Jooyeon Rhee
Associate Professor of Asian Studies and Comparative Literature, Director of the Institute for Korean Studies, and Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Department of Asian Studies
It is not a secret that modern Korean literature, the popular literature that Jooyeon deals with, was influenced by European and American literature, but what is interesting is that writers and readers about a century ago received foreign culture with such enthusiasm. Koreans’ desire to know about other cultures was manifest in numerous translations of European and American literature. When many believe that countries in East Asia were not eager to contact the West, this example forces us to approach cultural history objectively by considering historical actors and objects that were previously marginalized. The open-minded attitude toward foreign culture has often led to the emergence of innovative, creative, and engaging art forms, and this was the case in Korea about a hundred years ago despite Japanese occupation.
“My familiarity with the South Korean education system, institutional practices, and academic trends has proven to be extremely useful for directing The Institute for Korean Studies at Penn State, which aims to develop our Korean studies as a top-quality program in North America and establish constructive relationships with educational institutes and academic communities in South Korea. My research background comes in handy for my involvement with community outreach programs such as presenting lectures, curating events, and connecting students with local communities and resources for educational initiatives focused on Korea.”
“I am currently writing my second book on Korean detective fiction and its connection with Euro-American detective fiction, and I have undertaken my third book-length research on food in literature and film, investigating how representations of food, eating, drinking, and cooking can tell us something novel about body, identity, and empathy in modern Korea.”