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Gwangju Now and Then An Interview with Robert Grotjohn
FEATURE
Interviewed by by Melline Galani
Dr. Shin and Dr. Grotjohn (right) saying their last goodbyes in front of the Gwangju International Center.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
May 2020
Robert Grotjohn has spent a considerable number of years living in Gwangju in two different decades – separated by a gap of twenty-five years! These disconnected experiences of Gwangju make Dr. Grotjohn a perfect person to ask to compare life in the Gwangju of the past with that of present-day Gwangju. Much of the following is devoted to this. Dr. Grotjohn’s involvement with the Gwangju International Center (GIC) has been considerable, including a period as editor-in-chief of the Gwangju News as a member of the board of directors of the GIC. — Ed. Gwangju News (GN): Let us begin with a selfintroduction. Could you tell us a little bit about yourself? Dr. Robert Grotjohn: I grew up in the small town of Brainerd, Minnesota. I attended university at the University of Minnesota, Morris, where I majored in English. I first came to Korea in 1981 to teach English conversation and composition to the sophomore English majors at Chonnam National University. While
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I was here, I was married and we had a son, born at the University Hospital and baptized at the missionary compound chapel across the street from Gwangju Christian Hospital. In June of 1984, I returned to the U.S. to study for my MA and PhD at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where I specialized in American poetry. While studying, my wife and I were blessed with a baby girl, an event that completed our little family of four. After a three-year position as a visiting assistant
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