Faculty
With more than forty faculty members offering courses or conducting research related to Korea, the Center has by far the greatest number of scholars of any such institution in the United States, and our resources for scholarship on Korea rank in the upper echelon of academic institutions throughout the world. Courses relating to Korea in fields such as anthropology, Asian studies, business, communication, dance, economics, history, journalism, language, law, linguistics, literature, music, political science, social work, and sociology are regularly offered. With its dedicated faculty and staff, and its many Korea-related activities, the Center for Korean Studies offers a rich opportunity for those interested in the study of Korea.
Full Members
Chizuko T. Allen
International Research and Fellowships Coordinator, School of Pacific and Asian Studies. Modern Korean intellectual history; ancient Korea's relations with Japan.
chizuko@hawaii.edu
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Christopher J. Bae
Professor of Anthropology. Director of Center for Korean Studies; East Asian prehistory; paleoanthropology; vertebrate taphonomy; behavioral ecology; quantitative analysis; modern human origins; origins of agriculture in Korea, Japan, and China.
cjbae@hawaii.edu
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Tae-Ung Baik
Professor of Law. International human rights law; human rights in Asia; comparative law; Korean law.
tubaik@hawaii.edu
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Sang Yee Cheon
Associate Professor of Korean Language and Director, Korean Language Flagship Center. Korean linguistics; phonetics/phonology; second-language acquisition; teaching language and culture through film/media.
scheon@hawaii.edu
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Han-Byul Chung
Assistant Professor, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures. Syntax, Korean linguistics, Manchu, Syntax-semantics interface.
hchung2@hawaii.edu
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Cheehyung Harrison Kim
Associate Professor of History. East Asia, Korea, North Korea, socialism, labor, industrialism, everyday life, urban life, transnationality, visuality.
chk7@hawaii.edu
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Karl E. Kim
Professor of Urban and Regional Planning. Korean film; Cheju tourism development; attitudes of U.S.-trained planners in Korea.
karlk@hawaii.edu
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Mary Shin Kim
Professor of Korean Language and Linguistics; Conversation Analysis; Interactional Linguistics; Pragmatics; Second Language Teaching and Learning.
maryskim@hawaii.edu
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Min-Sun Kim
Professor of Communicology, School of Communication and Information. Intercultural Communication; Human-Machine Communication; Persuasion and Social Influence
kmin@hawaii.edu
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David Krolikoski
Assistant Professor of Korean Literature. Modern Korean poetry; translation studies; poetics; postcolonial theory; transnational literature.
dkroli@hawaii.edu
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Hye-ryeon Lee
Professor of Communication and Information. Health promotion among Korean Americans; health communication; communication campaigns; environmental communication.
hyeryeon@hawaii.edu
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Sang-Hyop Lee
Professor of Economics. Korea's labor market; aging population; education investment; human resources; labor economics; population economics; economic development.
leesang@hawaii.edu
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William O'Grady
Professor of Linguistics. Syntactic theory and description; experimental syntax; language acquisition; Korean and Jejueo, heritage languages; language revitalization.
ogrady@hawaii.edu
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Thomas A. Osborne
Professor of Music. Composition; music theory; Korean instruments, music, and poetry.
thomasao@hawaii.edu
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Hyoung-June Park
Associate Professor of Architecture. Graduate Chair in Architecture; Director of Graduate Architecture Programs.
hjpark@hawaii.edu
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Mee-Jeong Park
Associate Professor of Korean Language. Instructional technology; K-ToBl; Korean boundary tones; Korean sentence-ending suffixes.
meejeong@hawaii.edu
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Young-a Park
Associate Professor of Asian Studies. Social movements; film industry; North Korean refugees.
yapark@hawaii.edu
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S. Ghon Rhee
Professor of International Finance and Banking. Corporate finance; market microstructure; investment; financial market policy in the areas of development of the corporate, government, and municipal bond markets; pension systems; regional financial markets integration.
rheesg@hawaii.edu
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R. Anderson Sutton
Professor of Music. Korean contemporary musical practice and issues of identity; fusion aesthetics; mass media.
rasutton@hawaii.edu
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Donald R. Womack
Professor of Music. Music composition and theory; Korean instruments and music.
dwomack@hawaii.edu
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Myungji Yang
Associate Professor of Sociology. Comparative politics; Korean politics; development and democracy; class formation.
myang4@hawaii.edu
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Emily Jungmin Yoon
Assistant Professor of Korean literature. Contemporary Korean and Korean American poetry; gender and feminism; transnational literature; translation; creative writing.
ejyoon@hawaii.edu
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Associate Members
Sun-Ki Chai
Professor of Sociology. Korean culture and patterns of economic development; Korean collective identity and mobilization; social theory; culture and rationality; development and social change in East Asia; race and ethnicity; formal modeling and simulation.
sunki@hawaii.edu
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Erica Soonyoung Chang
Librarian, Cataloging Department, Thomas H. Hamilton Library.
syoungc@hawaii.edu
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Andrew Cheng
Assistant Professor of Linguistics. Korean diaspora, language and ethnic identity, Korean American English, sound change, sociophonetics.
andrew.cheng@hawaii.edu
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Andre Haag
Assistant Professor of Japanese Literature. Narratives of empire, nation, and colony (Korea) in modern Japanese literature (Meiji-Taishō-Shōwa); Korean anticolonial resistance in Japanese popular colonial discourse and visual culture.
andreh@hawaii.edu
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Shin Ae Han
Assistant Professor of Elementary Education. Early Childhood Education, Teacher Education, Comparative and International Education.
sahan@hawaii.edu
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Seunghye Hong
Associate Professor, Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work. Health/mental health; social determinants of health/mental health; neighborhood contexts; immigration; community practice; multicultural practices with diverse populations; research methods.
shong9@hawaii.edu
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Ji Young Kim
Associate Professor, School of Communication and Information. Strategic communication; public relations; international public relations; and mass communication.
jkim22@hawaii.edu
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Ellie Kim
Librarian, Korean Studies/Thomas H. Hamilton Library.
eunahkim@hawaii.edu
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Hye Seung Lee
Instructor, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures. Korean linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Discourse analysis, Korean pedagogy.
hyeseung@hawaii.edu
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Kyoung Eun Lee
Associate Professor of Nancy Atmospera-Walch School of Nursing: Immigrant women's health; Health disparities; Culturally tailored health intervention; Active, healthy, and happy aging.
klee2023@hawaii.edu
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S. Heijin Lee
Assistant Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Korean beauty and pop culture, digital and visual media, transnational feminisms, Asian/American studies.
heijin.lee@hawaii.edu
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Jeffrey Tripp
Instructor, Department of American Studies. U.S.-East Asia Relations, U.S.-Korea Relations, American Empire, U.S. and the World, Historic Preservation (US, Asia, Pacific).
jtripp@hawaii.edu
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Community Associate Members
Karl Moskowitz
Associate Member. History; social and economic development.
karl.moskowitz@numbahana.com
Duk Hee Murabayashi
Associate Member. President, Korean Immigration Research Institute in Hawaii; Sociology; urban and regional planning.
dhmurabayashi@gmail.com
Retired Members
Sumi Chang
Instructor, Korean Language Flagship Program. Korean sociolinguistics; pedagogy; second language acquisition.
changhan@hawaii.edu
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Minja Kim Choe
Senior Fellow, East-West Center, and Affiliate Graduate Faculty, UHM Population Studies. Family and gender issues; health behavior of adolescents and young adults; fertility and reproductive health; child survival; statistical analysis of demographic process.
mchoe@hawaii.edu
Joung-Im Kim
Associate Professor of Communication. Development/international communications; health communication in developing countries; social network analysis; diffusion of innovations.
joungim@hawaii.edu
Yung-Hee Kim
Professor of Korean Literature. Modern Korean literature; modern Korean Women writers and fiction; Korean literature and culture.
yunghee@hawaii.edu
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Hagen Koo
Professor of Sociology. Contemporary Korean society and culture; globalization and social inequality; comparative East Asian institutions.
hagenkoo@hawaii.edu
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Frederick Lau
Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology. Chinese music; music and politics; musical change; nationalism, identity, and diaspora; avant-garde music.
fredlau@hawaii.edu
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Byong Won Lee
Professor of Ethnomusicology. Korean music.
byong@hawaii.edu
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Dong Jae Lee
Associate Professor of Korean Language. Korean language teaching; general linguistics; languages in contact; sociolinguistics; Korean linguistics.
dongjlee@hawaii.edu
Yean Ju Lee
Associate Professor of Sociology. Aging, gender stratification, and family issues in East Asia.
yjlee@hawaii.edu
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Gary Yong Gi Pak
Professor of English. Korean-American/Asian-American/Ethnic American literatures; contemporary Korean cinema; contemporary Korean culture; Korean literature in translation; Korean immigrant history in Hawaii.
gpak@hawaii.edu
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Edward J. Shultz
Professor of Asian Studies. Koryŏ history with a special interest in social, institutional, and political history; Korean history in general.
schultz@hawaii.edu
Ho-min Sohn
Professor of Korean Language. Korean linguistics and sociolinguistics; Korean language pedagogy; general and Oceanic linguistics.
homin@hawaii.edu
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Judy Van Zile
Professor of Dance. Traditional and contemporary Korean dance; issues relating to identity and change; dance iconography; movement analysis.
zile@hawaii.edu
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