Standing Up for Democracy: Studies of Democratic Renewal in Korea

Democracy faces mounting challenges across the globe. Deepening political polarization and growing inequality have weakened democratic norms and practices, undermining the foundations of democratic governance. Against this backdrop, South Korea’s vigorous history of citizen engagement for democracy offers useful insights.

WEBINAR

May 5, 7-8:30 PM
(Central U.S., UTC -6)

Yoonkyung Lee is a professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto, Canada. She is a political sociologist with research interests in labor politics, social movements, democracy, and the political economy of neoliberalism. She is the author of two books, “Between the Streets and the Assembly: Social Movements, Political Parties, and Democracy in Korea” (University of Hawaii Press, 2022) and “Militants or Partisans: Labor Unions and Democratic Politics in Korea and Taiwan” (Stanford University Press, 2011), in addition to a number of journal articles and book chapters on labor movements and democratic politics. Her recent publications include Cold War Undercurrents: The Extreme Right Variants in East Asian Democracies (Politics and Society, 2021), and Neoliberal Methods of Labor Repression: Privatized Violence and Dispossessive Litigation in Korea (Journal of Contemporary Asia, 2021: Journal of Contemporary Asia’s Best Article Prize in 2021).

Myungji Yang is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Hawai‘i-Mānoa. Her research interests include the political economy of development, democracy and civil society, and East Asia. Her research on development and democracy in South Korea has appeared in “Nations and Nationalism, Politics and Society, Mobilization: An International Inquiry, and Urban Studies,” among others. She is the author of “From Miracle to Mirage: The Making and Unmaking of the South Korean Middle Class, 1960-2015” (Cornell University Press, 2018). Her second book, titled “Reactionary Politics in South Korea: Historical Legacies, Far-Right Intellectuals, and Political Mobilization,” is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.

Veda Hyunjin Kim is an Assistant Professor of Sociology-Anthropology at Ohio Wesleyan University. His research spans historical sociology, decolonial and postcolonial thought, crimes of the powerful, transitional justice, global race studies, and feminism and intersectionality. His work has been published in the British Journal of Sociology, Journal of Genocide Research, Critical Sociology, Humanity and Society, and Sociology of Race and Ethnicity. He is currently working on a book manuscript titled “The Jeju Genocide, Necropolitical Sovereignty, and South Korean Subimperialism.”

Jae-Jung (aka J.J.) Suh is currently Professor at International Christian University (Tokyo, Japan). He has served as Associate Professor and Director of Korea Studies at SAIS, Johns Hopkins University, and Assistant Professor in Department of Government at Cornell University, as well as on the Presidential Commission on Policy Planning (Republic of Korea). An expert on U.S.-Korea relations, U.S. policy toward Asia, international relations of East Asia, international security, and IR theory, he is currently working on regional orders in East Asia, human security, and North Korea. He has authored and edited numerous journal articles and books, including “Power, Interest and Identity in Military Alliances” (2007); “Rethinking Security in East Asia: Identity, Power and Efficiency” (2004); “Truth and Reconciliation in the Republic of Korea: Between the Present and Future of the Korean Wars” (2012); “Origins of North Korea’s Juche: Colonialism, War, and Development” (2012); “The Imbalance of Power, the Balance of Asymmetric Terror: Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) in Korea,” “Changes in U.S. Military Strategy and the U.S.-Korea Alliance,” “The Two-Wars Doctrine and the Regional Arms Race: Contradictions in U.S. Post-Cold War Security Policy in Northeast Asia,” and “War-Like History or Diplomatic History? Historical Contentions and Regional Order in East Asia.”

He is a recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, including the Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research grant, SSRC-MacArthur Foundation Fellowship for Peace and Security in a Changing World, a grant from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Smith Richardson Foundation grant, and the East-West Center fellowship. He was Distinguished Professor at Ewha Womans University, Visiting Professor at Seoul National University, Research Professor at Yonsei University, Visiting Scholar at MIT and Visiting Fellow at University of California, Irvine. He received his PhD and master’s in political science from the University of Pennsylvania and BA in physics from the University of Chicago.

Yunju Nam is an Associate Professor at the School of Social Work at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. She holds a PhD in social work and social science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, an MSW from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA from Seoul National University.

Dr. Nam’s research focuses on social policies for economic security and opportunities for disadvantaged populations, with a particular emphasis on the immigrant population. Her work explores key economic and social issues central to policy and academic discussions, including welfare reform, asset-based social policy, and the economic stability and mobility of immigrants and refugees. Currently, her research examines the economic integration and adaptation of refugees and Asian/Korean immigrants, analyzing key dimensions such as financial capability and asset building (FCAB), access to government benefits, and labor market outcomes. Her community-engaged research integrates theories and methodologies from multiple disciplines and employs quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods approaches.

Her research has received funding from governmental agencies and private foundations, including the New York State Office of New Americans and the Sociological Initiative Foundation. Her work has been published in leading academic journals such as the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, the Journal of Consumer Affairs, the International Migration Review, and the Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research.

Dr. Jamie Doucette is Reader in Human Geography at the University of Manchester. He has written widely on geographical political economy, labour rights, urban transformation, and democratic struggles. He is the author of “The Postdevelopmental State: Dilemmas of Economic Democratization in Contemporary South Korea” (University of Michigan Press, 2024).

Michael Sherraden, PhD, is the George Warren Brown Distinguished University Professor at Washington University in St. Louis, founding director of Washington University’s Center for Social Development, and founding director of Next Age Institute, a collaboration between Washington University and National University of Singapore, where he was the inaugural S.R. Nathan Professor of Social Work. In creating and testing innovations to improve well-being, Sherraden has defined and informed a growing body of applied research and policy to promote inclusion in asset building. This work has influenced numerous asset-based policies and programs in the U.S. and other countries, including Child Development Account policies. Sherraden has received the Distinguished Career Achievement Award from the Society for Social Work and Research, the Career Achievement Award from the Association for Community Organization and Social Administration, and numerous other honors. TIME magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.