Center for Korean Studies

Center for Korean Studies Established in 1972, the Center for Korean Studies coordinates and develops resources for the study of Korea at the University of Hawai`i.

The Center seeks to promote interdisciplinary and intercultural approaches to Korean studies by drawing on its faculty members in disciplines as diverse as communication, economics, ethnomusicology, education, geography, history, language, linguistics, literature, political science, sociology, law, and urban and regional planning. With one of the largest concentration of Korea scholars and resourc

es outside of Korea itself, the Center strives to be the premier institution for the study of Korea in the United States. The Center conducts scholarly conferences; sponsors research projects; presents colloquia, seminars, and lectures; publishes significant research on Korea; and contributes to the enhancement of the University's library system and other University research facilities.

We are delighted to announce the publication of Korean Studies: Global Research & Critique, 2026, Volume 50, Number 1.Th...
04/14/2026

We are delighted to announce the publication of Korean Studies: Global Research & Critique, 2026, Volume 50, Number 1.

This publication is a momentous occasion as the journal passes the 50th volume milestone. We are the oldest continuously published journal in the field outside the Korean peninsula. We've been at it since Summer 1977!

We made some changes. We have a new name: Korean Studies: Global Research & Critique. We are now publishing two issues a year (Regular in the Spring, Special Issue in the Fall). We have a new cover design. And footnotes are back!

Check out this issue's fascinating research articles, a pertinent commentary, and thoughtful book reviews. In Fall 2026, we look forward to the Special Issue "Korean Poetry in the Global Age," guest-edited by David Krolikoski (University of Hawai'i at Mānoa)

As always, I'd very much like to hear about a paper you want to publish or an idea for a Special Issue. Thank you.

--C. Harrison Kim, Editor, [email protected]

Korean Studies: Global Research and Critique (Volume 50, Number 1, Spring 2026)

[Cover: Unionized Korean women divers of Tsushima, 1967]

Editor’s Note
Cheehyung Harrison Kim (University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa)
pp. v-vii DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/ks.2026.a987597

Articles

Engineers of the Human Soul: North Korean Literature Today (from 1977, v1)
Marshall R. Pihl (University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa)
pp. 1-49 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/ks.2026.a987598

Carving Out Space for Korean History: Contributions of Korean Scholars in East Asian Studies in the United States, 1955–1965
Sang Mee Oh (George Mason University Korea)
pp. 50-75 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/ks.2026.a987599

Women Divers Resisting Oppression: A Brief History of Jeju Divers and Their Representations in North Korea’s Literature, Performance Art, and Screen Culture
Kyounghwa Lim (Chung-Ang University)
pp. 76-105 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/ks.2026.a987600

From Policy to Pop: Navigating South Korean Cultural Policies and Their Impact on Korean Popular Music
Wonseok Lee (Yale University)
pp. 106-135 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/ks.2026.a987601

Korea’s Path of Liturgical Inculturation: Ancestral Rites in Confucian-Christian Interplay, Social Change, and Women
David Kwon (Seattle University)
pp. 136-166 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/ks.2026.a987602

Commentary. Coming (Out) to Terms with Queerness in Korea: Language Matters
Eun-Young Julia Kim (University of Notre Dame)
pp. 167-175 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/ks.2026.a987603

Book Reviews

Dawn of Labor by Park Nohae (review)
Yejun Kweon (University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa)
pp. 176-178 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/ks.2026.a987604

The Red Decades: Communism as Movement and Culture in Korea, 1919–1945 by Vladimir Tikhonov (review)
Kyu-hyun Jo (University of Malaya)
pp. 178-182 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/ks.2026.a987605

North Korea’s Mundane Revolution: Socialist Living and the Rise of Kim Il Sung, 1953–1965 by Andre Schmid (review)
Holly Stephens (University of Edinburgh)
pp. 182-185 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/ks.2026.a987606

The 4th Yang Lecture SeriesLocation: Center for Korean Studies AuditoriumDate & Time: March 5, 2026 at 4 PMBuddhist Nuns...
02/14/2026

The 4th Yang Lecture Series
Location: Center for Korean Studies Auditorium
Date & Time: March 5, 2026 at 4 PM

Buddhist Nuns Go Global: Korean Temple Food and Ethical Living

Once a relatively obscure monastic tradition, Buddhist temple food has recently gained
remarkable popularity in South Korea and beyond. Why now? Why not earlier—or later? This
lecture examines the interplay of various forces, from state-led efforts to brand Korea to the
growing interest in “well-being” and the far reaching influence of global media. It shows how
these mutually reinforcing dynamics have transformed temple food from a remote monastic
practice into a celebrated element of contemporary culture and even a model for alternative
lifestyles. In particular, the lecture highlights the pivotal leadership of Buddhist nuns in
excavating, preserving, reinterpreting, and popularizing temple cuisine within historically
patriarchal religious institutions. By sharing Buddhist ethics and philosophy through food, they
align themselves with broader social movements addressing some of the defining challenges
of our time: declining public health, overconsumption, anthropocentric narratives of
development, and ecological crisis. In responding proactively to these issues, they have carved
out new spaces at the intersections of the secular and the religious, and the local and the
global. In doing so, they have significantly elevated the long-undervalued status of food and
cooking, presenting them as powerful pathways to enlightenment—on par with doctrinal
study or meditation. The lecture concludes by reflecting on what nun-led temple food
movements reveal about ethical eating and living in a connected world.

Speaker: Dr. Hyaeweol Choi is Professor of Korean Studies,
Gender History, and Religious Studies, and holds the
C. Maxwell and Elizabeth M. Stanley Family and
Korea Foundation Chair in Korean Studies at the
University of Iowa. She also served as President of
the Association for Asian Studies (2024–2025). Her
research interests span gender, empire, modernity,
religion, food and the body, and transnational history.

studies

International ConferenceLocation: Center for Korean Studies Conference RoomDate & Time:1. February 12, 2026, 10:00 AM to...
02/04/2026

International Conference
Location: Center for Korean Studies Conference Room
Date & Time:
1. February 12, 2026, 10:00 AM to 4:45 PM
2. February 13, 2026, 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM

Looking Back on Forty Years of South Korea’s Democracy: Discontents and Challenges

The year 2027 marks the fortieth anniversary of democratization in South Korea. Despite a seemingly stable electoral democratic system over the last four decades, South Korean democracy has suffered from political polarization, unresponsive political parties, a lack of political representation and social rights for the marginalized, and the normalization of extremist politics. In particular, the imposition of martial law and the insurrection attempted by Yoon Seok-yeol in 2024 revealed that South Korean democracy is not immune to authoritarian reversal. It is necessary to examine the larger historical, social, and political conditions that produced the current political outcome. This is the moment when we should reflect on the pathways for South Korean democracy and engage in conversations about how to address the challenges of the democratic system in the midst of multiple crises. This conference aims to promote an understanding of the relationship between historical legacies, socioeconomic conditions, and democracy in South Korea from a comparative perspective.

Historian Monica Kim's talk on Tuesday, December 2, 2025, 3PM!CKS at the University of Hawaii is delighted to host the r...
11/19/2025

Historian Monica Kim's talk on Tuesday, December 2, 2025, 3PM!

CKS at the University of Hawaii is delighted to host the renowned historian Monica Kim for the 2025 Critical Issues Forum.

"The World that Hunger Made: Blood, Rice, and Debt in the U.S.-Occupied Korea"

Tuesday, December 2, 2025, 3PM
Center for Korean Studies Auditorium

This lecture uncovers a Cold War military economy that was the shadow twin of the “military-industrial complex." By tracing the struggle over day-to-day survival in post-1945 Korea in tandem with financial and social policies of the U.S. military government, I examine crises of hyperinflation, austerity, debt, speculation – which we often associate with the neoliberalism of the late 1970s and onwards. My lecture will offer a kind of prehistory to neoliberal capitalist logics, all in the belly of the U.S. liberal imperial project in Asia.

Monica Kim is Associate Professor and the William Appleman Williams Chair in U.S. International and Diplomatic History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her book, The Interrogation Rooms of the Korean War: The Untold History, was published in 2019 by Princeton University Press--and the book received top prizes from four different scholarly associations, including the Association for Asian Studies, the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, the Society for Military History, and the Association for Asian American Studies. Beyond the classroom, she has worked with feminist and critical scholars in the U.S. and South Korea around political and pedagogical interventions aimed at ending the ongoing Korean War. She has been a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, and is currently a member of the editorial collective at The Radical History Review. In 2022, she received the MacArthur Fellowship.

CKS Collection ExhibitionLocation: CKS Lobby (open to the public) & 2nd Floor Hallway (by reservation)Reservation form: ...
11/14/2025

CKS Collection Exhibition
Location: CKS Lobby (open to the public) & 2nd Floor Hallway (by reservation)
Reservation form: https://forms.gle/nMGrUJsCcCGMwoPq7
Date & Time: November 24, 2025 - December 5, 2025

The Center for Korean Studies (CKS) at the University of Hawai‘i presents its first special exhibition, showcasing treasured collections and donations that celebrate Korean heritage.

The exhibition is presented in two sections.
- Section I explores the lives of the first Korean immigrants who arrived in Hawai‘i in the early 1900s through rare passports issued by the Korean Empire and archival materials.
- Section II showcases the artistry of Korean craftsmanship—ceramics, lacquerware, wooden furniture, and textiles—reflecting the refined aesthetics and philosophy of daily life. The exhibition also features Jae-yeon Park, a Hawai‘i-based bojagi (wrapping cloth) artist, whose work bridges the beauty and spirit of Korean and Hawaiian cultures.

Through this exhibition, CKS honors the generosity of its donors and reaffirms its role as a bridge linking generations and cultures. It invites the local community and visitors alike to experience the depth and beauty of Korean culture across time and place.

==
하와이 주립대학교 한국학센터(CKS)는 세계 최대 규모의 국외 소재 한국학 연구 기관으로, 하와이와 세계 속에서 한국 문화의 가치를 널리 알리고 있습니다. 이번 첫 기획전은 그 노력의 결실로, 센터가 보유한 소장품과 귀중한 기증품을 대중에게 처음 공개하는 뜻깊은 자리입니다.

전시는 두 개의 주제로 구성되었습니다.
- 1부는 1900년대 초 하와이에 도착한 초기 한인 이민자들의 삶과 여정을 조명하며, 대한제국 여권과 이민 자료를 통해 그들의 발자취와 하와이 속 한국인의 역사를 되짚습니다.
- 2부는 도자기, 나전칠기, 목가구, 섬유공예 등 한국 전통 공예품을 통해 한국인의 일상과 미의식을 소개합니다. 또한 하와이에서 활동 중인 한국 전통 보자기 공예 작가 박재연 님이 참여하여, 두 문화의 아름다움을 잇는 현대적 감성을 선보입니다.

이번 전시는 귀중한 유물을 기증해주신 분들의 뜻을 기리고, 세대와 문화를 잇는 다리로서 한국학센터의 역할을 새롭게 조명합니다. 하와이 지역사회와 방문객들이 한국 문화의 깊이와 아름다움을 함께 느끼는 계기가 되길 바랍니다.

Thank you, Dr. Jinyoung Anna Jin, for visiting us and sharing your amazing research on the artist Lee Quoede, 10/30/2025...
10/31/2025

Thank you, Dr. Jinyoung Anna Jin, for visiting us and sharing your amazing research on the artist Lee Quoede, 10/30/2025.

Dr. Jin's study shows that the artist Lee Quoede (1913-1965) was part of a global artistic movement where art and political change became inseparable, a movement led by Mexican muralists. North Korea's socialist realist art world, too, was connected to this movement. Lee Quoede's artworks in North and South Koreas are a testament to this incredible transnational moment.

Movie ScreeningLocation: Center for Korean Studies AuditoriumDate & Time: November 7, 2025 from 3 PM to 5 PMK Family Aff...
10/25/2025

Movie Screening
Location: Center for Korean Studies Auditorium
Date & Time: November 7, 2025 from 3 PM to 5 PM

K Family Affairs (애국소녀) Movie Screening followed by a virtual Q&A session with the Director, Arum Nam

SYNOPSIS: Arum’s parents belong to the pivotal generation that led South Korea’s democratization through the student movements of the 1980s. Eager to pass on a better world to their daughter, her father chose the path of a public servant, while her mother became a feminist activist. Inspired by their commitment to building a better Korea, Arum at the age of 18, Arum witnessed the Sewol ferry disaster—a national tragedy that claimed countless lives due to systemic failures. As she uncovered her father’s involvement in the aftermath, Arum began to question the democracy her parents’ generation had fought so ardently to establish. Through the lens of her family’s journey, Arum delves into the political history of South Korea, grappling with the role her own generation must assume.

Arum Nam is a documentary director from Seoul, South Korea, holds a Master’s degree in Documentary Filmmaking from the Korea National University of Arts. She directed a short documentary “Pink Femi”, which tells the story of a feminist mother, and co-directed “Teleporting” with Japanese directors during the pandemic. “K-family Affairs” is her first feature documentary.

Art Historian Jinyoung Anna Jin on Lee Quede! 10/30/2025 Thursday 3PM."Art, War, and Exile: Rediscovering Lee Qoede’s Vi...
10/22/2025

Art Historian Jinyoung Anna Jin on Lee Quede! 10/30/2025 Thursday 3PM.

"Art, War, and Exile: Rediscovering Lee Qoede’s Vision for Korean Modernism"

Dr. Jinyoung A. Jin
Director of Asian Art at Wang Center, Stony Brook University

This talk highlights the career of Lee Qoede (이쾌대, 1913–1965), a brilliant yet often overlooked figure in modern Korean art history, through a new, global lens. Living through Japanese colonial rule, the Korean War, and then exile in North Korea, Lee grappled with how art could express national identity, everyday life, and the collective struggle of ordinary people.

Drawing on insights from her book Art, War, and Exile in Modern Korea: Rethinking the Life and Work of Lee Qoede (Amsterdam University Press, 2025), Jinyoung Anna Jin situates Lee within global currents spanning the influence of Mexican muralists to the shifting geopolitics of Cold War Asia.

By looking at Lee’s legacy through a transnational perspective, Lee’s art can be seen as part of a wider story of creativity and resilience, trying to answer an enduring question: What can art do in a time of upheaval?

Public TalkLocation: Center for Korean Studies AuditoriumDate & Time: October 16, 2025 at 3 PMK-Masking Empire: Artist M...
10/07/2025

Public Talk
Location: Center for Korean Studies Auditorium
Date & Time: October 16, 2025 at 3 PM

K-Masking Empire: Artist Mirae kh Rhee in conversation with Professor Heijing Lee

What does it mean to call beauty, adoption, and mourning care­ when they so often serve as forms of state control?
Artist Mirae kh RHEE and scholar Heijin Lee reflect on over a decade of dialogue, beginning with K-Beauty and expanding into transnational adoption, digital aesthetics, and feminist critique. Featuring a screening of RHEE's new experimental film Si j'avais quatre meres (If I Had Four Mothers), this conversation explores how care can be aestheticized, institutionalized, and weaponized-and how feminist and diasporic practices work to unmask empire's softer surfaces.

A Delegation from Korea National Defense University Visits CKSOn September 15, 2025, a delegation from Korea National De...
09/30/2025

A Delegation from Korea National Defense University Visits CKS

On September 15, 2025, a delegation from Korea National Defense University, including active-duty colonels and senior government officials, visited the Center for Korean Studies (CKS).

The Acting Director, Professor Sang-Hyop Lee, provided an introduction to CKS and an overview of the history of Korean immigration to Hawaiʻi.

On September 25, 2025, the Center for Korean Studies hosted a public talk titled "Hojŏk, Nationality, and the Fate of In...
09/30/2025

On September 25, 2025, the Center for Korean Studies hosted a public talk titled "Hojŏk, Nationality, and the Fate of Interethnic Families in Postcolonial Korea" by Dr. Matthew R. Augustine, with Professor Cheehyung Harrison Kim leading the discussion

Fascinating talk by historian Matthew Augustine (Kyushu University) 9/25/2025! How the family registry system of hojeok ...
09/26/2025

Fascinating talk by historian Matthew Augustine (Kyushu University) 9/25/2025!

How the family registry system of hojeok (legal nationality) often functioned in opposition to the notion of ethnic nationality in colonial, US-occupation, and postcolonial Korea & Japan was an intriguing and relevant way to think about how national identity was (and still is) a way of subjugation and exclusion, especially for interethnic families.

Thank you for visiting us, Professor Augustine!

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