Jungmin Seo
(Ph.D., University of Chicago, 2004)
Comparative politics; Nationalism; Chinese/Korean politics; Social
theory.
Background: I was born in Busan, the biggest seaport
in Korea, but raised and educated in downtown Seoul since my family moved
to Seoul in 1974. While experiencing the radical changes of the city during
the developmental periods, I naturally became interested in politics and
economy in my early age. I went to Yonsei university, majoring in political
science. During the college years, I witnessed tremendous pains and hopes
in the process of democratization in the late 1980s. Since I was not able
to clearly understand the vague images of the society and the fragmented
memories about the events that happened around me, I decided to further
my social inquiry and came to the United States in 1995 to pursue my graduate
studies. I spent 8 years in Chicago as a graduate student and 1 year at
University of Oregon as a visiting faculty member, before I joined the
University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Research Interests: My major research and teaching
interests are East Asian politics, nationalism and the political economy
of culture. I wrote my dissertation on the relationship between the Chinese
cultural industry and popular nationalism at the University of Chicago.
I am currently working on three projects: (1) the concept of democracy
during the Tiananmen Democratic Movement in 1989; (2) the politics of
symbolism in the Yushin period (1972-1979) in South Korea and (3) the
South Korean state discourses on the influx of North Korean refugees and
Korean Chinese workers.
Relevant Links:
Center for Chinese Studies
http://www.chinesestudies.hawaii.edu/index.php
Center for Korean Studies
http://www.hawaii.edu/korea/
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