MAAS student Lucie Crowley Duffy successfully defends MA Thesis!

Congratulations to Lucie Crowley Duffy who has successfully defended her MA thesis in Asian Studies! 

Lucie joined the Master of Arts in Asian Studies program in 2022 and her studies have focused on Korea. She’s also pursuing a Graduate Certificate in Southeast Asian Studies, focusing on Thailand. Her thesis, entitled “Postcards, Place, and Progress: Colonial Korea as a Touristic Commodity,” asserts the importance of visual sources to analyze empire maintenance in Korea during the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945), highlighting the specific utility of the postcard. Her thesis argues that postcards depicting colonial-era Korea are illustrative of a specific set of spatial narratives emphasizing Japanese imperial modernity, whilst simultaneously locating Korean culture as something of the past. 

Lucie’s thesis considers postcards as a visual historical medium representative of spatial mobility across the Japanese empire. It maintains that the complex interactions of Japanese imperialism with spatial economies and historical mobility, namely through tourism and the commercialization of Korean tradition, can be decoded through an analysis of the postcard.

Committee Chair Dr. Young-a Park and members Dr. Anna Stirr and Dr. Harrison Kim, and the entire Department of Asian Studies all want to express our warmest congratulations for this major accomplishment.

Lucie Crowley Duffy is currently completing an MA in Asian Studies (Korea) and a Graduate Certificate in Southeast Asian Studies. Originally from Scotland, Lucie’s research specializes in the history of visual cultures under colonialism in Korea, the spatial histories of East and Southeast Asia, and queer theory and popular culture in Thailand.