James Joo-Jin Kim Center for Korean Studies
The James Joo-Jin Kim Program in Korean Studies at the University of Pennsylvania is pleased to introduce two incoming Moon Family Postdoctoral Fellows for the 2019–2020 academic year: Ria Chae (left) and So-Rim Lee (right).
Ria Chae’s research deals with inter-Korean relations and nation-building on the Korean Peninsula, diplomatic histories of North and South Korea, and international relations and Cold War in East Asia. Her current book project tentatively titled “The Unending Cold War in Korea” situates inter-Korean relations within the global Cold War by reconstructing the development of the Cold War in Korea from 1945 to the contemporary period as a complex interplay of domestic developments within the two Koreas and the regimes’ interactions with each other and their patrons—the US, the USSR/Russia, and the PRC.
So-Rim Lee is the 2019-20 Moon Family Postdoctoral Fellow in Korean Studies at the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania. So-Rim’s research investigates the intersections of embodiment, everyday performance, and visual culture in contemporary Korea. Her doctoral dissertation, Performing the Self: Cosmetic Surgery and the Political Economy of Beauty in Korea, explores how cosmetic surgery became a mode of performing the self and subjectivity in South Korea post-1997 Asian Financial Crisis. So-Rim holds a B.A. in Film Studies from Columbia University, an M.A. in English Literature from Seoul National University, an M.A. in Text and Performance from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and a Ph.D. in Theater and Performance Studies from Stanford University.