Nancy Abelmann
402 W. Pennsylvania Avenue
Urbana, IL 61801
217 - 328 - 5763
Education
Ph.D. (Social Cultural Anthropology), University
of California, Berkeley, 1990.
Dissertation: "The Practice and Politics of History: A South Korean
Tenant Farmers' Movement" (Nelson Graburn, Chair; Paul Rabinow;
Robert Bellah; and Laurel Kendall).
M.A. (Social Cultural Anthropology), University of California, Berkeley, 1984.
A.B., magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa (East Asian Studies, concentration on Japan), Harvard University, 1982.
Teaching Experience
Associate Professor (Anthropology, East Asian Languages and Cultures, and Women’s Studies), University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1998-.
Assistant Professor (Anthropology, East Asian Languages and Cultures, and Women’s Studies), University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1990-97.
Instructor (East Asian Studies), Harvard University, 1988-90.
Instructor (Talent Identification Program), Duke University, 1988, 1989.
Visiting Lecturer (Experimental College), Tufts University, 1989.
Honors, Fellowships, and Grants
The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, International Collaborative Research Grant with Cho Han Haejoang ($30,000), 2005-2006.
Korea Research Foundation Collaborative Grant, co-PI (circa $3,000), 2005-2006.
Ford Foundation Grant, Housed in The Center for Democracy in a Multiracial Society, Documenting the Difference that Diversity Makes ($38,000). EOTU on Race and the University (with Peter Mortensen). 2005-2006.
Designation, Cross Campus Initiative, The Ethnography of the University (Co-organizer with Peter Mortensen and Bill Kelleher. October 2003-. HYPERLINK "http://weotu.ww.uiuc.edu" www.eotu.uiuc.edu.
Critical Research Initiative Grant (co-PI), Korean American Mental Health in its Familial Context ($110,000) (with Sumie Okazaki and Angela P. Wiley). University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 2003-05.
Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities. Award for the Korea Workshop Series Reading Group. 2003-04.
Chancellor’s Cross-Campus Initiative Award, Humanities in a Globalizing World (with Bill Kelleher and Peter Mortensen) for “Ethnography of the University: Globalization and the University.” University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 2003-04.
Suntory Foundation Collaborative Grant. Collaboration and Friction among East Asian Immigrants in the United States (with PI Toshi Asakura and Co-PIs Tie-shi Chen, Shigeru Kojima, Chika Shirohata, and Sachiko Kotani). 2003-04.
Research Grant, “The ‘New Generation’ in South Korea: Spaces, Bodies, Identities,” Undergraduate Asian Studies Funding Initiative, UIUC, summer 2003.
Center for Advanced Study Resident Associate, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (The Ethnography of the University of Illinois), 2002-03.
Visiting Scholar. Korea Institute, Harvard University. September - December 2001.
The Asian Research Fund Grant (with So Jin Park), "Class Production and Reproduction in Contemporary South Korea". The Asian Research Fund, Seoul, Korea, for 2001-2002.
Interdisciplinary Initiative Grant, "The Ethnography of the University". The Center for Advanced Study, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, for 2002-2003.
Small Research Grant, The Spencer Foundation, for Fall 2001.
Associate, Center for Advanced Study, University of Illinois, Spring 2001 (Korean Americans in Illinois Public Higher Education).
Collaborative Projects Initiative Grant (with Leslie J. Reese), The National Academy of Education, 1999-2000.
Summer Travel Grant, Northeast Asia Council for the Association of Asian Studies, 2000.
University Scholar, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1999-2000.
Graduate Student Training Grant (UIUC Ethnographic Research Training), National Science Foundation (with Janet D. Keller and R. Barry Lewis), 1998-03.
Helen Corley Petit Professorship 1998-99, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
National Academy of Education Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship, 1996-8.
Workshop Grant, Council on Korean Studies, Association of Asian Studies, 1996 (with Seung-Kyung Kim).
Advanced Research Grant, Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies, 1995.
Conference Grant, Social Science Research Council/ Joint Committee on Korean Studies, 1994 (with John Lie).
Arnold O. Beckman Research Award, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1994-1995.
Research Fellowship, Korea Foundation, 1993.
Summer Research Grant, Oregon Humanities Center, University of Oregon, 1992.
Course Development Grant, Program for the Study of Cultural Values and Ethics, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1991-92.
Travel Grant, Committee on Korean Studies, Association for Asian Studies, 1991.
Fulbright Fellowship, South Korea, 1987-88.
Foreign Language and Area Studies Grant, Korean, 1985-86.
Phi Beta Kappa Research Grant, University of California, Berkeley, 1985.
Humanities Research Grant, University of California, Berkeley, 1984.
Center for Japanese Studies Fellowship, University of California, Berkeley, 1983-85.
Stanley M. Tasheira Fellowship, University of California, Berkeley, 1983-84.
Japanese Ministry of Education Fellowship, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan, 1982-83.
Harvard Japan Institute Summer Research Grant, 1981.
Publications
Books
The Intimate University: College and the Korean American Family. In preparation.
A Hard Year Downstate: A Student Ethnography of Race and the University (with the Ethnography of the Brown Jubilee Commemoration Research Team). In preparation.
South Korea’s Educational Transformation: The Ethnography of Schooling at the Margins (co-edited with Jung-ah Choi). In preparation.
South Korean Golden Age Melodrama: Gender, Genre, and National Cinema (co-edited with Kathleen McHugh). Wayne State University Press. 2005.
The Melodrama of Mobility: Women, Class, and Talk in Contemporary South Korea. Hawaii University Press, 2003.
Echoes of the Past, Epics of Dissent: A South Korean Social Movement. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996.
Electronic version: www.netlibrary.com
Blue Dreams: Korean Americans and the Los Angeles Riots (with John Lie). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995.
Selection reprinted in Susan Ferguson, ed. Mapping The Social Landscape: Readings in Sociology. Pp. 393-408.
Articles
Close-Knit Kin, Korean America, and the U.S. University. In preparation for January 2005 submission to Asian American Studies.
The Uneven Burden of Vitality: College Rank, Neoliberalism, and South Korea's "New Generation” (first author, with Hyunhee Kim and So Jin Park) Submitted to Cultural Athropology.
Christian Universalism and U.S. Multiculturalism: An “Asian American” Campus Church (first author, with Shanshan Lan). Submitted to Amerasia.
College Dispositions: Chicagoland Korean America. Submitted to Anthropology & Education Quarterly.
Alma Mater: College, Kinship, and the Pursuit of Diversity (second author, with Catherine Prendergast). Social Text. 2006.
Anthropology, Asian Studies, Asian American Studies: Open Systems, Closed Minds. In Wanni W. Anderson and Robert G. Lee, eds. Displacements and Diasporas: Asians in the Americas. Rutgers University Press. 2005. 256-269.
Melodramatic Texts and Contexts: Women’s Lives, Movies, and Men. Gender, Genre, and National Cinema: South Korean Golden Age Melodrama (co-edited with Kathleen McHugh). Wayne State University Press. 2005. 43-64.
Introduction (with Kathleen McHugh). Gender, Genre, and National Cinema: South Korean Golden Age Melodrama (co-edited with Kathleen McHugh). Wayne State University Press, 2005. 1-15.
“’Just Because’: Comedy, Melodrama, and Youth Violence in Attack at the Gas Station (with Jung-ah Choi). In Chi-Yun Shin and Julian Stringer, eds. New Korean Cinema. Edinburgh University Press and New York University Press. 2005. 132-143.
Mother’s Management of English Education in South Korea: Class and Cosmopolitan Striving (second author, with So Jin Park). Anthropological Quarterly. 2004. 645-672.
“A Failed Attempt at Transnational Marriage: Maternal Citizenship in a Globalizing South Korea” (with Hyunhee Kim). In Nicole Constable, ed. Cross Border Marriages: Gender and Mobility in Transnational Asia. University of Pennsylvania Press. 2004. Pp. 101-123.
“An Ambitious Counter-Interpretive Tale: Class and American Late Capitalism” (a review essay on Sherry B. Ortner’s New Jersey Dreaming: Capital, Culture, and the Class of ’58) (with Noriko Muraki). Anthropological Quarterly 76:4 (Fall 2003): 749-760.
"3.1.201 Asia, Sociocultural Overviews: Korea" in International Encyclopaedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (New York: Elsevier Science). 2001. Pp. 8159-8162.
“Women, Mobility, and Desire: Narrating Class and Gender in South Korea” in Laurel Kendall, ed. Under Construction: The Gendering of Modernity, Class, and Consumption in the Republic of Korea. University of Hawaii Press. 2001. 25-53.
“The 1992 L.A. Riots and the ‘Black-Korean Conflict’” [with John Lie] in Kwang Chung Kim, ed. Koreans in the Hood: Conflict with African Americans. John Hopkins University Press. 1999: 75-90.
“Korean American Economy and Society” [a review essay] American Anthropologist 100.3 (1998): 782-784
“Women’s Class Mobility and Identities in South Korea: A Gendered, Transgenerational, Narrative Approach.” The Journal of Asian Studies 56.2 (May, 1997): 398-420.
Reprinted in David Ludden, ed. Capitalism in Asia. Association of Asian Studies Series, Resources for Teaching about Asia. 2004.
“Narrating Selfhood and Personality in South Korea: Women and Social Mobility.” American Ethnologist 24.4 (November, 1997): 786-812.
"Thinking About 'Traditional' Korean Culture and Society" in John H. Koo and Andrew C. Nahm, eds. An Introduction to Korean Culture. Seoul: Hollym Press, 1997. 261-284.
“Reorganizing and Recapturing Dissent in 1990s South Korea: The Case of Farmers” in Richard Fox and Orin Starn, Eds. Between Resistance: Dissent and Direct Action in the Late Twentieth Century. Rutgers University Press, 1997. 251-281.
“‘Culture’ and Capitalism in South Korea” [a review essay], Reviews in Anthropology. 25 (1996), 185-194.
"Minjung Movements and the Minjung: Organizers and Farmers in a 1980s Farmers’ Movement," in Kenneth M. Wells. ed. South Korea’s Minjung Movement: The Culture and Politics of Dissidence. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1995. 119-153.
"Minjung Theory and Practice" In Harumi Befu, ed. Cultural Nationalism in East Asia: Representation and Identity. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, 1993. 139-165.
Book/Film Reviews
Review of Contentious Kwangju: The May 18 Uprising in Korea’s Past and Present. Gi-Wook Shin and Kyung Moon Hwang. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2003. American Historical Review 109 (2004): 888-889.
Review of “Our Nation: A Korean Punk Rock Community.” News and Reviews 6.3 (2003): 6-7.
Review of "Habitual Sadness: Korean Comfort Women Today" and "Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women" (films). News and Reviews 3.3 (2000):10-11
Review of "Translating Grace" (film). News and Reviews 3.1 (2000):7.
Review of Towards a Transnational Perspective on Migration: Race, Class, Ethnicity, and Nationalism Reconsidered. Nina Glick Schiller, Linda Basch, and Cristina Blanc-Szanton, eds. (New York: New York Academy of Sciences, 1992). American Ethnologist 26.1 (1999): 24-25.
Review of North Koreans in Japan: Language, Ideology, and Identity by Sonia Ryang. (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press). Korean Studies 22 (1998): 135-141.
Review of Osaka Story (film, 1994). News and Reviews 1.1 (1998), 10.
Review of Caught in the Middle: Korean Communities in New York and Los Angeles by Pyong Gap Min. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996). Journal of American Ethnic History 16.4 (Summer 1997), 98-100.
Review of Getting Married in Korea: Of Gender, Morality, and Modernity by Laurel Kendall. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996). The Journal of Asian Studies 56.2 (May 1997), 506-8.
Review of Japanese Workers in Protest: An Ethnography of Consciousness and Experience by Christena L. Turner. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995): American Anthropologist 99.1 (March 1997), 223-24.
Review of Breaking the Silence: Redress and Japanese American Ethnicity by Yasuko I. Takezawa. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995). American Anthropologist 97.4 (December 1995), 832.
Review of Korea Briefing 1993 Donald Clark, ed. Pacific Affairs 67 (Winter 94/95), 611-12.
Review of The Chosen Women in Korean Politics: An Anthropological Study, by Chung-Hee Soh. American Anthropologist 95 (March 1993), 242-3.
Review of Kankô to ongaku (Tourism and Music), edited by Shûzô Ishimori (with John Lie). Annals of Tourism Research 19.2 (1992), 609-612.
Creative Works
“Korean Cultural and National Identity” (with Seung Kyung Kim) (Film Script). NY: The Asia Society, 1997.
Translations
"Religion and Social Integration in Korea," by Itoh Abito, in Senri Ethnological Series 29:87-96 (1989). (with Nomiya Akiko).
"Japanese Christians in Sacramento," by Nakamaki Hirochinaka, for Japanese Ministry of Education, 1983.
"Yorishiro: Japanese Material Religious Culture," by Nakamaki Hirochinaka, in Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 1983.
Presentations
“The Uneven Burden of Vitality: College Rank, Neoliberalism, and South Korea's ‘New Generation,’” Korea Colloquium, University of California at Berkeley, May 6, 2005.
Discussant for “Militarism, Sex Work/Violence and the State in the Transnationalized Contexts of Japan, South Korea and the United States,” Panel, Association of Asian Studies Annual Meetings, Chicago, April 2, 2005.
Discussant for “Authoritarian Legacies and Democratic Fortunes: Negotiating Gender in Post-Authoritarian Social Movements in South Korea,” Panel, Association of Asian Studies Annual Meetings, Chicago, April 1, 2005.
“Close-Knit Kin, Korean America, and the U.S. University,” Transnational Seminar Series, Department of Sociology, UIUC, February 11, 2005.
“The Uneven Burden of Vitality: College Rank, Neoliberalism, and South Korea's ‘New Generation,’” Korea Colloquium, Columbia University, March 7, 2005.
“The Uneven Burden of Vitality: College Rank, Neoliberalism, and South Korea's ‘New Generation,’” East Asian Languages and Cultures, The University of Texas at Austin, January 25, 2005.
“Close-Knit Kin, Korean America, and the U.S. University,” Asian American Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, January 25, 2005.
Discussant for “Quest for Cultural Integration: North Korean Refugees and South Korean Society,” Panel, Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association, December 17, 2004 (comments submitted, not present)
“The Uneven Burden of Vitality: College Rank, Class and the ‘New Generation’,” Anthropology Colloquium, Harvard University, December 14, 2004.
“The Ethnography of the Brown v. Board of Education Jubilee Commemoration” (with Mark Aber, Peter Mortensen, Teresa Ramos, and Amy Wan), Clinical and Community Psychology, December 3, 2004.
“The Burden of Vitality: The Anxious South Korean College Student,” Stanford University Korea Colloquium, November 19, 2004.
“The Burden of Vitality: The Anxious South Korean College Student,” American Anthropological Association Meetings, Council on Education Session. November 17. 2004.
“Educating for a New World: South Korean College Students” For Hahn Moo-Sook Colloquium in the Korean Humanities series at The George Washington University. October 23, 2004.
“A House, a Ponytail, and a Farm: The Korean American Family and the Intimate University,” Developmental Psychology Brown Bag Presentation, UIUC, October 1, 2004.
UIUC South Asian American Students on Family: A Comparison with UIUC Korean Americans (with Sumie Okazaki), Program in South Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, September 21, 2004.
“Close-Knit Kin, Korean America, and the U.S. University,” Asian Institute,
Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto, September 17, 2004.
“Znaniecki and the Ethnography of the University,” for Znaniecki Day, a panel, Department of Sociology, UIUC, September 10, 2004.
“The Ethnography of the University,” (with Bill Kelleher, Peter Mortensen, and Teresa Ramos) Social Cultural Anthropology Workshop, UIUC, September 10, 2004
“Race-Class Geography: Korean Americans’ Path Towards and Lives in College.” For a conference, Critical Geographies. University of California at Los Angeles. May 14-15, 2004.
Respondent to Michael Burawoy on “Public Sociology.” UIUC, April 17, 2004.
“South Korea’s New Generation Goes to College: Happiness, Self-Management, and Class Inflection.” Cornell University, Department of East Asian Studies. April 12, 2004
Discussant for a conference, Researching Social Class in Japan (organizers, Hiroshi Ishida and David Slater. Center for Japanese Studies. The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. March 19-20 2004.
“Recent Memory in Contemporary South Korean Youth Films.” Vassar College. February 26, 2004.
“Area-essentialism: The Spark of Recognition and the Articulation of Difference” (with Jinheon Jung, Wei Li, Soo Kyung Lim, and Akiko Takeyama. Annual Meetings of the American Association of Anthropology, Chicago. November 20, 2003.
Discussant for panel, “Producing and Consuming a Culture of Dissent in Contemporary South Korea.” Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs. Bloomington, IL. October 11, 2003.
“Students and Users and Producers of Research on the University” (with Bill Kelleher and Peter Mortensen). CITES Ed Technology Series. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. October 10, 2003.
“Melodrama with a Twist: The Personal, Patriarchy, and Meta-Narration in My Sassy Girl
” (with Ramona Curry), Invited Conference, Aesthetics and Historical Imagination of Korean Cinema. Yonsei University, Institute of Media Art, Conference on Korean Cinema. September 29-October 1, 2003..
“The Ruse of Style: Taking Film Seriously, Attack at the Gas Station.” The University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Center for Korean Studies, Conference on Korean Film. September 2003.
“Korean Anthropology and Culture.” For “Teaching Korea in the Pre-collegiate Classroom” (Summer Seminar). Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. July 17, 2003.
(poster-session) “Korean American Mental Health in its Familial Context” (with Sumie Okazaki, Chu Kim-Prieto, and Shanshan Lan). Family Research Summer Institute. June, 2003.
“‘Living as we have been told to’ vs. ‘Living as we want to’: The Struggles of the ‘New Generation’ in South Korea.” Hanyang University Korean Anthropology series. May, 2003.
Discussant for panel “Cities as Transnational Spaces” for Transnational Workshop: Understanding Transnational Dynamics. Department of Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. May 2, 2003.
“Korean Transcultural Families,” Yale University, April 10, 2003.
Panelist, “Fieldwork across the Disciplines,” The Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. March 31, 2003.
“Korean Transcultural Families,” East Asia Institute, Columbia University, February 28, 2003.
“Gendered Transformations in Contemporary South Korea,” Pittsburgh University, October 25, 2002.
An Intergenerational, Transnational Approach to Higher Education,” New Paradigms in Asian American Studies, Indiana University, October 18, 2002.
“Mobilizing ‘Korean’ Family Ties: Culture across the Border,” Transnational Communities Program, Oxford University. May 17, 2002.
“Mobilizing ‘Korean’ Family Ties: Culture Across the Border” Department of Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley. April 18, 2002.
"The Changing Contours of 'Culture' in the Anthropology of Korea," The University of California at Berkeley, the Center for Korean Studies conference, "The Future of Korean Studies in the United States." May 7, 2001.
"A Korean and Korean American Family Educational Story: The Complexities of the Transmission of Cultural and Educational Capital Across the Border," University of Washington Korea Seminar Series, April 11, 2001.
Discussant for "Asia, Global Hypergamy, and the Politics of Transnational Marriage," Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies. March 24, 2001.
Discussant for "Women, Subjectivity, and the Political-Economy of Gender in Colonial and Post-Colonial Korea," Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies. March 24, 2001.
"Anthropological Research on Asian Americans and Education," Asian American Month Forum, Loyola University, March 12, 2001
"Rearing Women's Personalities: Korean Families and Korean Contemporary History" for the Psychoanalytic Association Interdisciplinary Colloquium of Psychoanalysis and Anthropology. December 16, 2000.
"Intergenerational Imaginaries: Educational Histories in Korea and Korean America", Illinois Wesleyan University. November 8, 2000.
Discussant for "Fantasy in Korean and Korean American Narratives," Midwest Conference of Asian Affairs, University of Indiana at Bloomington. October 6, 2000.
"The Changing Ethnic Self in the United States" for The Jewish Public Forum, June 6, 2000.
"Korean American Christianity as Intergenerational Dialogue," McCormack Seminary, Chicago, April 27, 2000.
"Anthropology, Asian Studies, Asian American Studies: Open Systems, Closed Minds," Brown University for a conference, "Diasporas and Displacments: A Symposium on Research and Teaching the Asian Diasporas," April 14-15, 2000.
"Rethinking 'Culture' and 'History' in Asian American Education," Asian American Lecture Series, University of Maryland March 13, 2000 (Invited lecture)
Discussant for "Modernity and Mobility: Dislocation in Korean and Korean-American Literature and Film," Annual Meeting of the Association of Asian Studies. March 10, 2000.
"Researching the Cross-Generational Context of College Student's Educational Lives and Histories," UIUC Division of Clinical and Community Psychology, March 3, 2000
"The Demography of Asian Americans at the University of Illinois," Asian Pacific American Coalition Unseen/Unheard Conference, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. December 4, 1999.
"Competing Regimes and Rhetorics of Time and Personhood in Korean American College Student Bible Study Groups," Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. November 19, 1999.
"Korean American Students in Public Higher Education in Illinois: Crossing Borders, Generations, and Religions," The Korea Society, New York City. November 5, 1999.
Participant, discussion on "Jewish Public Engagement," The National Center for Jewish Learning and Leadership, NYC. November 5, 1999.
Conference Organizer, Korean and Korean American Christianity, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. October 8-9, 1999.
"The Melodrama of Mobility: Film Moments and Film Memories," University of California at Riverside for a conference "From Hollywood to Han: South Korean Melodrama in a Global Context." June 25-26, 1999.
Participant, Seminar on "Leadership in a Time of Great Change," The Jewish Public Forum, The National Center for Jewish Learning and Leadership, NYC. June 14-15, 1999.
Discussant for "The Country and City in East Asia," Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. December 2, 1998.
"Asian American Student Religious Groups and Practices," Asian Pacific American Coalition Unseen/Unheard Conference, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. November 14, 1998.
Panel Participant for "Nurturing New Scholars," The Spencer Foundation. October 29, 1998.
"Relating the Post-War Expansion of Higher Education in South Korea to Korean American First and Second Generation College Students." The National Academy of Education Annual Meeting. October 16, 1998.
“Korean Americans and Education.” Army Core of Engineers, Speaker for Asian American Month, Champaign, IL. May 22, 1998.
“Educational Mobility Across the Border: Korean American Student and Parent Educational Stories and Histories,” University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Asian American Studies Committee Brown Bag Seminar Series. April 30, 1998.
“Educational Mobility Across the Border: Korean American Student and Parent Educational Stories and Histories,” Indiana University (Bloomington), East Asian Languages and Cultures Colloquium. April 24, 1998
“National Allegories and Gendered Subjectivities: Korean Women’s Narratives,” Harvard University Korea Colloquium. December 4, 1997.
Discussant for “Hong Kong Cinema: History, Arts, Identity: 1990-1997,” The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. October 11, 1997.
Discussant for "Narratives, Arts and Ritual: Imagining and Constructing
Nationhood in modern East Asia," The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. November 15-17, 1996.
Discussant for “Culture, Mass Media, and National Identity,” Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs.” October 11-13, 1996.
“Melodramatic Justice: Narratives of Class, Marriage, and Destiny in Contemporary South Korea,” Korean Studies Institute, University of Southern California, for a conference on “Gender and Korean Literature.” October 18-20, 1996.
“The Formation of Gender and Class Identity in Post-War South Korea,” Leiden University, for a conference on “Identity Through History: The Formulation of Identity in Korean Historiography.” August 30 - September 2, 1996.
“A Conceptual Map of Korea” for TeachAsia, The Asia Society, July 18, 1996.
“The Melodramatic Imagination in Contemporary Korea: Thoughts on Television Dramas,” The University of Texas at Austin, for a conference on “The Interaction of East and West in Korean Culture.” February 9-10, 1996.
“The English Language Ethnographic Legacy on Village Korea,” University of British Columbia, for a conference on “Korean Contemporary Cultural Discourses.” December 8-10, 1995.
"The Melodramatic Imagination in Contemporary South Korea: Women, Class and Soap Operas" UIUC Chinese Women's Studies Group, September 29, 1995.
"The Status of Women and Feminism in Contemporary Japan," UIUC, Illinois International Fellowship Program Lecture, May 19, 1995
"Dissent in Contemporary South Korea," UIUC Extramural Non-Credit Course, An Introduction to Modern Asia, April 19, 1995.
“Class Networks and the Korean American Diaspora” at SSRC Conference (co-organized with John Lie), “Transnational Korea,” Center for Advanced Study, University of Illinois, April 1995.
"Narrating Class: Women and Social Mobility in South Korea," University of California at Berkeley Center for Korean Studies. Lecture Series. March 15, 1995.
"Gender and Social Mobility in South Korea," Center for Korean Research, Columbia University, for a conference on "Gender and Social Change." March 10-12, 1995.
"Transformations in the Culture of Dissent in South Korea," The Center for Asian and Pacific Studies, University of Iowa. March 4, 1995.
Commentator to Roger J. Janelli (speaking on Making Capitalism), The Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington D.C., September 27, 1994.
“Siblings, Soaps and Social Mobility” for “Mass Media and Popular Fiction,” International Association of Media and Communication Studies Annual Meetings, Seoul, South Korea, July 1994.
“Engendered Narratives of Social Mobility in South Korea” for a conference on “Women in Korea,” University of British Columbia, Vancouver, July 1994.
“Changing Epics and Epochs of Social Activism in South Korea, 1986-1993” for the Henry Frank Guggenheim Conference on “Dissent and Direct Action in the Late Twentieth Century,” Otavalo Valley, Ecuador, June 1994.
“Teaching Contemporary South Korean Society” at Outreach Seminar for Illinois Community College Faculty sponsored by The Center for East Asian Studies, University of Chicago, at Parkland College, April 9, 1994.
"Narrating Gender and Class in Contemporary South Korea," for Social Science Research Council, Korea Committee workshop on Gender and Narrative, New York City, March 1994.
“The Rural Sector in the South Korean Imagination” for The Asia Society Symposium, “Korean Traditions: Their Impact on the Future,” Washington D.C. March 9, 1994.
"Out of Bounds: Debating Korean Diaspora Identity in Los Angeles," American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Washington D.C., November 1993.
"Contesting Modernity in South Korea: Culturalisms and Nationalisms," American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, December 1992.
"Competing Visions of the State in South Korea," American Ethnological Society Annual Meeting, Memphis, TN, March 1992.
"Resistance in Contemporary South Korea: Cultural Systems and Ritual," Western Michigan University Lecture Series: Religion and Ritual, Kalamazoo, MI, December 1991.
"Media Beyond Representations: Re-presenting the Korean War," American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, November 1991.
"Memory and Mobilization in Korean Social Movements," Korea Colloquium, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, October 1991.
"Transgressing Headlines: Reporting Race in the African-American/Korean-American Conflicts," Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, April 1991.
"A South Korean Social Movement: 'Subjects' of History and 'Agents' of Politics," American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, Nov-Dec 1990.
Co-organizer, "Rethinking Patriarchy and the Construction of Gender in Contemporary East Asia," American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, Nov-Dec 1990.
"'The People (Minjung) as the Subject of History': The Minjung Strategy in Discourse and in Practice in South Korea," Shorenstein Conference on Cultural Nationalism in East Asia, Stanford University, May-June 1990.
"Politicizers and Politicized: Organizers and Farmers in a 1980's Farmers' Movement," Conference on Korea's Minjung Movement: The Origin of Populist Nationalism, Bloomington, IN, November 1989.
"Social Dissent as Experience," American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., November 1990.
Co-organizer, "Dissent and the Transformation of Discourse in Late 20th-century Korea," American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., November 1990.
"Reflections on and through Poch'ôngyo, a Korean New Religion in the Colonial Period: Imagining the National Community," SSRC Conference on "Communities in Question: Religion and Authority in East and Southeast Asia," Hua Hin, Thailand, May 1989.
"The Village in the City and the City in the Village," Institute for Asian Studies, New York, NY, April 1989.
"The Cheam-ri Massacre Incident: The Politics of Commemoration," Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., March 1989.
"A Tenant Farmer Struggle: 1985-1987," The Fulbright Colloquium, Seoul, Korea, May 1988.
"The March First Movement: Nationalism and History," American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, November 1987.
Professional Service
Honors Examiner, East Asian Studies, Swarthmore College, May 20- 21, 2005.
Judge, David Plath Media Award, East Asia Section, American Anthropological Association.
Judge, Book Award for the Social Sciences, Association of Asian American Studies, 2003.
Steering Committee, Alliance of Scholars Concerned about Korea (ASCK), 2003-
Outside dissertation examiner/committee member: Oxford University, Monash University, Bowling Green State University, Purdue University, Stanford University, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, Washington State University
Executive Committee Member (elected), Council on Korean Studies, American Association of Asian Studies, 1994-1997, 2002-2005.
Series Editor (with Nicole Constable and Martin Manalansan), Transnational
Intimacies in Asia and Its Diasporas. University of Pennsylvania Press
(2003-09).
Member, Editorial Board: Anthropological Quarterly (2001-), Asian Educational
Media Service (1998-), Asian Journal of Women’s Studies (2003 -),
Korean Studies, Muae (1994-96), Social Politics: International Studies
in Gender, State & Society (1995-97), Social Science History (1997-99).
Member, International Editorial Board. International Center for Korean Studies Publication Project, Korea University (2004-)
Member, Tune in Korea Advisory Group (a video project for middle school students), July 1996-July 1997.
Manuscript review: Anthropological Quarterly, American Anthropologist, American Ethnologist, Asian Journal of Women’s Studies, City & Society, Comparative Education Review, Critical Sociology, Cultural Anthropology, Ethnohistory, Gender & History, Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power; International Journal of Feminist Politics, Journal of Asian Studies, Journal of Sport and Social Issues, Journal of the Steward Anthropological Society, Korean Studies, Positions, Signs, Social Politics, Social Problems, The Sociological Quarterly, Studies in the Literary Imagination; Cambridge University Press, Columbia University Press, Duke University Press, Stanford University Press, Wesleyan University Press, The University of Arizona Press, The University of California Press, The University of Chicago Press, The University of Hawaii Press, The University of Illinois Press.
Grant Review: ACLS/SSRC International Postdoctoral/Doctoral Fellowship Competition, 1996-; John D & Catherine T MacArthur Foundation; Korea Foundation (2003-); National Humanities Center; National Science Foundation; Wenner Gren.
Tenure Review: Michigan State University, The University of Pittsburgh, The University of California at Irvine, The University of Washington, Vassar College.
Advisor, Jewish Public Forum, The National Center for Jewish Learning and Leadership (1999-2001)
Field Research Experience
“Documenting the Difference that Diversity Makes” (Team Research), The Ethnography of the University and The Center for a Multiracial Democracy 2004-05.
“The Burden of Vitality: Neoliberalismand South Korean College Students,” Summer 2004.
“The Ethnography of the Brown Jubilee Commemoration at the University of Illinois” (Team Research, The Ethnography of the University) 2003-04.
“Collaboration and Friction among East Asian Immigrants in the United States: The Case of an Asian American Evangelical University Church” (with Shanshan Lan) 2003-04.
“Korean American Adolescent Mental Health in its Familial Context” (with Sumie Okazaki and Angela P. Wiley), 2003-2005.
“Korean American college students and their Parents: Mental Health in an Inter-Generational Crucible,” (with Sumie Okazaki), 2002-2004.
“The ‘New Generation’ in South Korea: Spaces, Bodies, Identities,” Summer 2003.
"The Non-Emigrated Kin of Chicagoland Korean Americans," Summer 2000.
"Korean American College Student Evangelical Christianity," 1998 - 2000.
“Educational Mobility Across the Border: An Ethnographic Study of Chicago Area Korean American High School Students and their Parents,” in Chicago, 1997 - 2001.
“The Melodrama of Social Mobility,” in Seoul, Winter 1995-6.
"Narrating Class Distinction in South Korea,” in Seoul, Spring/Summer 1993.
"L.A. Riots and the Korean Diaspora," in Los Angeles, Summer 1992, Spring 1993.
"Interrogating Class: South Korean Schools and the Teachers' Union Movement," in Seoul, Korea, 1991.
"The Practice and Politics of History: A South Korean Tenant Farmers' Movement," dissertation research in North Chôlla Province, Korea, and in Seoul, Korea, 1987-88.
"Cheamri: The Politics of Commemoration," in Kyônggi Province, Korea, 1987.
"Taehûngri: A Colonial Period Millenarian Movement," in North Chôlla Province, Korea, 1986.
"Pagoda Park: Commemoration and Historiography of the March First Movement," in Seoul, Korea, 1984.
"The Literacy Campaigns of Burakumin Women," in Kyushu, Japan, 1984.
"A Comparative Study of Government Policy and Investment in the Automobile Industry in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico," in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico, 1984.
"Japanese Tourism," in Osaka, Japan, 1982-83.
"Korean Silla Buddhism in the Kunisaki Peninsula," senior honors thesis research, in Kunisaki, Japan, 1981.
Courses Taught
The Ethnography of East Asia
Method and Theory in the Study of East Asia
The Ethnography of Korea
Women in East Asia
Gender in Contemporary Korea
Contemporary Korean Society
Contemporary Korean Society through Feature Film
Transnational Korea
Introduction to Anthropology
Fieldwork Methods and Theory
The Anthropology of Contemporary Issues
The Anthropology of Social Movements
The Ethnography of Asian America
Class and Culture
Political Anthropology
Autoethnography
Feminism and Anthropology
Personal Anthropology
The Ethnography of the University
Language Proficiency
Korean (Near-fluent spoken; proficient reading and writing)
Japanese (Near-fluent spoken; proficient reading and writing)
French (Near fluent)
Spanish (Proficient)