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.

Koreatown and the Korean American Experience

The March First Symposium on History and Democracy

Korean Language, Literature, and Translation

Korean Media and Performing Arts

Technoscience, Environment, and Culture

The U.S-Korea Network in Economics, Policy, and International Relations

Upcoming Workshop

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.

Program Link
Event Spotlight

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. 

Link for more information
Event spotlight

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.

Event Spotlight

Technoscience, Gender, and Cultural Transformations

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.

See the full program
Faculty News

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

    KSI Undergraduate Fellows Program

    The Korean Studies Institute (KSI) Undergraduate Fellows Program offers outstanding USC undergraduates the opportunity to conduct original research on Korean and Korean American history, culture, and society under close faculty mentorship. During the fall semester, fellows are required to enroll in KSI 399 (#25813) for four units, a course structured as an honors thesis–style seminar in Korean studies. In this seminar, students develop and refine a substantial research paper through guided instruction, peer workshop, and individualized feedback.

    In the spring semester, fellows continue revising their papers for presentation at the annual joint undergraduate research conference co-organized by KSI, the Nam Center for Korean Studies at the University of Michigan, and the James Joo-Jin Kim Center for Korean Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Alumni of the program have gone on to receive prestigious awards and fellowships, and many have successfully used their final papers for graduate school applications or journal publication.

    In addition, undergraduate fellows receive priority access to KSI events and may be invited to select reception dinners, thus benefiting from intellectual and professional networking opportunities beyond the classroom. Students with strong intellectual curiosity about Korean studies who are seeking sustained, guided research and mentorship are especially encouraged to apply.

    East Asian Languages and Cultures: Majors and Minors

    The core requirements for the EALC major and minor allow students flexibility in designing their own course of study. Majors typically select one language and cultural area (Chinese, Japanese, or Korean) in which they do most of their course work. Students are encouraged to explore beyond their individual language focus by enrolling in the full range of EALC courses available in literature, film, history, media, and other aspects of East Asian cultures. Learn more.

    Korean Language Program

    Being able to speak another language simply provides you with better opportunities as well as personal enrichment. Or you may want to pursue that interest in K-pop or Korean TV dramas. These are just a few reasons to learn Korean. Whatever your motivation, the Korean Language Program at USC will help you to achieve your goal of acquiring linguistic and cultural competence in the Korean language.

    East Asian Studies Center: Korean Studies Minor

    The Korean Studies (KRNS) minor is intended for students who are interested in the political, economic, social and cultural changes of the area, and draws upon courses from departments across the social sciences, humanities, and professional schools. The East Asian Studies Center also offers majors and minors in East Asian Area Studies.

    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.