Faculty Profiles

University of California, Los Angeles
Ph. D., Asian Languages and Cultures, 2014

University of California, Berkeley
M. A., Asian Studies, 2005

University of Chicago
B. A., International Studies, 2003

• Modern Korean History
• East Asian History
• Korea-U.S. Interactions

• U.S.-Korea diplomatic/cultural/intellectual interactions, 1866-1965
• Korean American students, 1884-1960
• “Americanism” in East Asia, 1920-1945

• Introduction to Modern East Asia: 1895-Present
• Origins, Politics, and Memories of the Korean War
• The Meiji Restoration: The Construction of Modern Japan, 1868-1912
• Modern Korean History
• The Rise and Fall of Imperial Japan
• Christianity in East Asia
• Transpacific Korean American History
• First Year Seminar: Is the Good Life Culturally Specific?
• Why History?

'America' in Colonial Korea: A Vantage Point for Capitalist Modernity, Positions: Asia Critique 26.4
Kim, Hanmee Na, November 2018

The Meanings of America in Modern Korea: A Study of Korean Diplomatic, Cultural, and Intellectual Engagements with America, 1852-1945, UCLA, 2014
The scholarship on the history of Korea-U.S. interactions (1866 onwards) remains limited from 1905 to 1945. As the Japanese protectorate ended Korea-U.S. diplomatic relations, scholars have often focused on the interactions up to 1905 and after 1945. In doing so, the literature occluded non-diplomatic interactions that continued throughout the colonial period and their significance to post-1945 relations and to Korean society generally. This dissertation redresses this issue by exploring pre-1945 Korean diplomatic, cultural, and intellectual engagements with America--with a focus on "Americanism" during the colonial period--and their significance to Korean society.
view more

2018-2019 U.S.-Korea NextGen Scholar

Association for Asian Studies

Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations

2020 "Korea's America: A Power Intertwined with Korean Sovereignty, 1882-1945." Invited lecture at Harvard University Korea Institute.

2019 "'America' in Colonial Korea: A Stand-in for Capitalist Modernity." Invited lecture at Pomona College

2019 "A Study on the Historical Significance of Woodrow Wilson's 'Self-Determination' Articulation on Korean Elites in the United States." Invited presentation at the Association for Korean Modern and Contemporary History Conference, Seoul, Korea.

2018 "Science as a Legitimizing Tool: The Political Function of Science for Korean Students in the U.S., 1920s and 30s." Association for Asian Studies

2017 "The Korean Participation in the Washing Naval Conference." The Independence Hall 30th Anniversary International Conference.

2017 “America or ‘America’? Complicating Korea-U.S. Diplomatic Relations, 1882-1905.” AAS-in-Asia (Session Organizer and Panelist)

2017 “Reframing Early Korea-U.S. Relations with the Aid of Network Thinking.” ASIANetwork Annual Conference (Session Chair and Panelist)

2016 Panelist on "Listening to Silence: History, Theology, and the Art of the Novel." Wheaton College

2015 “A Site of Unmediated Access to Capitalist Modernity: ‘America’ as Articulated by Korean Students in the U.S.” Association for Asian Studies (Session Organizer and Panelist)

2014 "The Meanings of America in Colonial Korea: America as a Reference Point for Articulating Particularity." Association for Asian Studies

2014-2015       Postdoctoral Scholar, Korean Studies Institute, University of Southern California