The Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies has launched the Korea Working Group this academic year to advance research on the Korean Peninsula from a global and regional perspective.
The group’s first activity is a public lecture by Dahjin Kim, an assistant professor of Asian Studies and global affairs at the Keough School of Global Affairs, who will present “Foreign Brides and Local Hierarchies: Threat to Social Standing and the Gendered Politics of Marriage Migration” at 12:00 p.m. on Friday, September 25 at the Liu Institute, 2148 Jenkins Nanovic Halls. Refreshments will be served.
The working group will host the public lecture “Against Abandonment: Repertoires of Solidarity in South Korean Protest” by Jennifer Jihye Chun, a professor of Asian American Studies and labor studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. The lecture will be held at 12:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 18, in 1050 Jenkins Nanovic Halls.
The Korea Working Group is an academic community that emerged from the growing strength of Korea-focused scholarship at the Keough School and seeks to provide a collaborative forum for faculty, students, and practitioners in the humanities, social sciences, and public policy. The group is founded and led by sociologist Sharon Yoon, an associate professor of Korean Studies at the Keough School and a core affiliated faculty member for the Liu Institute, whose research examines social movements, migration, and contentious politics in Korea and East Asia.
“Former President [Suk Yeol] Yoon’s declaration of martial law in late 2025 serves as a powerful reminder that democracy is never a finished project,” Professor Yoon said. “The Korea Working Group will serve as a platform for deepening our understanding of democratic resilience and the institutional vulnerabilities that enable backsliding—lessons that extend far beyond the Korean Peninsula.”
The group’s founding members also include Kim, a core affiliated faculty member with the Liu Institute, and Yong Suk Lee, associate professor of technology, economy, and global affairs at the Keough School and a Liu Institute faculty fellow.
The Korea Working Group leaders bring complementary expertise on how Korean society—one of the most vibrant democracies in Asia—has responded to technological advancement, economic precarity, migration, and political polarization. Their scholarship addresses these interconnected challenges from diverse disciplinary perspectives, positioning the working group to produce research that is deeply grounded in the Korean context and broadly relevant to global conversations.
Through guest lectures, manuscript workshops, research collaborations, and symposia, the Korea Working Group seeks to solidify Notre Dame’s role as an emergent center for Korea-related research. In doing so, the group advances the Liu Institute’s mission of fostering globally engaged and policy-relevant inquiry on Asia and beyond.
Participation is open to anyone with an academic interest in Korea. To join the Korea Working Group mailing list, please fill out this form.