CAMPUS DIRECTORY

Research

Dr. Sinwoo Lee is a historian of early modern and modern Korea and East Asia, specializing in urban history, law and society, and memory studies. Her current work foregrounds the overlooked history of Seoul as a city of mixed residence in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, recasting the city as a crucial site in shaping Korea’s urbanity, modernity, and sovereignty.   

She is also committed to making key primary sources—originally written in literary Sinitic, mixed vernacular Korean, and modern Korean—available in English. Among her translations are The History of the Koryŏ Dynasty (918–1392) and Observations on a Journey to the West by Yu Kilchun (1856–1914). The latter is scheduled for publication by the University of Hawai’i Press.

Dr. Lee received her Ph.D. in Cultural and Comparative Studies with a Korea focus from the University of California, Los Angeles. She was the 2018–19 Moon Family Postdoctoral Fellow in Korean Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Teaching

At Chico State, Dr. Lee teaches courses in History of East Asia and Asian Studies. Her regular course offering includes “Introduction to Asian Studies” (ASST 110); “Premodern East Asia” (HIST 373); “Modern East Asia” (HIST 374); “Asia and the City” (HIST 473); and “Modern Korea” (HIST 474).

Publications

“The Square in Closed: Kojong, the Independence Club, and the Politics of Streets in Late Nineteenth-Century Korea.” Journal of Asian Studies 84:3 (2025): 650–671.

“Discussion and Policies on Unlawful Occupation of Commoners’ Houses (yŏga t’arip) in Late Chosŏn Korea.” Hangrim 53 (2024. 3): 149–189 (in Korean).

“A Capital Idea: Social and Economic Implications of Ritual Space in Kaegyŏng during the Early Koryŏ Period,” co-authored with Howard Kahm, Journal of Asian History 56, no. 1–2, (2022): 27–52. 

“Blurring Boundaries: Mixed Residence, Extraterritoriality, and Citizenship in Seoul, 1876–1910.” The Journal of Korean Studies 21, no. 1 (2016): 71–100.  

Review of Lee Yeonkyung. Hansǒngbu ŭi chagŭn ilbon: Chin’gogae hogŭn ponkǒng (Little Japan in Seoul: Chin’gogae or Honmachi, 1885–1910). Sǒul: Sigongsa, 2015. Inch’ŏnhak yŏn’gu 24 (2016): 227–36.   

Courses Offered

ASST/AAST 110: Introduction to Asian Studies

HIST 373: Premodern East Asia   

HIST 374: Modern East Asia  

HIST 473: Asia and the City

HIST 474: Modern Korea