With more than thirty faculty members offering courses or conducting research related to Korea, the Center has by far the greatest number of scholars of any such institution in the United States, and our resources for scholarship on Korea rank in the upper echelon of academic institutions throughout the world. Courses relating to Korea in fields such as anthropology, Asian studies, dance, economics, history, language, linguistics, literature, music, political science, and sociology are regularly offered.
With its dedicated faculty and staff, and its many Korea-related activities, the Center for Korean Studies offers a rich opportunity for those interested in the study of Korea.
Chizuko T. Allen (chizuko@hawaii.edu) International Research and Fellowships Coordinator, School of Pacific and Asian Studies. Modern Korean intellectual history; ancient Korea's relations with Japan.
Christopher J. Bae (cjbae@hawaii.edu) Professor of Anthropology. East Asian prehistory; paleoanthropology; vertebrate taphonomy; behavioral ecology; quantitative analysis; modern human origins; origins of agriculture in Korea, Japan, and China. [ Web page ]
Tae-Ung Baik (tubaik@hawaii.edu) Director, Center for Korean Studies, and Professor of Law. International criminal law; human rights in Asia; criminal procedure; Korean law. [ Web page ]
Sang Yee Cheon (scheon@hawaii.edu) Associate Professor of Korean Language and Director, Korean Language Flagship Center. Korean linguistics; phonetics/phonology; second-language acquisition; teaching language and culture through film/media. [ Web page ]
Cheehyung Harrison Kim (chk7@hawaii.edu) Assistant Professor of History. East Asia, Korea, North Korea, socialism, labor, industrialism, everyday life, urban life, transnationality, visuality. [ Web page ]
Karl E. Kim (karlk@hawaii.edu) Professor of Urban and Regional Planning. Korean film; Cheju tourism development; attitudes of U.S.-trained planners in Korea. [ Web page ]
Mary Shin Kim (maryskim@hawaii.edu) Associate Professor of Korean Language. Discourse analysis; conversation analysis; Korean vocabulary acquisition; Korean language pedagogy. [ Web page ]
Min-Sun Kim (kmin@hawaii.edu) Professor of Communicology. Role of cognition in conversational styles among people of different cultural orientations. [ c.v. ]
Yung-Hee Kim (yunghee@hawaii.edu) Professor of Korean Literature. Modern Korean literature; modern Korean Women writers and fiction; Korean literature and culture. [ Web page ]
Byong Won Lee (byong@hawaii.edu) Professor of Ethnomusicology. Korean music. [ Web page ]
Hye-ryeon Lee (hyeryeon@hawaii.edu) Professor of Communicology. Health promotion among Korean Americans; health communication; intercultural communication. [ c.v. ]
Sang-Hyop Lee (leesang@hawaii.edu) Professor of Economics. Korea's labor market; aging population; education investment; human resources; labor economics; population economics; economic development. [ Web page ]
Yean Ju Lee (yjlee@hawaii.edu) Associate Professor of Sociology. Aging, gender stratification, and family issues in East Asia. [ c.v. ]
William O'Grady (ogrady@hawaii.edu) Professor of Linguistics. Korean linguistics (syntax, language acquisition). [ Web page ]
Gary Yong Gi Pak (gpak@hawaii.edu) Professor of English. Korean-American/Asian-American/Ethnic American literatures; contemporary Korean cinema; contemporary Korean culture; Korean literature in translation;Korean immigrant history in Hawaii. [ Web page ]
Hyoung-June Park (hjpark@hawaii.edu) Associate Professor of Architecture. Morphological transformation; digital design. [ Web page ]
Mee-Jeong Park (meejeong@hawaii.edu) Associate Professor of Korean Language. Instructional technology;K-ToBl; Korean boundary tones; Korean sentence-ending suffixes. [ Web page ]
Young-a Park (yapark@hawaii.edu) Associate Professor of Asian Studies. Social movements; film industry; North Korean refugees. [ Web page ]
S. Ghon Rhee (rheesg@hawaii.edu) Professor of International Finance and Banking. Corporate finance; market microstructure; investment; financial market policy in the areas of development of the corporate, government, and municipal bond markets; pension systems; regional financial markets integration. [ Web page ]
R. Anderson Sutton (rasutton@hawaii.edu) Dean of the School of Pacific and Asian Studies and assistant vice chancellor for international and exchange programs. Korean contemporary musical practice and issues of identity; fusion aesthetics; mass media.
Myungji Yang (myang4@hawaii.edu) Assistant Professor of Political Science. Comparative politics; Korean politics; development and democracy; class formation. [ Web page ]
Sun-Ki Chai (sunki@hawaii.edu) Professor of Sociology. Korean culture and patterns of economic development; Korean collective identity and mobilization; social theory; culture and rationality; development and social change in East Asia; race and ethnicity; formal modeling and simulation. [ Web page ]
Erica Soonyoung Chang (syoungc@hawaii.edu) Head, Cataloging Department, Thomas H. Hamilton Library.
Sumi Chang (changhan@hawaii.edu) Instructor, Korean Language Flagship Program. Korean sociolinguistics; pedagogy; second language acquisition. [ Web page ]
Han-Byul Chung (hchung2@hawaii.edu) Assistant Professor, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures. Syntax, Korean linguistics, Manchu, Syntax-semantics interface. [ Web page ]
Seunghye Hong (shong9@hawaii.edu) Associate Professor, Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work. Health/mental health; social determinants of health/mental health; neighborhood contexts; immigration; community practice; multicultural practices with diverse populations; research methods. [ Web page ]
Ji Young Kim (jkim22@hawaii.edu) Associate Professor, School of Communications. Strategic communications in international and national contexts. [ c.v. ]
Frederick Lau (fredlau@hawaii.edu) Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology. Chinese music; music and politics; musical change; nationalism, identity, and diaspora; avant-garde music. [ Web page ]
Hye Seung Lee (hyeseung@hawaii.edu) Instructor, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures. Korean linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Discourse analysis, Korean pedagogy. [ Web page ]
Thomas A. Osborne (thomasao@hawaii.edu) Professor of Music. Composition; music theory; Korean instruments, music, and poetry. [ Web page ]
Donald R. Womack (dwomack@hawaii.edu) Professor of Music. Music composition and theory; Korean instruments and music. [ Web page ]
Karl Moskowitz (karl.moskowitz@numbahana.com) Associate Member. History; social and economic development. [ Web page ]
Duk Hee Murabayashi (dhmurabayashi@gmail.com) Associate Member. Sociology; urban and regional planning.
Minja Kim Choe (mchoe@hawaii.edu) Senior Fellow, East-West Center, and Affiliate Graduate Faculty, UHM Population Studies. Family and gender issues; health behavior of adolescents and young adults; fertility and reproductive health; child survival; statistical analysis of demographic process.
Yong-ho Ch'oe (choeyh@hawaii.edu) Professor of History. Educational history of Korea; Koreans in Hawai'i.
Hugh H.W. Kang (hwkang@hawaii.edu) Professor of History. Late Silla-Early Koryŏ; comparative history of Korea, Japan, and China.
Joung-Im Kim (joungim@hawaii.edu) Associate Professor of Communication. Development/international communications; health communication in developing countries; social network analysis; diffusion of innovations.
Hagen Koo (hagenkoo@hawaii.edu) Professor of Sociology. Contemporary Korean society and culture; globalization and social inequality; comparative East Asian institutions. [ c.v. ]
Chung Hoon Lee (lchung@hawaii.edu) Professor of Economics. Role of the state and market in Asian economic development.
Dong Jae Lee (dongjlee@hawaii.edu) Associate Professor of Korean Language. Korean language teaching; general linguistics; languages in contact; sociolinguistics; Korean linguistics.
Andrew Mason (amason@hawaii.edu) Professor of Economics and Senior Fellow, East-West Center. Population economics; macroeconomics; economic growth; intergenerational transfers. [ c.v. ]
Edward J. Shultz (shultz@hawaii.edu) Professor of Asian Studies. Koryŏ history with a special interest in social, institutional, and political history; Korean history in general.
Ho-min Sohn (homin@hawaii.edu) Professor of Korean Language. Korean linguistics and sociolinguistics; Korean language pedagogy; general and Oceanic linguistics.
Judy Van Zile (zile@hawaii.edu) Professor of Dance. Traditional and contemporary Korean dance; issues relating to identity and change; dance iconography; movement analysis.