As our HK Civilization Research Project in the Institute of Humanities embarks its fifth year, we have successfully accomplished the first phase of our project and entered the second one. With the continuous support of the National Research Foundation of Korea and Seoul National University and the strenuous efforts of the research faculty of the project, we have firmly established its foundation for the civilization studies and the future vision. The faculty members have collaborated inter- and transdisciplinarily encompassing not only the fields of humanities such as literature, linguistics, history, philosophy but also other fields like anthropology, geography, architecture, medicine. They have investigated and observed the origins and natures of civilization, found the historical context to assess the present, and used these studies as a foundation for a better future.

  We have done various academic activities to promote collaborative researched: monthly events such as Civilization Text colloquiums and Civilization Research Lctures, irregular events such as Civilization Research Symposiums and Workshops, and international events such as Invited Lectures of Distinguished Scholar. As a result, the HK Project drew a list comprised of texts essential to the civilization of the East and West and our members have produced translated and annotated books. Through the publications we have opened a door to the new direction of the academic consilience across various themes. In order to overcome the well-known concept that the studies in humanities are mainly carried out by a single scholar, the HK Project has been promoting collaborative researches among scholars who are from both inside and outside the HK Project. Furthermore, the annotation research and collaborative activities are a part of our project, namely "social outreach activity" which contributes to the proliferation of humanistic knowledge in Korean society.