USC Korean Studies Institute

The USC Korean Studies Institute is delighted to announce the sixth U.S.-Asia Grand Strategy Predoctoral Fellows class for the 2024-25 academic year!

Chi Fang | UCSD
Jiwon Jung | USC
Siyu Liang | UCLA
Kangkyu Lee | Georgia Tech
Kayeon Roh| USC
Stephen Schick | USC

The GSP Fellows spend the year researching and writing about US-Asia relations, security issues, and US policy toward the region and contribute to the intellectual & scholarly community at KSI.

WELCOME BACK STUDENTS! The school year starts in a little under a month and the USC Korean Studies Institute would like to invite ALL UNDERGRADS to apply for the UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWS PROGRAM!

This program allows students to write a research paper on any Korean or Korean-American topic of their choosing under the academic mentorship of the Korean Studies Institute. Students also learn presentation skills and selected fellows get to participate in the annual USC-Michigan Korean Studies Exchange (this year to be held at USC in Los Angeles, CA).

Submit your application by FRIDAY, August 30th to attend the pre-program orientation session.

For more info about the program + the application, click here: https://dornsife.usc.edu/ksi/opportunities/undergraduate/ksi-undergraduate-fellows-program/.

We are very excited to announce the 2024-2025 CSIS | Center for Strategic & International Studies- USC Korean Studies Institute NextGen Scholars!

💠Donna Lee Kwon, Ciara Sterbenz, Joseph Seeley, Hannah Kim, So Jin Lee, David Fields, Kristi Govella, Carolyn Choi, Soosun You, James Dongjin Kim

For more information | https://t.co/um8KiZiZI4

🎉 Join us for a conversation with a former USC Korean Studies Institute postdoctoral fellow, who is currently the BGInS Program Director and Associate Professor of Anthropology at Carleton University. 👏💯

👉 Dr. Fahy has published widely on North Korea, including Marching Through Suffering: Loss and Survival in North Korea (Columbia University Press) and Dying for Rights: Putting North Korea’s Human Rights Abuses on the Record (Columbia University Press). 🔥

Dr. Fahy received her B.A. and M.A. at York University and relocated from Canada to further pursue her studies in East Asia. 😊

👉 Thank you to everyone who showed up at our end-of-semester community lunch! 🥰✨

To all the people who support us and are involved in our programs, we hope to see you all again very soon. ❤️

🎉 Congratulations to our graduating KSI Undergraduate Fellow Judy Lee for placing 2nd in the USC Libraries Research Awards! 🥰👏

Her paper, titled "The Power of Youth: Student Activism in the Gwangju Uprising," was recognized for its excellence and creativity among many other works in USC Libraries' research collections/services. 💯✨

😊 We are so proud of Judy and excited to see where her fruitful efforts will lead her! ❤️

🎉 The USC KSI Undergraduate Fellows recently presented at the USC/UM Korean Studies Undergraduate Exchange! 😮👏

The fellows have been working all year on independent research projects that feature a wide range of topics such as Korean Cinema, South Korean domestic issues, Korean American Identity, and more! 🥰

👉 We awarded Blake Levins the Best Paper Award for his paper "The Origins, Development, and Legacy of Hip Hop Dance in South Korea" and Dionee Simmons the Best Presentation Award for her paper "Women Consuming Women: Portrayals of Le***an Desire in New Korean Cinema Horror Film". 🏆

They did an amazing job and we are so, so proud of the work all of the fellows have done. 😊❤️

To celebrate their success, we held a commencement reception at the Ahn House, where we said goodbye to our seniors and came together one more time to enjoy each other's company.

👩‍🎓 Congratulations to our graduating KSI Undergraduate Fellows Bo Kim, Eujean Doo, Sydney Tsai, Nathan Kim, Dionee Simmons, Judy Lee, Claire Lee, and Daphne Yaman! 👏💯

If you want to join this amazing program, then click the link in our bio! ✨

The USC Korean Studies Institute is now accepting applications for the 2024-2025 Undergraduate Research Fellows Program!

Are you an outstanding USC student?
Are you interested in Korea or Korean American issues?
Are you interested in conducting an independent research paper and presenting at academic conferences?

Then you should join the KSI Undergraduate Fellows Program!

Learn more: https://dornsife.usc.edu/ksi/opportunities/undergraduate/ksi-undergraduate-fellows-program/

Apply by April 9th to be invited to the KSI Fellows commencement reception where we'll celebrate the graduating seniors of the 2023-2024 cohort.

Submit your application through this link: https://usc.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eX3WSlQuduo2LDU

Join the USC East Asian Library on Thursday, April 18 at the Doheny Memorial Library for Science Fiction and East Asia! This is the closing event for USC East Asian Library's exhibition of the South Korean SF and Fantasy Collection.

More info on the event can be found here: https://bit.ly/sciencefictionandeastasia

Sponsored by the Korean Heritage Library, USC Libraries, USC East Asian Studies Center, and USC Korean Studies Institute.

🚨 Just a reminder that Professor Susan Hwang's talk is happening tomorrow at the Ahn Family House from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM!

We hope to see you there! 🥰

👉 Come join us for a talk by Professor Susan Hwang on February 22 at the Ahn Family House! 🎉

She hones her studies on topics that span from protest cultures in Modern Korea to the relationship between aesthetics and politics—among others. 💭

👩‍🎓 Professor Hwang is currently writing a book, “Uncaged Songs: Culture and Politics of Protest Music in South Korea,” and has previously written scholarly works across various venues such as The Journal of Korean Studies and The Routledge Handbook of Modern Korean Literature.

👉 Ms. Jenny Town visited the KSI earlier this week and shared her experiences of becoming involved in North Korean issues, her founding and running of 38 North, and her take on U.S.-North Korea relations.

Stay tuned for more information about upcoming speaker events at the KSI. 👏🎉

📽️Here are some action shots from the 2024 Bridging Asia conference! 🎉💕

Join us for the Annual USC KSI Graduate Student Symposium on Friday, February 9th, at TCC 227. Check-in begins at 10:30 AM, followed by panel discussions starting at 11 AM. This symposium is a platform for graduate students from all disciplines and universities to present their research on Korea, East Asia, and Asian diasporas. Engage in interdisciplinary dialogue, enhance your professional skills through faculty-led panels, and expand your network within the academic community. To attend, please RSVP by emailing Jay Lee at [email protected].

Introducing this year's KSI GSP Cohort!

Yuji Idomoto is a PhD Candidate in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Southern California. His dissertation analyzes the threat level perceived in East Asia and shows a relatively stable level of military effort across the region. Prior to USC, he served as an officer with the Ministry of Defense of Japan. He holds an MA in Asian Studies from the George Washington University, an MA in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science and the University of Birmingham, and a BA from the University of Tsukuba in Japan.

Introducing this year's KSI GSP Cohort!

Joshua Leung is a PhD Candidate in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Southern California. His research interests lie in the applications of social and cultural psychology to status seeking and international security, with a focus on the concept of face or “mianzi” in East Asia. He is also interested in the interactions between China and Southeast Asian states, particularly on the South China Sea issue. He has a BA in Global Affairs from Yale-NUS College in Singapore.

Introducing this year's KSI GSP Cohort!

Ciara Sterbenz is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research interest lies in the intersection of international and domestic politics, and her dissertation examines how and when states strategically use aggressive foreign policy as a tool for domestic politics, and how both citizens and political elite respond to this behavior. She holds a BA from Columbia University.

Introducing this year's KSI GSP Cohort!

Caroline Kearney is a PhD Candidate in Korean Studies at Yonsei University in Korea. Her dissertation analyzes the North Korean decision-making process under the Kim Jong Un leadership. Previously, she served as the Program Manager for the Korean Peninsula at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPCS) in Cambodia. In this capacity, she hosted CPCS’ partner organizations from the DPRK for bilateral exchanges and co-organized roundtable discussions. She has authored analyses for NK Pro, the Institute for Security and Development Policy (ISDP) and Jeju Peace Institute. Caroline is a member of the National Committee on North Korea (NCNK). She received an MA from George Mason University and a BA from Troy University.

Introducing this year's KSI GSP Cohort!

Kayeon Roh is a PhD candidate in Political Science and International Relations (POIR) at the University of Southern California. Specializing in international relations of historical East Asia, she works on political concepts and theories that constitute an international system, how they evolve and are translated on the inter-regional level. Her current project focuses on ‘emperor,’ ‘empire,’ and related concepts in premodern East Asia as well as in a wider global context, especially in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She is also interested in qualitative methodology in political science and history of social sciences. Kayeon studied International Relations in Seoul National University after earning her bachelor’s degree in History from the University of Chicago.

Introducing this year's KSI GSP Cohort!

Frieder Dengler is a PhD Candidate in International Relations at the American University’s
School of International Service. His dissertation investigates how China and European polities managed their differences in early modern diplomatic encounters. His analysis challenges conventional narratives about inevitable clashes and unidirectional expansion, and leverages insights from diplomatic history to inform scholarship and policy on contemporary US-China relations. He received his MPhil and an MA from American University, and a BA in Political Science from the Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen.

The USC Korean Studies Institute is pleased to invite applications for the 2024-2025 US- Asia Grand Strategy Predoctoral Fellowship. This sixth cohort of fellows will be outstanding doctoral students who are interested in the US-East Asia relations broadly – mainly those interested in Korean, Chinese, Japanese, or Southeast Asian security or US policy toward the region. The fellowship is interdisciplinary and open to students in fields such as political science, international relations, history, sociology, economics and the humanities.

The US-Asia Grand Strategy Program identifies and creates a vibrant network of scholars in US-Asia research. Fellows will participate in a regular set of meetings and workshops and receive feedback on research and scholarship with an emphasis on the tradecraft of scholarship and engaging the public square. The three main pillars of the fellowship will be a three-day Summer Workshop held at USC in August 2024; the annual USC “Bridging Asia” policy mentoring conference held in late January; and a trip to Washington, D.C. to participate in policy briefings and meet selected policy and thought leaders inside and out of government. Mentoring on professionalization, engaging the public square, and applying social science research to important policy debates is an important component of the program.

For more information about the program, qualifications, and application information, visit: https://dornsife.usc.edu/ksi/opportunities/graduate-students/u-s-asia-grand-strategy-fellows/

Come join us for an engaging conversation with Jenny Town, Senior Fellow at the Stimson Center and Director of Stimson's 38 North Program, as she delves into the prospects of US-North Korea relations.

Save the date: January 31st at 1 PM, at the Ahn Family House. Don't miss this insightful discussion!

Welcoming our newest Senior Fellow, Ambassador Sung Kim, to the KSI! 👏🎉

While a Senior Fellow at the USC Korean Studies Institute, Ambassador Kim will engage in a regular series of events with students and faculty.

👉 Read more about Ambassador Kim in the following link: https://dornsife.usc.edu/ksi/upcoming-events/

Happy New Year and Welcome to Spring Semester! 💕🎉

The USC KSI is excited to be back with a lineup of exciting events. Our undergrads and grad students are already getting ready for some of the things they'll be doing this semester, and we hope to see you there too!

The USC Korean Studies Institute wishes you a delightful holiday season!

May your festive moments be captivating, filled with heartwarming scenes and joyous episodes. As we usher in 2023, we hope your new year is brimming with prosperity, success, and excitement. Happy holidays and a fantastic new year!

Don't forget- our KSI Speaker Series event with Dr. Victor Cha is happening this Friday from 1:00 to 2:00 PM at the Ahn Family House!

He'll be discussing Korean historical identity alongside the publication of his new book, "Korea: A New History of South and North."

We hope to see you there!

Thanks to everyone who applied to be part of .

Missed the deadline? 😨

Don't worry! 😃

We'll be taking applications until NEXT FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 24.

We're particularly looking for more discussants! Definitely apply if you're interested!

This is an excellent "entry-level" conference for graduate students to learn to present and discuss. Students from any school and department are invited to participate.

Check the website for more information: https://dornsife.usc.edu/ksi/annual-usc-ksi-graduate-student-symposium/

We are excited to announce that our 12th annual graduate student symposium will be held on February 9, 2023!

The deadline to submit your paper or to apply as a discussant (or even both!) is November 15, 2023.

More information can be found at: https://dornsife.usc.edu/ksi/annual-usc-ksi-graduate-student-symposium/