Hello! Welcome to my website! I am a PhD candidate at the University of Washington's Department of Communication. My research explores the power dynamics at play in the development of popular digital cultures. In particular, I focus on how groups historically marginalized by technologies and social structures participate in digital cultures for representation, as well as the challenges they face in being recognized as important contributors and participants of our digitalized cultural landscape. As an aficionado of global popular culture, I am also interested in the flow of digital/popular culture in our increasingly transnational media landscape and its implications on global cultural hierarchies. So far, my work has been published in communication journals such as the International Journal of Communication, Communication, Culture, & Critique, and Social Media + Society.  

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I am currently working on my dissertation project, which examines how transnational Korean women content creators based in North America, Europe, and South Korea experience creating content for a global audience against the historical and technological backdrop in which Asian femininity is prized for its hyper sexuality and racial otherness. I am interested in examining how Asianness (Koreanness) becomes branded through and across platforms through their content creation and platform practices. My project has been awarded the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry Summer Dissertation Fellowship (2023-2024). 

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At the University of Washington, I am also a member of the Center for Communication, Difference, and Equity (CCDE) and the co-leader of Constellation of Asian Racialization Research Group (CARRG). Prior to joining the Department of Communication at the University of Washington, I received both my B.A and M.A from Korea University, in Seoul, South Korea. 

While I am originally from South Korea, I also grew up in Ukraine, Russia, Germany, Uzbekistan, Canada, and the US. I am currently based in Seattle, Washington, the city of coffee and rain.