Triangle Korea-Japan Forum

Timeline

Status: Active Cluster

Description

Coordinating faculty:

Headshot of Sung Eun Kim (a person wearing a light tan jumper and glasses)
Headshot of Professor Nayoung Aimee Kwon (a person wearing glasses and a coat)
headshot of Professor Kimberly Hassel
Sung Eun KimNayoung Aimee KwonKimberly Hassel

About the cluster:

The Triangle Korea/Japan Forum serves as a vital interdisciplinary hub for scholars across Duke, UNC, and the broader Research Triangle to engage with the complex, interconnected histories of East Asia and its global diasporas. By centering the relationship between Korea and Japan—not as isolated national histories, but as nodes within a transpacific network of empire, war, and migration—the cluster fosters critical dialogue on how colonial legacies and Cold War geopolitics continue to shape contemporary social and cultural dynamics.

We aim to move beyond traditional area studies frameworks by interrogating the inter-Asian and transpacific circulations of people, ideas, and capital. The Forum provides a collaborative space for faculty and graduate students to workshop emerging research, host leading international scholars, and develop pedagogical strategies that unsettle modern East Asian history.

By bridging the institutional resources of Duke and UNC, the research cluster strengthens the Triangle’s position as a premier site for cutting-edge Korean and Japanese studies, particularly regarding the marginalized voices such as Zainichi, Amerasians, and the diverse laborers of the Pacific.

Activities for the research cluster during the 2026-2027 academic year will include talks by visiting speakers and workshops centering on research and pedagogy.

Confirmed events:

September 3, 2026 — Yuichiro Onishi (University of Minnesota): Toward Afro-Asian Radicalism
October 27, 2026 — Jeongmin Kim (University of Manitoba): Black Market Intimacies: The Transpacific Sexual Economy of the Korean War 
February 4, 2027 — Rory Qianqing Huang (Texas A&M–Corpus Christi): From Nara to the Pacific: Tahara Haruji, the 1924 Immigration Act, and the Global Imagination of Buraku Liberation
 

Team

Members