Chung-kang KIM
Ph.D Candidate

Research Interests:
Korean history and literature, Cinema Studies (theory and criticism),Colonial and post-colonial South Korean popular culture, Gender Studies,Contemporary South Korean culture and cinema,Transnational circulation of film in South/East Asia and Hollywood

Dissertation Title:
" Co-operated Nation: The Politics and Desire of Popular Cinema in Authoritarian South Korea (1953-1974)"

Degrees Held:
M.A., East Asian Languages and Cultures (Modern Korean History and Culture), UIUC, 2001
B.A., Modern Korean History, Yonsei University, Seoul, 1998

Publications and Presentations:
Publication:
"The Popular Novel: Confusion and Fantasy," Journal of Popular Narratives 15 (2006): pp. 89-119.

Selected Presentations:
"The First South Korean Comedy Film: Akkuk meets Hollywood," paper presented at the 56th Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, 19-21 October 2007.

"The Social Meaning and Function of 'Pleasure'--Focusing on Early 1960s South Korean Comedy Film," paper presented at the Film Studies Association of Korea (FISAK) Seminar as a part of Chunju International Film Festival, April 22-23, 2007.

"The Popular Novel: Confusion and Fantasy," paper presented at the 26th Annual Conference of the Association of Popular Narrative, Yonsei University, Seoul, April 15, 2006.

"The Politics of Performing Gender in 1960's South Korean Film," paper presented at the 7th Annual Graduate Symposium of Gender and History, UIUC, March 9-11, 2006.

Kyung Sook KIM
M.A., 1st Year

Research Interests:
Feminism, Feminist Criticism, Contemporary Korean Women Novelists, family issues in contemporary Korea, women In East Asia

Degrees Held:
Ph.D. Candidate, Modern English Literature, Korea University, Seoul, Korea
M.A., Modern English literature, Korea University, Seoul, Korea
B.A., English Language and Literature, Korea University, Seoul, Korea

Publication:
The Quest for Liberation represented in Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook, M.A. Thesis, Korea University, 1992.

Research Interests:
Modern and contemporary Korean culture and literature, with a special focus on the cultural identity of Korean women, family, and intellectuals

Proposed Dissertation Title:
South Korean Transnational "Kirogi" Families: Where Korean Intellectuals Narrate Their Cultural Identities

Degrees Held;
M.A., East Asian Languages and Cultures, UIUC
B.A., Journalism, Ewha Womans University, Seoul

Presentation:
"'The Wings': Another 'Diary of the Superfluous Man,'" paper presented at the Fifth Graduate Symposium on Korean Studies, University of California at Berkeley, April 22, 2006.

Yoonjeong SHIM
Ph.D. Candidate

Research Interests:
Premodern Korean History

Dissertation Title:
Tasan's Concept of Civilization and Choson Identity

Degrees Held:
M.A., East Asian Languages and Cultures, UIUC, 2001

Degrees Held:
M.A., East Asian Languages and Cultures, UIUC
B.A., Comparative Literature (minor: East Asian Languages), UCLA

Research Interests:
Contemporary South Korean film, Transnationalism, feminism

Presentations:
"Die Winterreise to Requiem: Death of a Displaced Man in Winter Wanderer (dir. Kwak Chigyun, 1986)," paper presented at the 56th Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, October 19-21, 2007.