Korean Studies

Korean Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of Korea about their new books.

Park Jeong-Mi, "The State's Sexuality: Prostitution and Postcolonial Nation Building in South Korea" (U California Press, 2024)

November 19, 2024

The State's Sexuality

Park Jeong-Mi
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

The State's Sexuality: Prostitution and Postcolonial Nation Building in South Korea (University of California Press, 2024) by Dr. Park Jeong-Mi uncov…

Dennis Wuerthner, "Poems and Stories for Overcoming Idleness: P’ahan chip by Yi Illo" (U Hawaii Press, 2024)

October 28, 2024

Poems and Stories for Overcoming Idleness

Dennis Wuerthner, trans.
Hosted by Leslie Hickman

Dr. Dennis Wuerthner’s Poems and Stories for Overcoming Idleness: P’ahan chip by Yi Illo (U Hawaii Press, 2024) is the first complete English translat…

Satoru Hashimoto, "Afterlives of Letters: The Transnational Origins of Modern Literature in China, Japan, and Korea" (Columbia UP, 2023)

October 11, 2024

Afterlives of Letters

Satoru Hashimoto
Hosted by Li-Ping Chen

When East Asia opened itself to the world in the nineteenth century, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean intellectuals had shared notions of literature bec…

Jinhyun Cho, "English Language Ideologies in Korea: Interpreting the Past and Present" (Springer, 2017)

September 6, 2024

English Language Ideologies in Korea

Jinhyun Cho

Brynn Quick speaks with Dr. Jinhyun Cho, Senior Lecturer in the Translation and Interpreting Program of the Department of Linguistics at Macquarie Uni…

Christopher Lovins, "King Chŏngjo: An Enlightened Despot in Early Modern Korea" (SUNY Press, 2019)

August 27, 2024

King Chŏngjo

Christopher Lovins
Hosted by Mark Klobas

Though traditionally regarded as a monarch who failed to arrest the gradual decline of his kingdom, the Korean king Chŏngjo has benefited in recent de…

Christina Yi et al., "Passing, Posing, Persuasion: Cultural Production and Coloniality in Japan's East Asian Empire" (U Hawaii Press, 2023)

July 27, 2024

Passing, Posing, Persuasion

Christina Yi, Andre Haag, and Catherine Ryu
Hosted by Li-Ping Chen

Passing, Posing, Persuasion: Cultural Production and Coloniality in Japan's East Asian Empire (U Hawaii Press, 2023) interrogates the intersections be…

Ed Pulford, "Past Progress: Time and Politics at the Borders of China, Russia, and Korea" (Stanford UP, 2024)

July 25, 2024

Past Progress

Ed Pulford
Hosted by Yadong Li

Anxiety may have been abounding in the old Cold War West that progress - whether political or economic - has been reversed, but for citizens of former…

Viren Murthy, "Pan-Asianism and the Legacy of the Chinese Revolution" (U Chicago Press,  2023)

July 13, 2024

Pan-Asianism and the Legacy of the Chinese Revolution

Viren Murthy
Hosted by Nicholas Zeller

Recent proposals to revive the ancient Silk Road for the contemporary era and ongoing Western interest in China’s growth and development have led to i…

Youngna Kim, "Korean Art Since 1945: Challenges and Changes" (Brill, 2024)

June 8, 2024

Korean Art Since 1945: Challenges and Changes

Youngna Kim
Hosted by Leslie Hickman

In this beautiful new book, Dr. Youngna Kim draws on her vast understanding of Korean art to provide an overview of the peninsula’s contemporary art s…

Joan E. Cho, "Seeds of Mobilization: The Authoritarian Roots of South Korea's Democracy" (U Michigan Press, 2024)

May 17, 2024

Seeds of Mobilization

Joan E. Cho
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

South Korea is sometimes held as a dream case of modernization theory, a testament to how economic development leads to democracy. Seeds of Mobilisati…

South Korea after the 2024 Parliamentary Elections

May 10, 2024

South Korea after the 2024 Parliamentary Elections

Sabine Burghart

How do election campaigns in South Korea look like? Why have satellite parties become an important instrument of power politics? What do the election …

Andre Schmid, "North Korea's Mundane Revolution: Socialist Living and the Rise of Kim Il Sung, 1953-1965" (U California Press, 2024)

April 30, 2024

North Korea's Mundane Revolution

Andre Schmid

Histories of North Korea typically focus on one man — Kim Il Sung — and one narrative — his grand rise to absolute power. Andre Schmid’s new book, Nor…

SunAh M. Laybourn, "Out of Place: The Lives of Korean Adoptee Immigrants" (NYU Press, 2024)

March 27, 2024

Out of Place

SunAh M. Laybourn
Hosted by Leslie Hickman

Dr. SunAh M. Laybourn’s Out of Place: The Lives of Korean Adoptee Immigrants (NYU Press, 2024) explores the experiences of Korean adoptees, the larges…

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…