Research

 

Works in progress

Northern Exposure: Cultural Engagement as Public Diplomacy by the ‘Theatre State’ of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” (with Peter Moody)

“Translating Double Trouble: Familial and National Crisis in Twenty-first Century North Korean Films” (with Makayla Cherry)

“Adaptation as Arson: ‘Barn Burning’ from William Faulkner to Murakami Haruki to Lee Chang-dong”

“The Skies of Seoul, the Moon of Seoul: Critique of Urbanity in South Korea’s American Roots Music”

“Three-eight Minnows (samp’al ttaraji): Literary and Cinematic Portrayals of Early North Korean Refugee Space”

“Power of Refrain: The Lasting Impact of Koryŏ Kayo on Modern Korean Popular Music”

“A Thousand Visages: Faciality of South Korea’s Elderly in the Chongno Area”

“The Welfare-Aid Nexus: A Comparative Analysis of the OECD/DAC Donor Countries’ Social Spending and Foreign Aid”

“The Origins of the Warfare-Welfare State in East Asia: Imperial Japan’s Social and Colonial Policy”

 

Selected invited talks and conference presentations (since 2010)

“K-pop: A Century in the Making,” Center for the Study of Asia, Boston University, October 25, 2023.

“Ferroconcrete Dreams and Their Desolate Beauty: From Cho Sehŭi’s Ecocriticism to Lee Young June’s Machine-criticism,” Science, Crime, and Detection in Popular Narratives and Media, Institute for Korean Studies, Penn State University, March 31, 2023.

“K-pop in a Midwestern U.S. College Community: Critical Reception and Engagement,” BK21 Overseas Scholar Special Lecture, Department of Korean Language and Literature, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, January 9, 2023.

“K-pop as Global Youth Culture: Promises and Pitfalls,” The 2022-23 K-12 Global Fellowship Program: Global Youth Culture and Subcultures, The Area Studies Centers at the Ohio State University, January 7, 2023.

“American Forces, Korean Network: The Enduring American Cultural Influence on Korean Popular Music,” The Annual Symposium When East Meets West, Columbus State Community College, September 30, 2022.

“Place Maketh Man: Gangnam as the Locus of Social Evil,” Institute for Korean Studies, Pennsylvania State University, April 6, 2022.

“The Skies of Seoul, the Moon of Seoul: Critique of Urbanity in South Korea’s American Roots Music,” MLA Annual Convention, Washington DC, January 7, 2022.

“A Thousand Visages: Faciality of South Korea’s Elderly in the Chongno Area”, Korean Studies Workshop Alone in Seoul: Urban Precarity and New Ways of Belonging in the City, Department of East Asian Studies, Brown University, November 13, 2021.

“The Social Movement-Popular Music Connection between South Korea and the US: From Civil Rights Protest Songs to K-Pop and Black Lives Matter”, The Kim-Renaud East Asian Humanities Lecture Series, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, George Washington University, April 16, 2021.

“Gangnam: The Global/Polarization of South Korea’s Dreamland”, Korean Studies University Seminar, Center for Korean Research, Columbia University, April 8, 2021.

“Translating Double Trouble: Familial and National Crisis in Twenty-first Century North Korean Films”, Translation and Propaganda in North Korea, Korean Office of Research and Education, York University, Toronto, Canada, January 25, 2021.

“Industrial Hip Hop against Hip Hop Industry: The Critical Noise of XXX”, Lectures in Musicology, School of Music, Ohio State University, November 9, 2020.

“Popular Music and Social Activism Between South Korea and the US: From Civil Rights Protest Songs to K-Pop and Black Lives Matter” (with Wonseok Lee, Logan Ward, and Makayla Cherry), East Asian Studies Center, Ohio State University, October 14, 2020.

“The Role of K-Pop in Unifying Asian Youth: Promises and Pitfalls”, Guest Lecture for Asian Community: From Conflicts to Reconciliation (Professor Pyong Gap Min) at Queens College, City University of New York, November 26, 2019.

“Three-eight Minnows (samp’al ttaraji): Portrayals of Early North Korean Refugee Space” at Perspectives on Contemporary Korea Conference, Three||Eight: Korean Literature and the Division System, Nam Center for Korean Studies, University of Michigan, November 23, 2019.

“Gangnam, the Dreamland of South Korea’s Global/polarization in Literary and Audiovisual Narratives” at the Colloquium of the James Joo-Jin Kim Program in Korean Studies, University of Pennsylvania, November 14, 2019.

“Manhwa: An Introduction to Korean Cartoon/Comics”, K-12 National Consortium for Teaching about Asia Seminar, East Asian Studies Center, Ohio State University, June 13, 2019.

“A Thousand Visages: Human Faciality in the Aging Society of twenty-first century South Korea” at the Annual Meeting of Association for Asian Studies (AAS), Denver, CO, March 2019.

“Gangnam, the Dreamland of South Korea’s Global/polarization in Popular Music and Literature” at the Institute for Korean Studies Colloquium, Indiana University at Bloomington, January 18, 2019.

“Gangnam, the Dreamland of South Korea’s Global/polarization in the Twenty-first Century” at Korean Literature Association Annual Workshop, University of Minnesota, October 2018.

“Power of Refrain: The Lasting Impact of Koryŏ Kayo on Modern Korean Popular Music” at the Modern Language Association Annual Convention, New York, January 2018.

“In the Liberation Village: The Cinematic Landscape of Early North Korean Refugees”at the AAS Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada, March 2017.

“Rip-Current Gentrification in Seoul: Garosu-gil and Sai-gil as Epiphenomena of the Gangnam Development” at the AAS Annual Meeting, Seattle WA, April 2016.

“South Korea’s Cultural Globalization: The Rise of the Korean Wave and K-Pop,” Asian Studies Program, Spelman College, March 16, 2016.

“Boomtown Songs on the South of the River: the Origins of the “Gangnam Style” Popular Music in South Korea” at the Annual Meeting of American Anthropological Association, Washington DC, December 2014.

“Development and Human Security in North and South Korea,” Lewis & Clark College, April 29, 2014.

“Guns over Rice: The Impact of US Military Aid on South Korean Reconstruction” at the AAS Annual Meeting, Philadephia, PA, March 2014.

“The Political Economy of South Korean Development Cooperation: Does Domestic Welfare Reform Spill into Development Assistance Overseas?” Global Affairs Program, George Mason University, February 19, 2014.

“South Korea’s Post-War Reconstruction as a Case for Human Security and Development: A Universal Success Story or a Distinct Anomaly?” at the 54th Annual Convention of International Studies Association, San Francisco, CA, April 2013.

“The Welfare-Aid Nexus: Korea’s Next Phase of Development?” Department of Sociology, Harvard University, November 29, 2012.

“From Development to Development Cooperation: Foreign Aid, Country Ownership, and the Developmental State in South Korea” at the Annual Meeting of American Sociological Association, Denver, CO, August 2012.

“The East Asian Welfare State Formation: Japan and South Korea,” Department of Sociology, Ewha Womans University, May 26, 2011.

“Imperial Japan’s Social and Colonial Policy,” Institute for East Asian Studies, SungKongHoe University, April 26, 2010.

“The Song of the Multitude: Diversity of Styles in the Post-war Korean Protest Music” at the AAS Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, March 2010.