Dr. Florian Pölking studied Korean Studies and Sinology at the Faculty of East Asian Studies at the Ruhr University Bochum and successfully completed his doctorate in Korean Studies in June 2016. Using the example of construction knowledge, his thesis deals with the significance of craftsmanship expertise and its bearers within the political and social system of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Since then, he has extended the focus of his work to contemporary South Korea. Through interdisciplinary bridging topics such as memory, remembrance or identity, Dr Pölking combines his historical perspective with the contemporary perspective and works on political, social and cultural aspects of modern Korea.

Between April 2022 and March 2024, Dr Pölking worked as a guest lecturer and substitute professor at the Institute for Korean Studies at the FU Berlin in research and teaching.

Since 2024, he has been working for the sections International Political Economy and East Asian Politics. His current research interests lie in South Korea's foreign policy and international relations as well as in the areas of collective memory and national identity. As part of a DFG-funded project, he is working on the current socio-political and foreign policy aspects of the Cheju Massacre of 3 April 1948.
 

• Political, societal and cultural aspects of modern Korea from a historical and a contemporary perspective
• South Korea's foreign policy and international relations
• Areas of collective memory and national identity

• 07/2019: Narrative and argumentative patterns in the political language of North and South Korea of
• the 1960s. A comparison, Bochum: AREA Ruhr Workshop „System Competition in East Asia“
• 05/2019: Yŏ Unhyŏng and the liberation of women, Bochum: AKS CUP Project „Transcoding as Cultural and Social Practice“ Konferenz: „Korean Intellectuals in-Between: Configuring Knowledge in Periods of Transition“
• 05/2019: Panelorganisation und –leitung: New Perspectives on the Aftermath of the Imjin waeran, Panel Mitglieder: Morgaine Setzer (RUB), Masato Hasegawa (MPIWG Berlin), Nam-lin Hur (UBC, Canada), Felix Siegmund (RUB), Rom: AKSE Biennial Conference
• 11/2018: Panelorganisation und –leitung: Kontroverse Bilder. Aufnahme Gesellschaftlicher (Nicht)Diskurse in filmischen Medien Koreas; gemeinsames Panel von MA-Studierenden, Frankfurt am Main: 8. Tagung der Vereinigung für Koreaforschung e.V. im deutschsprachigen Raum
• 05/2018: When Remembrance was Ritual: What Sadoseja Has to Do with the Empire of Korea, Berlin: AKS CUP Project „Transcoding as Cultural and Social Practice“ Konferenz: „The Political in the Institutionalization and Ritualization of Public Remembrance“
• 12/2017: "Was wir von den Nordbarbaren lernen können: Von Sirhak bis Ǔigwe in der Späten Chosǒnzeit" AAI Universität Hamburg, EPEL Gastseminar
• 11/2017: "Die Bedeutung des Genres Ǔigwe für die Späte Chosǒnzeit und die Koreanistische Forschung" AAI Universität Hamburg, Vortragsreihe der Koreanistik
• 10/2017: "Technical Knowledge in the late Chosŏn Dynasty" Universität Kopenhagen, EPEL Gastseminar
• 06/2017: "What can we learn from Ŭigwe about late Chosŏn dynasty state-run construction projects" Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Korean Studies Lecture Series
• 06/2017: "Bauprojekte und Bauwissen in der Späten Chosŏn-Zeit. Darstellung anhand des Genres der Ŭigwe" Goethe Universität Frankfurt, EPEL Gastseminar
• 04/2017: "Appropriation of Western and Chinese Knowledge on Architecture through the Genre of Ŭigwe in the late Chosŏn Dynasty" Charles University Prague, AKSE Biennial Conference
• 11/2016: “Der duale Charakter von Ŭigwe und Ihre Bedeutung für die Historische Koreaforschung” [The Duality of Ŭigwe and their Relevance for the Study of Korean History]. Bonn University, Koreaforschungstage
• 08/2014: “Korean Community in Germany: Spotlights on the History of Korean Miners and Nurses in the Ruhr Region.” Institute of Korean Studies, Yonsei University Seoul (South Korea)
• 05/2014: "Koreanische Gesellschaft in Deutschland. Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft koreanischer ehemaliger Bergarbeiter und Krankenschwestern im Ruhrgebiet". Evangelische Stadtakademie Bochum
• 03/2014: "The circulation of knowledge and the dynamics of transformation" Titel: "Technical knowledge among high officials in the late Chosŏn dynasty – the importance of ŭigwe as a primary source". Freie Universität Berlin, AKS OLUPKS Abschlusskonferenz
• 12/2013: "Ŭigwe als Quelle für die Koreaforschung". Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Messe "Chancen Ostasien"
• 11/2012: "Der Konfuzianismus als alleinige Weltreligion - Confucianism as exclusive world religion". Freie Universität Berlin, Koreaforschungstage
• 12/2011: "Zur Idee einer Konfuziusreligion im kolonialzeitlichen Korea". Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Wissenschaftliches Mittagsforum
• 11/2011: "Eine Untersuchung der Idee der Konfuziusreligion im Korea der frühen Kolonialzeit anhand des Yugyo pogwŏllon". Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Koreaforschungstage

• Lecture on the general history of Korea
• Lecture on the politics, economy and society of Korea since 1945
• Seminars on the following topics: international relations and foreign policy, security aspects, politics and culture of remembrance, civil society

Dr. Pölking accepts bachelor's and master's theses on Korea-related topics by arrangement