Many academics believe that "modernization in East Asia can be directly linked to the growth of mass transportation in major cities." Jubin Kwon '05 (Lexington, MA) agrees, and will travel to Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Seoul to study different cities and their public transportation to see if transportation does link to modernization.
Kwon was recently awarded an Asian Studies grant through the Freeman Fund. As an Asian Studies scholar, Kwon will be working with Hamilton College Professor Professor Jay Williams and Professor Verena Blechinger-Talcott on his project titled "Mass Transport in East Asia in the Discourse of Westernization and Modernization." Kwon argues that in order to be a "global city," a major public transportation route must be in place.
| Summer Research 2004 |
He hopes that by traveling to East Asia and studying the transit system, including an intensive study of buses, trains, and subways, he will be able to understand how city planners took Western models of transit systems in major metropolitan areas (like New York, Boston, or London) and improved upon them. Kwon believes that "mass-transit systems have evolved from their genesis in European and American cities to something that is more integral and important to East Asian cities than any others in the world."
Kwon plans to film a short documentary film while in the cities about his personal travel experiences. He hopes to use his findings in his Senior Thesis project in the fall of 2004.Kwon is majoring in history.
-- by Emily Lemanczyk '05
