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Summary

I am a historian of East Asia, especially Korean politics and society from the fifteenth to the early twentieth century. After studying at UCLA and Harvard, I completed a postdoc with the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale and have held faculty appointments at the University of California, Irvine, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of ÁùºÏ±¦µä, Reno. I have taught at Harvard, Korea, McGill, Seoul National and Yonsei, as well as giving some 70 invited lectures, speeches or presentations, including the 26th Annual Stanley Spector Memorial Lecture on East Asian History and Civilization at Washington University in St. Louis (2019). I have been consulted by major projects of nonprofits, including Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (PBS), the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), and Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). In 2016, I co-chaired the organizing committee of the Eighth Biennial World Congress of Korean Studies.

Research interests

My research considers political power and social status, especially as understood through government service examinations, court ranks and offices, the divergence between ascriptive status and socioeconomic class, and the evolution of family history narratives. While my scholarship using primary sources focuses on Korea, I maintain a broad, comparative perspective and reflect on periodizing global history. In this context, I enjoy readings and conversations in evolutionary biology, deep history and population genetics. My new projects explore (1) animal symbolism in political ideology and (2) human interactions with felids.

Books

• . Edited volume. Routledge, 2025. In press.
• . By Kim Ingeol. Translation. Brill, 2024.
• . Stanford University Press, 2022.
• . Stanford University Press, 2018.
• . Edited volume (with Yi Tae-Jin and Kirk W. Larsen). Lexington Books, 2017.
• . Stanford University Press, 2014.
• . Harvard University Asia Center, 2007.

Courses taught

• HIST 209: World History II
• HIST 211: History of East Asia I
• HIST 306: History of Korea
• HIST 448A/648A: Korea and Empires
• HIST 488C/688C: Topics in Nature and Culture: Genes, Environment, and Global History
• HIST 499B: Applied History
• HIST 703: Advanced Studies in History
• HIST 705: Graduate Readings in History

Education

• Ph.D., East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, 1999
• A.M., Regional Studies East Asia, Harvard University, 1993
• B.A., History, University of California, Los Angeles, 1991