Award was founded to commemorate the late former President Kim Dae-jung, who extensively contributed to enhancing democracy, human rights, and peace in the Korean peninsula. It has conferred awards for 12 years on researchers or research institutes in recognition of their contribution to realizing the spirit of Kim.