Korea Studies Program Faculty

CLARK W. SORENSEN

Associate Professor, Chair of the Korea Studies Program, Jackson School of International Studies

Clark W. Sorensen has been Associate Professor of International Studies at the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington since 1992. He is Director of the Center for Korea Studies here. He has adjunct appointments in Anthropology and Women’s Studies, and is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Korean Studies.

He received his BA in Geography in 1970 from the University of California, Berkeley, his MA in Korean Studies in 1974, and his PhD in Anthropology in 1981, both from the University of Washington.

He is author of Over the Mountains are Mountains: Korean Peasant Households and their Adaptations to Rapid Industrialization (University of Washington Press 1988), and has published articles in Journal of Anthropological Research, Anthropos, Comparative Education Review, and other journals. He is editor of the monograph series Korean Studies at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies published by the University of Washington Press, and also is editor of The Center for Korean Studies Publication Series that is distributed by University of Washington Press. The most recent title in the latter series is Rethinking the Park Chung Hee Era, 1961-1979, co-edited with Hyunga Kim of Australian National University.formation.

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HEEKYOUNG CHO

Assistant Professor, Department of Asian Languages and Literature

Professor Cho received her BA in Russian Literature from Yonsei University in 1997, followed by an MA in 1999.  She then journeyed to the USA for her PhD in Korean Literature from the University of Chicago, which she completed in 2010.  She was immediately hired on by the University of Washington because of her strong specialization in Colonial-era Korean intellectuals' appropriation of Russian literature, and the relationship between translation and national literature.  She now splits her time between her research and teaching high level Korean translation courses in the Department of Asian Languages and Literature.  

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YONG SUNG JONATHAN KANG

Assistant Professor, School of Law

Professor Kang was born in Seoul, Korea, and grew up in Singapore. He attended Oxford University, where he obtained his degree with First Class Honors. A fluent speaker of Korean and a proficient speaker of Mandarin Chinese, Professor Kang is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, where he was Developments Chair of the Harvard Law Review. After law school, he clerked for Judge Robert A. Katzmann of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Prior to joining the UW School of Law, Professor Kang was a visiting assistant professor at Fordham University School of Law, where he taught contracts, contract theory, and commercial transactions. Before entering academia, he worked at the law firms of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton and Latham & Watkins in New York, and at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in Boston. While in private practice, Professor Kang's work centered on commercial litigation and international arbitration matters.

Professor Kang's teaching and research interests are in the areas of contract law and theory, international business transactions, Korean law, comparative law, and moral and legal philosophy. His scholarship seeks to explore the normative underpinnings of contractual obligations and the theoretical justifications for the regulation of contractual relationships in concrete private and/or public contexts, using insights drawn from philosophy and comparative jurisprudence.

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HWASOOK NAM

Assistant Professor of Korean History, Incumbent of James B. Palais Endowed Professorship, Jackson School of International Studies and Department of History

Professor Nam received her PhD from the University of Washington in 2003, and now teaches Korean history with the history department.  She recently won the 2011 James B. Palais Book Prize (Association for Asian Studies) for her highly acclaimed book, Building Ships, Building a Nation: Korea’s Democratic Unionism under Park Chung Hee.

Professor Nam's areas of academic interest include South Korean Development and workers rights in the Park Chung Hee regime (1961-79) and she focuses on status issues and gender dynamics.

Other recent publications include “Narratives of Women Workers in South Korea’s ‘Democratic ( Minju) ’ Union Movement of the 1970s” (The Review of Korean Studies, Vol. 12 No. 4, December 2009 : 14-35) and “Shipyard Women and the Politics of Gender: A Case Study of the KSEC Yard in South Korea.” in Elyssa Faison, and Ruth Barraclough, eds., Gender and Labor in Korea and Japan: Sexing Class. London: Routledge, July 2009, 78-102.

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SOOHEE KIM

Senior Lecturer, Department of Asian Languages and Literature

Professor Soohee Kim received her PhD from the University of Washington in 1999, and has been the Senior Korean Lecturer with the Department of Asian Languages and Literature since 2007.  She has co-authored the highly lauded You Speak Korean! series of Korean language education textbooks.  In addition to being fluent in Korean and English, Professor Kim is also proficient with both Sanskrit and Tibetan.

Professor Kim's academic interests include researching the internal reconstruction of the Han Stratum in Korean, the acquisition of stratified lexicon, and she is currently working on two new books, entitled Mimetic and Han Vocabulary for KFL Learners and Fundamentals of Korean Grammar for Heritage Students.

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Lecturer, Department of Asian Languages and Literature

Areas of Interest:  Korean language.

WONMO DONG

Affiliate Professor

Areas of Interest:

South Korean politics, Inter-Korea relations, US-Korea relations, politics of colonial Korea (1905-1945)

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Faculty in Professional Schools

School of Nursing

Eunjung Kim, PhD, RN, CPNP
Associate Professor

Areas of Interest: Korean American parenting on children's and adolescents' developmental outcomes.

Korea Studies Program Staff

HYOKYOUNG YI

Korean Studies Librarian

Hyokyoung Yi is the University of Washington's full-time Korea Studies-specific librarian.  She not only maintains our extensive Korea-related collection, much of which is written in Korean, but conducts an annual exploration during which she scours the globe for new material, from the newest works of literature coming out of South Korea to extremely hard to find publications from the North.

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YOUNG SOOK LIM

Assistant Director, Center for Korea Studies

Dr. Young Sook Lim received her Ph.D. at the University of Washington in Bilingual Education. She holds a Master's degree in teaching English as a second language. She has experience in teaching English as a Second Language and working with immigrant and refugee organizations. She is also the principal at the United Seattle Korean School, which teaches Korean to immigrant K-12 students and adults.

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Managing Editor, The Journal of Korean Studies

Tracy Stober has been the managing editor of The Journal of Korean Studies and the Center for Korea Studies publications series since 2008. She received her M.A in International Studies/Korea Studies from the University of Washington and her B.A. in Biological Sciences from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. Prior to the UW, Tracy worked for the Consulate General of Korea-Seattle as the English administrative assistant,  taught English as a second language in South Korea, managed the human resources department for a factory, and facilitated workshops, classes, and field trips for Illinois state and city park districts. In addition to being a certified copyeditor, she is a freelance writer, English consultant, and blogger.  

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CHRIS BUCHMAN

Center for Korea Studies Program Assistant

Chris Buchman is a current Korea Studies MA student and candidate for graduation in Spring 2012.  He spent the last several years teaching English at the university level in Korea, becoming proficient in Korean, and traveling to more than thirty countries.  Chris's academic interests include Korean-English translation, North Korean development, and environmental issues in East Asia.