About Me

I was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea until I started my doctoral studies in the US in 2008. I received B.A. degree in English Literature from Sogang University in 2005 (Summa Cum Laude). I received M.A. degree in Visual Communication from the Graduate School of Communication & Arts in Yonsei University in 2007 and Ph.D. in Media Studies in the Department of Radio-Television-Film at The University of Texas at Austin in 2013.

 

Since 2013 I have been teaching at the University of Washington Tacoma. Currently, I am an Associate Professor of Communication and an affiliated faculty in the Global Honors program. At UWT, I have taught courses on media globalization, global TV, transnational media, and Asian media and culture. I also taught a graduate seminar course on the Inter-Asian Cultural Studies at Yonsei University (Fall 2019) as a visiting scholar. 

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I define myself as a global media studies scholar with an emphasis on the globalization of television and on racial(ized) imagination in contemporary East Asian media and culture. My primary research topic focuses on racial reconfiguration in East Asia as influenced by the massive flow of global migration today and the spectacularization of racial bodies on the screen in contemporary South Korean television. Considering race as a fundamental principle shaping global social order, my aim is to theoretically understand the complex nature of current racial globalization coupled with the transnational circulation of media and cultural texts in East Asia. Specifically, I have three active research agendas: 1) race and nation in South Korean media, 2) anti-Korean sentiment in postcolonial East Asia, and 3) transnational K-culture. 

 

Beyond research, I am passionate about building a globally-engaged learning environment and fostering a scholarly community of Asian Studies in North America. As an affiliated faculty in the Global Honors, a campus-wide interdisciplinary honors program at UWT, and a member of the Honors Executive Committee of the Institute for Innovation & Global Engagement, I am dedicated to nurturing a global learning experience by offering a course on global imaginations and building a globally focused curriculum at UWT. Further, I had previously served as one of the distinguished speakers of Korean Studies for the Distinguished Speakers Bureau program offered by the Association for Asian Studies.  As a speaker, I visited the schools with small or no Asian Studies programs in the spirit of generating excitement for East Asian Studies among students and delivered a  public lecture  on the topics of Korean media and East Asian media culture.