Korean Studies Research Hub

Dr Jay Song, KSRH Director and Associate Professor in Korean Studies

Jay is a Korea Foundation Associate Professor in Korean Studies and Research Coordinator for the Migration, Gender, and Environment cluster at the Asia Institute. Song conducts research in the areas of North Korea, human rights and Asian migration. Her current research projects focus on Korean migration to Australia using complexity theory. More information

Dr Daejeong Choi, Associate Professor in Management

Daejeong is an Associate Professor in the Department of Management and Marketing. He conducts research on human resource management systems, employee behaviours and outcomes, and work team leadership. Daejeong is developing a research project on global mobilities, focussing on Korean Australian immigrant workers, expatriates, and second-generation Korean Australians. More information

Dr Jonathan Glade, Lecturer in Korean and Japanese Studies

Jonathan is a Lecturer in Korean and Japanese Studies at the Asia Institute. Jonathan’s research focuses on Korean culture from regional and global perspectives. His current research project looks at the globalisation of Korean and Japanese food and the ways in which food intersects with notions of nation and identity. Jonathan coordinates the class “Global Cultures of Japan and Korea,” which explores Korean culture’s global spread and impact. More information

Dr Hyungmin Kim, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning

Hyung Min is a Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning. His research focuses on the economic and spatial dynamics of cities, investigating the urban implications of global activities such as Foreign Direct Investment, international students, and international real estate investment. His research pays attention to globalisation of Korean urban development, South and North Korean cities, and Korean outward investment. More information

Dr Peter K. Lee, KF Research Fellow

Peter is a Korea Foundation Research Fellow, undertaking a policy project on “Korea-Australia Middle Power Collaboration” in March 2022 - May 2023. His research focuses on Korea-Australia relations, middle powers, and security cooperation. Peter is also a Research Fellow in the Foreign Policy and Defence Program at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. Previously, he was a Research Associate at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul. He received a BA (Hons) and MIR from the University of Melbourne and his PhD from the Australian National University.

Dr Wonsun Shin, Associate Professor in Media and Communications

Wonsun is a Associate Professor in Media and Communications, in the School of Culture and Communications. Wonsun’s research looks at young peoples’ engagements with digital media, privacy management, and parental mediation. She also conducts research on digital media use in advertising and its impacts on consumers. Wonsun is working on research projects investigating digital media use by Asian-Australians during COVID-19 and Korean consumers’ privacy concerns in dealing with online advertisers, and has extensive expertise in quantitative research methods. More information

Dr Richard Sandberg, Professor in Computational Mechanics

Richard is Chair Professor of Computational Mechanics in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and an ARC Future Fellow. He is also the lead for the Power Generation and Transport program of the Melbourne Energy Institute. He conducts industry-focused research on gas turbines for electricity generation and aircraft propulsion with the focus on both reducing emissions from current technologies and on developing new solutions that help enable the transition to sustainable fuels, like hydrogen. He collaborates with Korean researchers on gas turbine research and is keen to also develop industry partnerships in Korea. More information

Dr Dongryeol Ryu, Professor in Infrastructure Engineering

Dongryeol Ryu is a Professor in the Department of Infrastructure Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Australia. He currently leads the Environmental Hydrology and Water Resources Group.  His research is specialized in remote sensing of land surface and the roles of land surface changes in hydroclimate processes. He works closely with the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) and other various institution of Korea on the innovation use of remote sensing for Earth and environmental monitoring. Dongryeol received Ph.D. degree in Earth System Science from University of California, Irvine in 2006, and the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Geological Sciences from Seoul National University, Korea. More information

Dr Nicola Fraschini, Senior Lecturer in Korean Language

Nicola is Senior Lecturer in Korean Studies at the Asia Institute. His research area is Korean language teaching, and his projects investigate the psychology of language learning, such as the role of teachers’ and learners’ motivation and emotions in instructed Korean language education. Nicola is also active in writing and publishing learning material for Korean language students.

Dr Sin Ji Jung, Lecturer in Korean Language

Sin Ji is a lecturer in Korean Studies at the Asia Institute. Her research focuses on heritage language acquisition and bilingualism and it extends to Korean linguistics and learning Korean as a second or heritage language. Sin Ji is currently investigating the language maintenance and shift of the Korean ethnolinguistic community in Australia using Australian Censuses. She is also looking into sociolinguistic aspects that influence the acquisition and maintenance of the Korean language in children of Korean immigrant families in Australia.

Associate Professor Sungkyung Kim, AKS Visiting Fellow

Sung Kyung is Associate Professor at the University of North Korean Studies (UNKS) in Seoul, Korea. She also serves as a deputy director of the Center for North-South Korea Mind Integration at the UNKS and editor-in-chief for the Review of North Korean Studies. In 2018-2021, she was a member of Peace and Prosperity Division in the Presidential Commission and board member of the Ministry of Unification in Korea. Prior to these positions, Sung Kyung was a lecturer at the Department of Sociology and senior visiting fellow at Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore. Her research interests include North Korean mobility, sociology of emotion, and cultural geography. Sung Kyung received her Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Essex in UK.

Associate Professor Jeffrey Robertson, KF Visiting Fellow

Dr. Robertson is an Associate Professor of Diplomatic Studies at Yonsei University. He worked for the Australian Government in the field of foreign policy and North Asia, focusing on China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japan. His research interests include diplomatic practice, foreign policy, Korean peninsula affairs. His main research areas include diplomatic studies, foreign policy, and South Korea. Dr. Robertson’s time with the Korean Studies Research Hub (KSRH) at the University of Melbourne will be spent completing a book on the Australia-Korea bilateral relationship with the support of an Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) Australia-Korea Foundation (AKF) Grant. The book uses a diplomatic studies approach to secure insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the Australia-Korea bilateral relationship.

Jaedon Shin, Artist in Residence

Jaedon Shin was born in Korea and migrated to Australia.  He graduated Fine Art at RMIT University in 2011 and is currently Melbourne based. Through his practice Jaedon contemplates inter and trans cultural experiences-interrogating his dual identity as a Korean and Australian subject and the enduring impression of his upbringing in Korea-a divided nation, where each side of the country lives in apprehension, fear and longing for the other–combined with the experience of being a migrant in Australia.  Jaedon explores narratives that are often highly personal and critical in nature and that reveal a desire for human connection, identity and belonging.

Ms Jasmine Barrett, PhD Candidate

Jasmine is an AKS PhD candidate at the Asia Institute. Her research focuses on the development of the disability sector in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Her dissertation is tentatively titled, “Disability in the DPRK: Identity, social inclusion, and changing perceptions of disability”. Prior to joining the Asia Institute, Jasmine was an entrepreneur partnering with the Korean Federation for the Protection of the Disabled to create employment for people with disability in the DPRK.

Mr Theo Mendez, PhD Candidate

Theo is a PhD candidate at the Asia Institute and the Melbourne Climate Futures Hub. Theo’s research focuses on the potential for greater collaboration between South Korea and Australia in clean energy, and the ways in which this could transform Australia-South Korea relations. His dissertation is tentatively titled “Building a Sustainable Relationship: Examining the Potential for Greater Collaboration between Australia and South Korea in Clean Energy”. Before joining the University of Melbourne, Theo was an undergraduate researcher at the University of Western Australia’s Korea Research Centre where he researched the representation of Asia in Australian education policies.

Mr Spencer Hines, PhD Candidate

Spencer is a PhD candidate in Screen and Cultural Studies at the School of Culture and Communication. His thesis centres on the films and creative practice of South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo. Investigating the creative principles and methodologies observed in the films’ production, Spencer’s research gestures toward a broader focus on the history of film and the creative arts within the Korean context. Spencer has also completed a Graduate Certificate focussing on Korean Studies at the University of Melbourne.

Lulu Spencer, PhD Candidate

Lulu is a PhD student at the Asia Institute. Lulu's thesis focuses on uncovering the stories of migration from Korea to Australia from the mid-19^th century to 1945.  Lulu has been a research assistant at the Korea Hub since 2021.  As a politics student at the University of Melbourne, they completed an honours thesis on identity in Korea-Japan relations in 2020. Lulu has obtained a graduate certificate in Public Policy from the Australian National University and plans to continue to explore these areas of interest in the field of Korean Studies.

Jeongwon (Won) Lee, PhD Candidate

Won is a PhD student at the Asia Institute. Her research centres on the Korean diaspora in Latin America, particularly Cuba. Before joining the Asia Institute, Won completed her bachelor's and master's degrees in Spanish and Latin American Studies at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. She also worked as a graduate research assistant for the ‘Chile K-Package Project’ identifying bilateral ties between Chile and South Korea. Continuing to build on her background and interest in soft power and diasporic people, she aims to investigate how diaspora diplomacy can become South Korea’s soft power policy, developing and bolstering diplomatic relations.

Ms Jun Kim, Honours Candidate

Jun is an honours student at the Arts Faculty at the University of Melbourne. She is currently conducting research under the supervision of Dr. Jay Song, focusing on Korean feminism, migration and the Presbyterian church during the Japanese annexation of Korea. She is also a research assistant at the Korea Hub and the Culture & Communications Department at the University of Melbourne. Jun hopes to pursue further study in Korean Studies at the completion of her degree.