The Korea Society hosts annually the Sherman Family Emerging Scholar Lecture Series, which encourages new American thought leadership on Korea. The inaugural awardee in 2017 was Dr. Katrin Katz, who completed a dissertation at Northwestern University and spoke on Korean nationalism and maritime issues.

The 2018 recipient is Dongsei Kim, Assistant Professor at the School of Architecture and Design at the New York Institute of Technology. He holds a Master in Design Studies with Distinction from Harvard's Graduate School of Design and a Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design from Columbia University, and a professional Bachelor of Architecture with honors from Victoria University in Wellington.

Professor Kim's ongoing research examines how spatial practices construct plural understandings of the divided Korean Peninsula. His research offers an alternative way of thinking about nation state borders through spatial practices. Professor Kim speaks at the Korea Society in September 2018 on Imagining the Impossible: The DMZ as a Productive Territory. His lecture explores how the discipline of architecture and landscape architecture investigates the demilitarized zone, like most borders often portrayed as an exclusionary zone, a tensional space. He suggests that architecture and landscape architecture (spatial design) radically reformulate and transform regressive exclusionary border conditions into inclusive spaces that become synergistic and productive for all involved parties--especially relevant to recent improvements in inter-Korean relations.

The Korea Society opens competition from mid-December to mid-March, with a single awardee addressing the Society prior to its annual gala. Emerging scholars hail from academe, think tanks, research or analysis and from across disciplines. Applicants must be US-based. The award provides travel, hotel, and a $2500 lecture honorarium. The award is named for the Sherman family and Philip Sherman, who served as Citi representative in Korea in the 1970s.

The featured lecture streams live and is available on audio podcast and video.