Dr. Donald N. Clark, the Murchison Professor of History and co-directer of East Asian Studies at Trinity University in San Antonio, will speak on “Art and Politics in North Korea,” at 2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 18, at the Arkansas Studies Institute at 401 President Clinton Ave.

The event is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by UALR’s Mabel W. Formica and Santo D. Formica History Endowment Speaker Series.

Clark, who earned a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1978, will discuss North Korea and its people as a functioning system with its own story.

The talk will examine the use of propaganda, national symbols, and art and architecture to find explanations for how the North Korean system manages to endure despite setbacks as it begins a new era under the young leader Kim Jong-un.

For more information, contact Dr. Jeff Kyong-McClain, assistant professor of history, at 501.569.8393.

Clark grew up in Seoul the son of Presbyterian missionaries and served in Korea with the Peace Corps. He is the author or editor of numerous articles and books on Korean history, including “Christianity in Modern Korea,” “Discovering Seoul: An Historical Guide,” “The Kwangju Uprising: Shadows over the Regime in South Korea,” “Culture and Customs of Korea,”  “Living Dangerously in Korea: The Western Experience,” and his latest, “Korean in World History,” published this year.

He has traveled extensively in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) as part of a monitoring team for a nonprofit organization operating tuberculosis hospitals in the country.