I am a feminist, cultural, and political geographer studying comfort women activism led by South Korean postcolonial subjects in the context of East Asian (post) Cold War geopolitics.

My dissertation research focuses on Korean postcolonial subjects’ activist-memorial projects—such as campaigns and statues—for “comfort women,” the female victims of the Japanese military’s forced brothel program during the Asia-Pacific war. By analyzing interview data and fieldnotes from participant observation in campaigns for comfort women, my dissertation examines how geopolitical and postcolonial melancholia, dynamics of (dis)comfort, and minjungism (nationalist populism) are deeply embedded in comfort women movements led by South Koreans.