Korean Studies

Korean Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of Korea about their new books.

David Savran, "Tell It to the World: The Broadway Musical Abroad" (Oxford UP, 2024)

March 11, 2024

Tell It to the World

David Savran
Hosted by Pete Kunze

Tell It to the World: The Broadway Musical Abroad (Oxford UP, 2024) offers a look at how the Broadway musical travels the world, influencing and even …

Sandra Fahy, "Dying for Rights: Putting North Korea’s Human Rights Abuses on the Record" (Columbia UP, 2019)

February 24, 2024

Dying for Rights

Sandra Fahy
Hosted by Sarah Patterson

“The things that are happening to North Korea are happening to all of us…they are part of the human community. To say that this is just a problem for …

Andrew David Jackson, "The Late and Post-Dictatorship Cinephilia Boom and Art Houses in South Korea" (Edinburgh UP, 2023)

January 30, 2024

The Late and Post-Dictatorship Cinephilia Boom and Art Houses in South Korea

Andrew David Jackson
Hosted by Leslie Hickman

Dr. Andy Jackson’s The Late and Post-Dictatorship Cinephilia Boom and Art Houses in South Korea (Edinburgh University Press, 2024) examines an unexplo…

Hwisang Cho, "The Power of the Brush: Epistolary Practices in Chosŏn Korea" (U Washington Press, 2020)

January 20, 2024

The Power of the Brush

Hwisang Cho

Why did the letter-writing culture of Korea diversify in the sixteenth century? How did this “epistolary revolution” change textual norms, modes of kn…

Alyssa M. Park, “Sovereignty Experiments: Korean Migrants and the Building of Borders in Northeast Asia, 1860-1945" (Cornell UP, 2019)

December 27, 2023

Sovereignty Experiments

Alyssa M. Park
Hosted by Ed Pulford

Even in states where borders and sovereignty are supposedly well established, large movements of transnational migrants are seen to present problems, …

Nobuko Ishitate-Okunomiya Yamasaki, "Prostitutes, Hostesses, and Actresses at the Edge of the Japanese Empire" (Routledge, 2023)

December 25, 2023

Prostitutes, Hostesses, and Actresses at the Edge of the Japanese Empire

Nobuko Ishitate-Okunomiya Yamasaki
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Analysing materials from literature and film, this book considers the fates of women who did not or could not buy into the Japanese imperial ideology …

Elise Hu, "Flawless: Lessons in Looks and Culture from the K-Beauty Capital" (Dutton, 2023)

December 21, 2023

Flawless

Elise Hu
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

In August, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to Twitter to complain about how U.S. regulations are holding local sunscreens back compared t…

June Hee Kwon, "Borderland Dreams: The Transnational Lives of Korean Chinese Workers" (Duke UP, 2023)

December 18, 2023

Borderland Dreams

June Hee Kwon
Hosted by Yadong Li

Migration is a theme intertwined with hopes and dreams. In Borderland Dreams: The Transnational Lives of Korean Chinese Workers (Duke UP, 2023), June …

Stephanie K. Kim, "Constructing Student Mobility: How Universities Recruit Students and Shape Pathways between Berkeley and Seoul" (MIT Press, 2023)

November 12, 2023

Constructing Student Mobility

Stephanie K. Kim
Hosted by Leslie Hickman

Constructing Student Mobility: How Universities Recruit Students and Shape Pathways between Berkeley and Seoul (MIT Press, 2023) challenges the popul…

Shellen Xiao Wu, "Birth of the Geopolitical Age: Global Frontiers and the Making of Modern China" (Stanford UP, 2023)

October 20, 2023

Birth of the Geopolitical Age

Shellen Xiao Wu
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

From the 1850s until the mid-twentieth century, a period marked by global conflicts and anxiety about dwindling resources and closing opportunities af…

Hannah Michell, "Excavations: A Novel" (One World, 2023)

October 12, 2023

Excavations

Hannah Michell
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
Listen:

Sae, former journalist turned a young mother of two in 1992 Seoul, is waiting for her husband, an engineer for a small construction company. He’s late…

Joo Ok Kim, "Warring Genealogies: Race, Kinship, and the Korean War" (Temple UP, 2022)

October 4, 2023

Warring Genealogies

Joo Ok Kim
Hosted by Ann Choi
Listen:

“[W]hat is our relationship to the Korean War and to the affinities” of different institutions that produce knowledge about the Korean War? (130) In h…

Hieyoon Kim, "Celluloid Democracy: Cinema and Politics in Cold War South Korea" (U California Press, 2023)

September 27, 2023

Celluloid Democracy

Hieyoon Kim
Hosted by Anthony Kao
Listen:

Before South Korea became the democracy and media powerhouse that it is today, it underwent several decades of authoritarian rule during the Cold War …

Suzy Kim, "Among Women Across Worlds: North Korea in the Global Cold War" (Cornell UP, 2023)

September 4, 2023

Among Women Across Worlds

Suzy Kim

In Among Women across Worlds: North Korea in the Global Cold War (Cornell University Press, 2023), Suzy Kim follows Korean women’s engagement in a bro…

Chuyun Oh, "K-pop Dance: Fandoming Yourself on Social Media" (Routledge, 2022)

August 28, 2023

K-pop Dance

Chuyun Oh
Hosted by Leslie Hickman
Listen:

K-pop Dance: Fandoming Yourself on Social Media (Routledge, 2022) is about K-pop dance and the evolution and presence of its dance fandom on social me…

Don J. Wyatt, "Slavery in East Asia" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

August 17, 2023

Slavery in East Asia

Don J. Wyatt
Hosted by Dong Wang
Listen:

Today I talked to Don J. Wyatt about his book Slavery in East Asia (Cambridge UP, 2022). In premodern China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, just as in th…

Olga Fedorenko, "Flower of Capitalism: South Korean Advertising at a Crossroads" (U Hawaii Press, 2022)

August 5, 2023

Flower of Capitalism

Olga Fedorenko
Hosted by Leslie Hickman

An ethnography of advertising in postmillennial South Korea, Flower of Capitalism: South Korean Advertising at a Crossroads (U Hawaii Press, 2022) det…

Miya Qiong Xie, "Territorializing Manchuria: The Transnational Frontier and Literatures of East Asia" (Harvard UP, 2023)

July 28, 2023

Territorializing Manchuria

Miya Qiong Xie
Hosted by Linshan Jiang
Listen:

Xiao Hong, Yom Sang-sop, Abe Kobo, and Zhong Lihe—these iconic literary figures from China, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan all described Manchuria extensive…

Michael J. Seth, "Korea at War: Conflicts That Shaped the World" (Tuttle Publishing, 2023)

July 27, 2023

Korea at War: Conflicts That Shaped the World

Michael J. Seth
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
Listen:

The Korean War “ended” exactly fifty years ago at Panmunjom. On July 27, 1953, United States and United Nations commanders on one side, and the North …

Sheila Miyoshi Jager, "The Other Great Game: The Opening of Korea and the Birth of Modern East Asia" (Harvard UP, 2023)

July 23, 2023

The Other Great Game

Sheila Miyoshi Jager
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Dr. Sheila Miyoshi Jager presents dramatic new telling of the dawn of modern East Asia, placing Korea at the center of a transformed world order wrou…