Fall 2025

Wonkeun Lee’s Dissertation Defense

Join us on Monday, October 27th, from 1:00pm-3:00pm HST for doctoral candidate Wonkeun Lee’s dissertation defense! His project, titled “Transnational (Re)Construction of South Korea’s Cold War Masculinities during Park Chung-hee’s Authoritarianism (1960s-1970s),” is under the direction of Professor Cheehyung Harrison Kim.

The defense will be held virtually, and is free and open to the public. The Zoom information can be found below:

Below is an abstract of Wonkeun’s project:

During the 1960s-1970s, South Korea underwent a profound transformation in nation-building under Park Chung-hee’s authoritarian rule. Four interlocking pillars—nationalism, anti-communism, militarism, and developmentalism—not only reinforced the state’s masculine identity but also shaped domestic masculine ideals. These processes unfolded within the broader context of the Cold War, through South Korea’s transnational engagement and the circulation of global ideas.

This dissertation examines the multilayered construction and reconstruction of South Korean masculinities as they intersected with four pillars of nation-building within Cold War contexts. It explores four key sites in which South Korean masculine identities were projected and shaped: South Koreans’ participation in transnational anti-communist networks; South Korean military and labor presence in the Vietnam War; the formation of middle-class subjectivities through Cold War developmentalist modernization; and the negotiation of men’s sexuality and love between Westernized values and “Koreanness.”

The event flyer is viewable at the link here.