Welcome
The USC Korean Studies Institute (KSI) celebrates its 30th anniversary this year as a dynamic hub for interdisciplinary research and academic exchange in Korean studies at USC and beyond. The Institute supports research and teaching on globally relevant issues within the Korean context through its research-oriented initiatives and student-centered programs.
The KSI Event Calendar
Sign Up for Our Mailing List
Faculty-Led Research Initiatives
The institute supports a range of research initiatives that include global Korean history, language and literature, politics, media and performance arts, technoscience, urban studies, and environmental humanities.
Korean America and U.S-Korea Relations
Friday, April 17
Tutor Campus Center 450
This symposium examines the historical and contemporary relationship between Korea and the United States, with particular attention to the Korean diaspora in Los Angeles. Korean migration to the United States began shortly after the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1882, and by the early twentieth century Korean communities had taken root in Hawai’i and California. Korean Americans played a key role in the Korean independence movement during the period of Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945), and they contributed as activists and as soldiers to the U.S. military effort during WWII. Today, Korean Americans continue to shape political, economic, and cultural developments to both their ancestral land and their home country.
Bringing together regional as well as national experts, this event seeks to develop a more nuanced understanding of the place of Korean Americans within the interwoven histories of the two nations, in the process also deepening our knowledge of national histories themselves. Along with scholarly panels, the symposium will feature a roundtable of youth activists from Los Angeles’s Korean American community, seeking to identify policy concerns and future directions in light of both history and current conditions. Download the poster with the full program. and see the abstracts here.
This symposium is organized by USC’s Korean Studies Institute and is sponsored by the Korea Foundation, UCLA’s Center for Korean Studies, and USC’s Korean Heritage Library.
Reimagining Feminist Korean Studies
April 24, 2026
Ahn Family House
This one-day workshop brings together emerging scholars and established voices to reimagine the epistemic foundations of Korean Studies through feminist, queer, indigenous, decolonial, and transnational frameworks. Responding to the rise of right-wing authoritarianism, intensified anti-feminist backlash in South Korea, and the persistent marginalization of feminist discourse in Anglophone Korean Studies, the workshop creates space for collaborative dialogue and methodological innovation. RSVP Link
Co-sponsored by the Center for Feminist Research, East Asian Studies Center, and the USC Libraries Korean Heritage Library.
Traditions of East Asian Typography Conference
The Conference on Traditions of East Asian Typography was held on March 6, 2026, at the University of Southern California. The conference investigated the autochthonous traditions of movable type in East Asia before the arrival of Western letterpress and lithography in the late nineteenth century. Woodblock was the dominant and preferred method of printing in East Asia up until the nineteenth century. By contrast, East Asia’s home-grown typographic traditions often seem like an afterthought, an eccentricity, or an abandoned experiment that failed to match the Gutenberg revolution. Yet, typography was never entirely discontinued, and diverse actors utilized movable type at particular times, in specific places, or for certain objectives, often in direct competition with xylography. The conference interrogated these traditions as distinct technological systems, explore their possible mutual interactions, and to push the English language scholarship on East Asian typography, and East Asian book history more broadly, in new directions
K-Pops!: A Conversation with Anderson.Paak and Khaila Amazan
USC Annenberg and the USC Korean Studies Institute hosted an engaging conversation featuring K-Pops! star, director, and writer Anderson .Paak and his co-writer Khaila Amazan on March 5th. The event was organized and moderated by USC Annenberg Clinical Associate Professor Hye Jin Lee.
The discussion focused on exploring the development of the film, .Paak’s journey as a filmmaker, the use of K-pop as a cinematic device, his collaboration with K-pop artists, and broader themes of racial identity and music’s power to connect generations and cultures.
‘K-Pops!’ is a family comedy that centers on a struggling Los Angeles musician who moves to South Korea in hopes of revising his career by joining a K-pop band and competing in a television music competition, only to discover that his long-lost son is on the verge of becoming a K-pop superstar. Rather than using his connection to his son as another opportunity for fame, he ultimately chooses to embrace his role as a father as they grow closer together.
Starring Anderson .Paak, Jee Young Han, Jonnie “Dumbfoundead” Park, Soul Rasheed, Yvette Nicole Brown, and Kevin Woo, the film premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival and is currently in theaters.U
Technoscience, Gender, and Cultural Transformations
Friday, April 17
Tutor Campus Center 450
This symposium examines the historical and contemporary relationship between Korea and the United States, with particular attention to the Korean diaspora in Los Angeles. Korean migration to the United States began shortly after the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1882, and by the early twentieth century Korean communities had taken root in Hawai’i and California. Korean Americans played a key role in the Korean independence movement during the period of Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945), and they contributed as activists and as soldiers to the U.S. military effort during WWII. Today, Korean Americans continue to shape political, economic, and cultural developments to both their ancestral land and their home country.
Bringing together regional as well as national experts, this event seeks to develop a more nuanced understanding of the place of Korean Americans within the interwoven histories of the two nations, in the process also deepening our knowledge of national histories themselves. Along with scholarly panels, the symposium will feature a roundtable of social activists from Los Angeles’s Korean American community, seeking to identify policy concerns and future directions in light of both history and current conditions.
This symposium is organized by USC’s Korean Studies Institute and is sponsored by the Korea Foundation and USC’s Korean Heritage Library.
February 13-14, 2026
Rosen Family Screening Room (TCC 227), Tutor Campus Center, USC Parkside Campus
KSI successfully hosted the Conference on Technoscience, Gender and Cultural Transformations in Korea. This international conference advanced the growing interdisciplinary field of cultural studies of science and technology in Korea by examining the dynamic intersections of technoscience, gender, and culture. Notably, the number of South Korean women in STEM fields has more than tripled since the 1990s, a trend that underscores women’s expanding roles beyond traditional STEM careers, spanning science fiction writing, science communication, and other technology-based cultural innovations. The conference fostered dialogue across disciplines and methodologies to deepen our insights into both the gendered impacts of contemporary technoscientific developments and the ways in which embodied perspectives inform technoscientific practices and cultural imaginaries. See the presenters’ bios and abstracts.
Co-sponsored by the Northeast Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies; the Korea Foundation; USC Libraries; USC’s Center for Feminist Research; the Center for International Studies; and the Office of the Divisional Dean of Social Sciences, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.p
Congratulations to Professor Esther K. Chae and the Production Team of Nickelodeon’s Wylde Pak for Its Nomination for the 2026 Children’s & Family Emmy Awards!
On October 7, 2025, the USC Korean Studies Institute hosted a screening of Wylde Pak, Nickelodeon’s 2D-animated series about a blended, multigenerational Korean American family. The event was followed by a conversation with members of the creative team, including creators and executive producers Paul Watling and Kyle Marshall. Check out the event highlight video!
Professor Esther K. Chae of USC’s School of Dramatic Arts served as the show’s Korean Cultural Consultant, collaborating with the team to ensure cultural veracity throughout the entire series.
KSI extends its warm congratulations to Professor Chae and the entire Wylde Pak team on the show’s nomination for a 2026 Emmy Award in the category of Children’s or Young Teen Animated Series.
Korean Studies Programs at USC
Our Community
Graduate Students
Graduate Students can organize the annual USC Conference in Korean Studies, participate in the Bridging Asia Conference, and receive the Summer Fieldwork Grant.
Undergraduate Students
Undergraduate Students are invited to join the KSI Fellows Program and participate in the Joint Conference with the Nam Center of Korean Studies at the University of Michigan.
Visiting Scholars
KSI annually hosts visiting scholars from academia, government, and private organizations. Visiting scholars are welcome to take active part in the institute’s activities.