Encounters Unbound: A conversation on Korea-US transpacific history and cultural exchange with Professors Chris Suh and Jae Won Edward Chung

The Korean Cultural Center New York (KCCNY) invites Professor Chris Suh, in the Department of History at Emory University and Professor Jae Won Edward Chung, in the Department of Korean Studies, Asian Languages and Cultures at Rutgers University for a special lecture and panel discussion around the KCCNY’s current exhibition, The Wonder Unbound, to provide a deeper understanding of the history of Korea-US relations and narrative of cultural exchange.

This event will lead with a special introduction of The Allure of Empire and how it ties into the narratives of US and Asian-American history reflected in The Wonder Unbound exhibition, followed by a discussion and Q&A session with Professors Suh and Chung on the topics.

Professor Chris Suh received his doctorate in History at Stanford University in 2019, and his recently published book, The Allure of Empire: American Encounters with Asians in the Age of Transpacific Expansion and Exclusion (Oxford University Press, 2023) examines the international history of US-Asia relations from multiple angles and brings together the histories of Korea, Japan, and the immigration movements into the US. “Suh offers a new interpretation of the Progressive Era by uncovering the intertwined history of US empire building in the Pacific [...] In recovering this lost history, Chris Suh reveals the surprising extent to which debates about Korea shaped the politics of interracial cooperation.”

Professor Jae Won Edward Chung received his Ph.D in Korean Literature at Columbia University and since 2019 has been teaching Korean Studies at Rutgers University. He also taught undergraduate writing at Columbia and translation at Ewha Womans University and Literature Translation Institute in Korea.

This program is specially taking part to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the ROK-U.S. Alliance.

About Chris Suh

Chris Suh is an Assistant Professor of History at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. He grew up in Seoul and Baltimore, MD, and he received his PhD in US history from Stanford University in 2019. Over the past four years, he has received numerous awards for his research, teaching, and service at Emory and in the profession. He is the author of the recently published book, The Allure of Empire: American Encounters with Asians in the Age of Transpacific Expansion and Exclusion (New York: Oxford University Press, 2023), which reveals the surprising extent to which debates about Korea shaped the politics of interracial cooperation between the United States and Japan before World War II.

About Jae Won Edward Chung

Jae Won Edward Chung is a professor, writer, and translator based in New Jersey. He spent part of his childhood in Seoul, grew up in Philadelphia, and was educated at Macalester College, Swarthmore College, and Columbia University. Prior to earning his Ph.D. in Korean literature in 2017, he received his M.F.A. in creative writing and worked as a literary translator in Seoul and New York. He also taught undergraduate writing at Columbia and translation at Ewha Womans University and Literature Translation Institute in Korea.

From 2017 to 2019, he taught Korean studies courses at University of Colorado Boulder as the first tenure-track appointment in Korean in the department of Asian Languages and Civilizations. He was also an affiliate faculty in the department of Ethnic Studies. Since September 2019, he has been teaching at Rutgers University-New Brunswick‘s department of Asian Languages and Cultures. He is also an affiliate faculty of the Comparative Literature program. He has taught courses on East Asian society and culture, Korean popular culture, Korean cinema, modern Korean literature, and Korean civilization.

He is currently working on a monograph on the intersection of literature, photography, and cinema of South Korea’s First Republic, 1948-1960, entitled Warning Zones: Space, Power, and Mobility in Early South Korea.

He has contributed writing and translations to various literary and scholarly journals. In addition to giving research talks in New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Seattle, Denver, Ann Arbor, Seoul, London, and Helsinki, he has appeared in public events at Korea Society, Korean Cultural Center NY, and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. He has shared his expertise with print venues intended for a broader audience, such as The Philadelphia Inquirer, Boston Review, The New York Times, The American Reader, Asymptote, and National Geographic.