HAN Wan-sang'60, a former SNU professor of sociology and deputy prime minister, will receive the Sheth International Alumni Award, the most prestigious international awards in Emory University on Nov. 16.

Emory University said that Han receives the honors for fighting for human rights and reunification on the Korean Peninsula. It also said that Han has built Emory's profile through public service and humanitarian work in his home country.

Han completed his undergraduate program and master's degree at SNU and earned his PhD at Emory. After a stint teaching at Emory and Georgia State University, Dr. Han went home to Korea to teach. His academic efforts were interspersed with activist work that landed him briefly in prison in 1980. The next year, he became a visiting professor at Emory, staying until 1987, when he returned once again to Korea to take up a long list of leadership roles.

In the early 1990s, Dr. Han headed the Korean Sociological Association and served as deputy prime minister of the National Reunification Board. He has also been president of three universities and in 2004 became head of the Korea National Red Cross, where he served until his 2007 retirement. Since then, he has written two books on Christianity and megachurches in Korea and is working on another one on peace, democracy and national unity. 

Han will speaking at a Nov. 13 event hosted by the Clause M. Halle Institute for Global Learning at Emory, with the topic of “A Peace-Making Pilgrimage in Divided Korea.”

Nov. 3, 2009
SNU PR Office