An expert on Korean-American international relations and security policy, Mitchell Lerner has been appointed to the Distinguished Speakers Bureau of the Northeast Asia Council (NEAC) of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS). “This is one of the proudest moments of my career,” explains Lerner. “I am honored to have been selected for such an important position.”

An associate professor of history and director of the Institute for Korean Studies at The Ohio State University, Lerner is one of only three speakers in Korean studies appointed for the 2019-2022 term. Lerner is available to speak on three topics: "Understanding North Korea," "The Second Korean War," and "The Korean War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the American Homefront." 

The Distinguished Speakers Bureau supports public presentations by senior scholars in Japanese and Korean studies at American colleges and universities, especially those without well-established programs on East Asia. Colleges and universities may apply to host a member of the speakers bureau, and the invited speaker will then give a public lecture and meet with a class and interact extensively with the host faculty and their students while on campus.

A faculty associate with the Mershon Center for International Security Studies and an associate editor for the Journal of American-East Asian Relations, Lerner is also a senior advisor to the North Korea International Documentation Project at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars. In 2005, he won the Ohio State Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award, the university’s highest teaching honor, and in 2017 he won the Ohio Academy of History Distinguished Teaching Prize.

For further information on applying to host a member of the Distinguished Speakers Bureau, visit the Association for Asian Studies.

This news item was originally posted by the Office of International Affairs.