James Bernard Palais

James Bernard Palais (; 1934–2006) was an American historian, Koreanist, and writer. He served as Professor of Korean History at the University of Washington; and he was a key figure in establishing Korean studies in the United States.

Early years Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, Palais graduated from Harvard University in 1955 with a bachelor's degree in American history. He learned Korean in the army at the Monterey Language Institute; and this sparked an interest in East Asia.

Following his discharge from the army, he earned an MA in Japanese History from Yale in 1960.

Palais studied at the Kyujanggak from 1963 to 1965. His Ph.D. was conferred at Harvard in 1968 with a dissertation on the reform policies of Heungseon Daewongun in the late 1800s. His dissertation was published under the title Politics and Policies in Traditional Korea by Harvard University Press in 1975.

Career Palais taught at Norfolk State University and the University of Maine before being recruited to help build up what was then known as the Far Eastern and Russian Institute at the University of Washington.

Palais was recognized with the Yongjae Paek Nakchun Award from Korea's Yonsei University in 1995, and by The Association for Asian studies with a lifetime achievement award in Asian Studies in 2001. Palais was Dean for International Studies at Sungkyunkwan University in Korea for three years.

Palais continued his activity at the University of Washington with editing, writing, and part-time teaching in the Korea Studies Program until hospitalized with his final illness in the spring of 2005.

Politics and Policy in Traditional Korea (1975) Korea on the Eve of the Kangwa Treaty, 1873-1876 (1989) Confucian statecraft and Korean Institutions: Yu Hyŏngwŏn and the late Chosŏn Dynasty (1995) Palais, James B.. 1995. “A Search for Korean Uniqueness”. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 55 (2). Harvard-Yenching Institute: 409–25. doi:10.2307/2719348. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2719348. Views on Korean Social History (1998)

Honors Yonsei University, Yongjae Paek Nakchun Award, 1995. Association for Asian Studies (AAS), John Whitney Hall Book Prize, 1998. AAS Lifetime Achievement Award, 2001.

The James B. Palais Professorship of Korean History at the University of Washington has been established in his honor.