The Korean Language, Literature and Translation initiative is dedicated to supporting research and projects related to the Korean language, literature, and translation by faculty at USC and within the Southern California region. Under this program, KSI organizes and sponsors a diverse array of events, including language pedagogy workshops, literature studies conferences, literary exchange events, and the annual Hangeul Day festival.
The institute also facilitates the publication of the archival materials of USC’s Korean Heritage Library and the translation and publication of Korean literature through the Magpie Series in Global Korean Literature, published by Kaya Press. The initiative aims at both promoting scholarly inquiry and enhancing the accessibility of Korean and Korean-language American literary works to a wider audience.
Upcoming Events
A Seminar on Premodern Korean Literature with Professor Chung Kil Soo
April 2, 2026
Ahn Family House
Join us for a lecture on premodern Korean literature with Professor Chung Kil Soo (Department of Korean Language and Literature, Seoul National University). This seminar event offers a rare opportunity to meet a distinguished South Korean scholar who has a broad expertise on both vernacular and Sinitic premodern Korean literature. Required readings for all participants are the guest speaker’s two articles on the Tale of Chunhyang and the colonial canonization of premodern Korean fiction. We invite you to bring your insights and questions to this focused forum as we explore the rich complexities and cultural nuances of Korea’s premodern literary traditions. RSVP Link Here
*This event will be in Korean only. Lunch will be provided.
Reimagining Feminist Korean Studies Workshop
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.
Past Events
Traditions of East Asian Typography Conference
Friday, March 6, 2026. 9:00 am – 4:50 pm
USC Doheny Memorial Library
The Conference on Traditions of East Asian Typography 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 aim of this conference was to interrogate 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. We welcome proposals from scholars of any academic rank or geographical location.
The conference was co-sponsored by the USC Libraries Korean Heritage Library and the RBS-Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography.
“Crawling through Worm-Time: Park Wan-suh’s Para-sitic Intervention into Cold War South Korea” New Book Talk by Professor Yi We Jung
Wednesday, February 4, 2026. 3:30 pm – 4:50 pm
Ahn House
We hosted Professor Yi, Assistant Professor of Asian Studies at the Vanderbilt University, for a talk on her new book Crawling through Worm-Time: Park Wan-suh’s Para-sitic Invention into Cold War South Korea. Professor Yi discussed how Park San-suh’s writings about the Korean War contested the hegemonic regimes, whether biopolitical or epistemic, by conjuring up the repressed memories of women’s experiences of the war. Akin to the burrowing action of the earthworms who visibly fertilize our soil, the talk suggested Park’s aesthetics of p’owŏl—“crossing through crawling” (匍越)—forges new connections between the dead and the living so that we can re-vision the past and cultivate a future of coexistence beyond mere survival.
Professor Yi’s research and teaching explore how Korean people, ideas, and products traverse geopolitical divides and socio-technological infrastructure, with the goal of rethinking national identities, representational systems, and everyday practices in our ever-globalizing world.
The event was co-Sponsored by the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures.
We hosted a K-12 Korean language speech contest, K-Woolim Speech Contest, on Saturday, November 1st, 2025. A number of local elementary, middle, and high school students participated and were recognized with medals, prizes, and certificates.
The event was organized by the Korean Language Program at the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and the Korean language teachers at the Torrance Unified School District, and co-sponsored by the USC Korean Studies Institute, the International Korean Educators Network and the Korean Language Teachers Association.
Hangul Day Celebration
Wednesday, October 8, 2025. 10:30 am – 1:30 pm
Ahn House
We commemorated the Hangul Day and celebrated the proclamation of Hangul, the Korean alphabet, by King Sejong. Attendees participated in craft stations, writing contest raffles, letter crafts and traditional games. The event was organized by the Korean language program and co-sponsored by the Korean Heritage Library and the Korean Cultural Center in Los Angeles.
Radical Histories: A Roundtable of Korean/American Authors
Friday, September 19, 2025. 7:00 pm (EST)
Brooklyn Bookfest, New York
KSI co-sponsored the roundtable event, “Radical Histories: A Roundtable of Korean/American Authors,” organized by the Kaya Press and the Asian American Writers Workshop at the Brooklyn Bookfest. The event featured leading Korean American writers for both nonfiction and fictional works. Link for more information about the event
USC hosted the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Korean Literature Association. See its full program.
Continuing Programs
The Magpie Series in Global Korean Literature
The Magpie Series by Kaya Press opens new horizons in Korean literature in English translation by introducing exciting new literary voices from Korea, past and present. The series includes literary fiction and compelling works from the world of Korean science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Magpie’s catalogue will be a reflexive picture of Korea and the breakneck speed of its changing interactions with the world.
Hangul Day
The USC Korean language program annually hosts a Hangul Day celebration, inviting students and community members to learn more about 한글(Hangeul), or the Korean language . 한글날(HangeulNal) is annually observed in South Korea on October 9 to commemorate the invention and proclamation of the Korean Alphabet system.
Nak Chung Thun Manuscripts
KSI supports the publication of the manuscripts of early Korean American writer Nak Chung Thun (1917-1937). Thun’s writings are today part of the collections of USC’s Korean Heritage Library. An anthology of Thun’s essays and short stories, Gujejeok Gangdo (Righteous Robber; 2020), has been published in Korea in two versions: the annotated original script and a modern Korean translation. Both volumes are edited by Jaemoon Hwang of the Kyujanggak Institute at Seoul National University. See Thun’s digital archive and YTN Korean news report on the publication event. The Tale of Hong Chungnae, an alternate-history set in Xth century Korea, is forthcoming in 2025 by the Seoul National University Press.