Photo by King Kwong Wong
During the 2025-26 academic year, the Centre for Korean Research reaffirmed its position as a leader in Korean studies, hosting six major talks that underscored its seminal influence in the field. By featuring a curated mix of UBC PhD alumni, visiting post-doctoral fellows, and international scholars, the Centre serves as a vital junction for the global academic community. Representing institutions from across the region, the United States, and South Korea, this diverse cohort of speakers reflects CKR’s global reach and its success in both cultivating and attracting world-class academic talent.
The Centre inaugurated this academic year with a book talk by a well-established professor, Yong-Chool Ha (University of Washington). His book Late Industrialization, Tradition and Social Change in South Korea explores a paradoxical phenomenon in South Korean economic development: the coexistence of an ultra-modern industrial economy with traditional networks of obligation and solidarity. What he terms “neofamilism,” this paradox reveals a distinct and previously understudied social phenomenon in South Korea.
Following Professor Ha, Professor Haeyoung Kim (San Francisco State University) represented the next generation of scholarship with a talk on the intersection of infrastructure, subject-making, and Sino-North Korean relations. By foregrounding the “infrastructural life” of rail networks in post-liberation North Korea, she examined how the effort to reclaim and operate formerly Japanese-built systems both shaped Sino-North Korean relations and constituted the possibilities for socialist subject formation.
A core pillar of the Centre’s mission is its role as an incubator for high-caliber scholarship. This was exemplified by the remaining talks in the CKR series, which featured a distinguished group of UBC PhD alumni and visiting researchers. Among them, Dr. Meng-Heng Lee, a Korea Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, delivered the third CKR talk on the pivotal role of Sino-Korean relations in driving government-led anti-Catholic campaigns during the late Chosŏn period. His upcoming appointments at Korea University in South Korea and Academia Sinica in Taiwan testify to the global influence and academic prestige of scholars nurtured at the Centre.
Further showcasing UBC’s academic talent, Dr. Jinsung Kim, a recent PhD graduate currently teaching at UBC, delivered the fourth CKR talk on military reform in late Chosŏn. Dr. Kim’s research highlighted a critical friction between formal state policy and the traditional elite’s disdain for the military. He argued that this deep-seated social tension was a primary driver behind the uneven and incomplete nature of military reform in late nineteenth-century Korea. His talk exemplifies the high-level scholarship being produced by the next generation of CKR-affiliated scholars.
The fifth installment of the CKR talk series featured Dr. Yukie Hirata (Japan Women’s University), a visiting professor in the Department of Asian Studies. Dr. Hirata’s talk explored the evolving portrayal of Japanese women in South Korean television and film since the early 2000s. Her residency at UBC underscores the Centre’s international reputation and its continued success in attracting distinguished global scholars to contribute to the university’s vibrant research community.
Closing the year’s events was Dr. Jiyoung Suh, a proud UBC alumna now serving as a Research Professor at Seoul National University Asia Center. Her trajectory highlights the CKR’s role in launching impactful academic careers. Dr. Suh’s talk examined the unique relationship between K-pop idol celebrities and fans engendered by a highly distinctive industrial system in the digital age.
Moving forward, the Centre is dedicated not only to pioneering research but also to cultivating the scholars and leaders required to define the future of Korean Studies.
