Faculty News

Dr. Soyoung Kwon, Assistant Professor of Global Affairs, was recently appointed as a member of Incheon City’s Peace City Initiative Committee by Incheon Mayor Park Nam-chun. As one of four academic experts among 30 committee members, Kwon plans to contribute her extensive experience in diplomacy and politics to a potential “peace city Incheon” to strengthen inter-Korean exchange and cooperation in creating a border peace zone.

This semester Mason professors Jihye Lim, located in Korea, and Jennifer Ashley, located in Fairfax, co-taught Mason Korea's first cross-continental synchronous course, a section of GLOA 101 Introduction to Global Affairs.

BTS is the first K-pop act ever to be nominated for a Grammy. Despite much anticipation, BTS did not win a Grammy for its megahit single “Dynamite” at the 63rd Grammy Awards. Expressing disappointment at the results, cultural studies professor Lee Gyu-tag of George Mason University Korea said, “Their Grammy debut nomination itself was too late, as it should have come a year or two ago. The belated nomination had already proved how closed the Recording Academy was.”

Mason Korea is the first university at the Incheon Global Campus to collaborate with the newly established Songdo Global Lifelong Learning Center. Alice Wrigglesworth, Assistant Professor of English, is our pioneer faculty member to teach at the Center.

Mason Korea welcomed nine new full-time faculty to campus for Spring 2021. Learn about a few of them here, and watch Mason Korea news for more.

Lee Gyu-tag emphasized that K-pop is not only for Koreans but for the global market during the interview with the Korea Times.

On Dec. 10, The Korea Times invited three experts including Lee Gyu-tag, assistant professor of cultural studies at George Mason University Korea, to discuss the durability of K-pop and Korean cinema. They presented their analysis of the pandemic-driven shift in hallyu and how the year 2021 will evolve for Korean pop culture overseas.

The use of avatars is not likely that fans will "dig" the virtual members as much as real humans, according to Professor Lee Gyu-tag of pop music and media studies at George Mason University Korea.

U.S. Army Lt. Gen. and Mason alumnus Michael A. Bills recently stepped down as the commanding general of the Eighth U.S. Army in South Korea. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army.

Black Lives Matter, which has organized protests across the United States following the death of George Floyd in police custody, was of special importance to BTS fans, said Crystal Anderson, a faculty member at George Mason University and author of Soul in Seoul: African American Music and K-pop.