The Institute of Anglo-American Cultural Studies (Director: Prof. Hyesook Son) newly presents a series of “Healing and Empathy Project” that comforts people in tough times due to COVID-19.

First, it opens a YouTube channel with the theme of “Poem and Therapy” to introduce poems used by American therapists at various healing sites such as schools, hospitals, and libraries, and promote mental and physical recovery and health through healing power of reading.

Director Son said, “Since poetry is an effective language for expressing and curing traumatic experiences such as disasters, deaths, and diseases, many people seek comfort in the city when exposed to shocks and disasters that cannot be handled in every language, such as the September 11 attacks and COVID-19 situations. It is necessary to introduce literature healing, which is currently unprecedentedly active in the U.S., in accordance with our reality.”

Nancy Scherlong, chairman of the International Federation of Biblio/Poetry Therapy, will be participated as a consultant in producing the series of “Poem and Therapy,” that is produced under various topics over 20 weeks. The links below are the first two episodes.

Episode 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BDxl0hfKU4

Episode 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGnt_d90FuA

In addition, the Institute of Anglo-American Cultural Studies produces “Human and Healing in the AI Era” as part 2 of the “Healing and Empathy Project” and presents it through the broadcasting channel of Sungkyunkwan University. “Human and Healing in the AI Era” consists of three parts: 1) crisis and countermeasures of human in the AI Era, 2) come to oneself, 3) present and future of meditation.

The humanities forum, hosted by Director Son, focuses on how to resolve the unprecedented imbalance between humans and technology in the AI Era and hot to restore human healing power in the face of various crises. Jong-Kwan Lee, a professor of Philosophy at SKKU, Seok Park, an Honorary Professor of Sangmyung University, and Hee-Young Ahn, an expert in western meditation programs, will participate in the program and they will have a discussion, Q&A, and song meditation. Please refer to links below.

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsFItgmCDqc

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fQMFCUIAfU

Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QtOHkMILsE