Cultural Anthropology

Middle East Cultures, Iranian Society, Islam, Gender, Migration and Refugee, Young Generation, Popular and Digital Culture

 

1. Education:

• PH. Degree ; 2013; Cultural Anthropology; Seoul National University, Korea
• Master’s degree;2004; Cultural Anthropology; Seoul National University, Korea
• Bachelor Degree; 2000 ; Persian and Iranian studies; Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Korea

2.     Professional Experience

• Seoul National university Asia Center; Senior Research Fellow (2018-2020.8)
• Yonsei University; 9/2014- Now; lecturer
• Seoul National University; lecturer
• Seoul National University; 3/2013-8/2016; Researcher of Institute of Cross-Cultural Studies
• Hanyang University; 9/2016-2/2018; Researcher
• National University of Singapore; 1/2014-2/2014; Senior Researcher

 

3. Active Memberships in Professional Associations:

• Advisory committee member, Ministry of Justice
• Fulbright KOREA Foundation and U.S. State Department grantee for Study of the U.S. Institute for Scholars and Professionals on Religious Pluralism in year 2022.
• Director of external cooperation, Association of Korean Middle East Studies
• Member, Association of Korean Islamic Studies

 

4. Professional Responsibilities:

I am a HK research professor at Seoul National University Asia Center. I am serving as an advisor for refugees for the Ministry of Justice. I was a visiting senior research fellow of the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore. My current interest focuses on Islamophobia in Korea, Muslim migration and refugee in Korea, Media and Social Movements in Iran, Young Generation’s Popular Culture, and Iranian Women.

I am a Fulbright KOREA Foundation and U.S. State Department grantee for Study of the U.S. Institute for Scholars and Professionals on Religious Pluralism in year 2022

 

5. Publications

Books

• 2023, “Riding the Korean wave in Iran: Cyberfeminism and pop culture among young Iranian women.”  Lee, SooJin, Kate Korroch, and Liew Kai Khiun, eds. Women We Love: Femininities and the Korean Wave. Hong Kong University Press, 2023.
• 2023 “The Choice for the “Zendegie Normal (Normal Life)”: Changes Among Iranian Young Immigrants.” Social Change in the Gulf Region: Multidisciplinary Perspectives. Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore, 2023. 249-267.
• 2023, Asian Women Persist: Anthropologists Answer Feminist Questions, Main Editor, Seoul National University Press.
• 2023, The Geography of Asia: Nations and Cities-West Asia & Central Asia, Zininzin
• 2023, Restructuring Asia and Asian Identity in the Post-Cold War Era, Main Editor, Zininzin
• 2022, The Arab Spring and Ten Years Thereafter, Main Editor, Seoul National University Press.
• 2022, Introduction to Mega-Asia Studies: History, Perspective, and Method, Zininzin
• 2022, Intangible Cultural Heritage of Asia, Zininzin
• 2021, “Asian Youth Generation”, Gi Yeon Koo ed., CIR Press.
• 2020, “The Exchange Between the Republic of Korea and Middle East: Focusing on the Advancement of Korean Construction Companies in the Middle East” in IRCICA(Organization of Islamic Cooperation Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture) ed., Korean and the Muslim World: Historical and Cultural Encounters, Sources and Studies on the History of Islamic Civilization Series, 41.
• 2018, “Making their own public: emotion and self among the urban Iranian youth”, Seoul National University Press. (Monograph)
• 2018, “Urban Iranian youths as the pivotal subjects of social movements in Iran” in Lenze, Nele, and Charlotte Schriwer, eds. Participation Culture in the Gulf: Networks, Politics and Identity. Routledge.
• 2017, “Constructing an Alternative Public Sphere: The Cultural Significance of Social Media in Iran” in Nele Lenze et al. eds. Media in the Middle East: Activism, Politics, and Culture, Springer

 

Articles

• 2023, “Impact of Middle Eastern Government Policy Changes on the Acceptance of Korean Wave: Focusing on the cases of Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Turkey. Asia Review, 13(3), 111-156 (in Korean, Co-authored).
• 2023, “Muslim refugees in South Korean society through the hospitality: A Comparative Study of Yemen refugees and Afghanistan Special Contributors”, Space and Environment (in Korean, Co-authored).
• 2022, “Iran’s Satellite Media as a Heterotopic Space of Resistance and Competing Identities”, Journal of Middle Eastern Affairs, 21(20), The Institute of Middle East. (in Korean)
• 2022, “The International Norms of Women’s Human Rights and Feministic Trends in the Islamic Region: Focusing on Cases of Afghanistan and Iran”, Asia Review, 12(1), pp.67-98. (in Korean)
• Gi Yeon Koo, Yuihyun Hwang, 2021, The Journey to the Formation of Regional Identity in West Asia beyond Otherness, Asia Review 11(2). (in Korean, Co-authored).

• 2020, “Riding the Korean Wave in Iran: Cyber-Feminism and Pop Culture among Young Iranian Women” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies 16(2).

• Yilsoon Paek, Gi Yeon Koo, 2021, “The Changes in Refugee Issues in Korea through Domestic Newspapers”, Journal of the Korean Geographical Society56(2). (in Korean)
• 2020, “An Analysis of the Changes in the Historical Meanings and Performativity in Iranian Hijab Practice”, Journal of Middle Eastern Affairs 19(3) (in Korean)
• 2020, Unfinished Revolutions and Precarious Lives:Ten Years after the Iranian Green Movement and the Tunisian Revolution, Asia Review 9(2). (in Korean, Co-authored)
• 2019, #GirlsofRevolutionStreet: Iranian Womens Social Movement through Hashtag Politics. Cross-Cultural Studies 25(1). (in Korean)

• 2018, “Islamophobia and the Politics of Representation of Islam in Korea”, Journal of Korean Religions 9 (1).
• Gi Yeon Koo and Ha Eun Han, 2018, “To veil or not to veil: Turkish and Iranian hijab policies and the struggle for recognition”, Asian Journal of Women’s Studies 24(1).

• 2018, “I Will Leave this Country, if I Can!”: An Anthropological Analysis on the Migration of Highly educated Iranians, Korea Cultural Anthropology 51(1) (in Korean)

• 2016, “To be Myself and have My Stealthy Freedom: The Iranian Women’s Engagement with social media”, Revista de Estudios Internacionales Mediterráneos
• 2014, “Women as subject of defiance and everyday politics of hijab as dress code in modern Iran.” Asian Women 30.4 (2014): 29-51.