Sang Mee Oh
Sang Mee Oh
Assistant Professor
Modern Korean History, U.S.-Korea Relations focused on intellectual and cultural interactions, American images of Korea, Korean Studies in the U.S.
Sang Mee Oh specializes in Korean history, with a research focus on the late nineteenth century and the early half of the twentieth century. She received her B.A. and M.A. from Yonsei University and her Ph.D. from UCLA in Korean history. Her primary research interest is the history of U.S.-Korea Relations in the global context, focusing on intellectual and cultural interactions. Her current research focuses on the American knowledge construction of Korea from the late nineteenth century throughout the colonial period and the formation of Korean Studies in the U.S. during the 1960s. Before joining the Mason faculty, she worked as a research professor at Yonsei University Institute of Global Korean Studies and taught Korean history at Yonsei University Underwood International College. She has taught various Korean and East Asian history courses and Korean culture classes at Claremont Mckenna College, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, and UCLA.
Selected Publications
Sang Mee Oh, “Why Korea Failed?: The American Discourse of Korea’s Historical Failure at the Turn of the Twentieth Century,” The Journal of American-East Asian Relations Vol 29, no. 4 (Dec 2022): 341-364
Sang Mee Oh, “Pukmi taehagwŏn ŭi Hanguksa kyoyuk kwa yŏngu: Hanguk yuhaksaeng intŏbiu rŭl chungsimŭro [Korean History Programs at North American Graduate Schools: Based on the Interviews with Korean Graduate Students Who Studied Abroad in North America]," Yŏksa Pip'yŏng, 134 (Feb 2021): 281-310
Sang Mee Oh, “Homer B. Hulbert ŭi Chosŏn munmyŏnghwaron [Homer B. Hulbert’s Discussion on Korean Modernization],” Haklim, vol. 32 (2011):1-47.
Grants and Fellowships
Awards
2023 Faculty Research and Development Award, George Mason University Korea
2021 Outstanding Achievement Award for Lecturers, Yonsei University
2020 Outstanding Achievement Award for Lecturers, Yonsei University
2016 Collegium of University Teaching Fellows Award, UCLA
Fellowships and Grants
2017-2018 Dissertation Year Fellowship, UCLA
2016-2017 Departmental Research Fellowship, UCLA
2016-2017 Graduate Division Travel Grant, UCLA
2013-2014 Mellon Pre-dissertation Fellowship, Mellon Foundation
2011-2012 Pauline Yu Fellowship, UCLA
2010-2011 Hi Seoul City Fellowship, Seoul Scholarship Foundation
2006-2008 Future Korean Humanity Fellowship, National Research Foundation of Korea
Courses Taught
HIST 387.KORE 300 Global Korean History
HIST 387.KORE 362 Modern Korean History
HIST 387.KORE 361 Korean History Before 1876
KORE 300 Walking Through Korean History
KORE 300 Korean History and Culture
KORE 321 Korean Cultural Practice
KORE 321 Korean Proficiency Through Visual Culture
KORE 202 Intermediate Korean 2
KORE 301 Advanced Korean
Education
Ph.D. Asian Languages and Cultures [Cultural and Comparative Studies - Korea Focus], University of California Los Angeles, California, United States.
M.A. History Department, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea.
B.A. History Department, Yonsei University, Seoul Korea.
Recent Presentations
2023 "Carving Out Korean Space within the U.S. Academia: Contribution of the U.S-based Korean Scholars to the American Knowledge of Korean History, 1955-1965." Annual Conference of Association of Asian Studies [AAS], Boston. (March 19th)
2022 “Positioning the Western Missionary Writers of Korea Within the Transnational Context: Focused on Homer B. Hulbert and George M. McCune," Institute for Korean Christianity Culture Annual Conference, Soongsil University, Seoul Korea (March 23rd)
2019 “Western Missionaries Knowledge Construction of Korean History, 1882-1910." Center for Modern Korean Studies International Conference, Yonsei University, Seoul Korea (July 18-19th)
2018 “Defining Korean Natural Character: American Medical Missionaries’ “Scientific” Studies of Korea.” Annual Conference of Association of Asian Studies [AAS], Washington D.C. (March 27th)
2017 “From Colonial to International: American Knowledge Construction on Korean History, 1930-50.” International Conference of NextGen Korean Studies Scholars [NEKST], The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (May 12th)
2016 “Colonial Knowledge on Korean History Reflected in the Postwar Textbooks in the U.S.” Joint East Asian Studies Conference, SOAS, University of London (September 9)
2015 “Constructing American Images of Korea: American-Korean Intellectual Interactions as Reflected in American Writings of Korean History." Annual Conference of Association for Asian Studies [AAS], Chicago (March 28th)
