Sung Eun Kim

Sung Eun Kim is an interdisciplinary historian of modern Korea whose research focuses on the racial and sexual politics of colonial soldiering at the intersections of transnational Korean militarism and U.S. imperialism in the Asia-Pacific region. His book manuscript, Augmenting Empire: Race, Gender, and the Making of KATUSA under U.S. Military Empire, 1945–2021, offers a critical history of the Korean Augmentation Troops to the U.S. Army (KATUSA), a unit of South Korean soldiers that have been conscripted into the U.S. Army in Korea from 1950 to the present. Drawing from the fields of Korean studies, critical race and gender studies, and U.S. war and empire studies, his research pioneers new frameworks for understanding U.S.–ROK relations and advances theoretical, transnational, and interdisciplinary approaches to U.S. colonialism in Korea and the Asia-Pacific. His research on Korean augmentees under joint U.S.–French command during the Korean War, which traces how the multilateral militarized alliances under the U.S.–led United Nations banner reshaped colonial racial hierarchies and situates Korea’s history within broader entanglements with European and American empires, has been published in The Journal of Asian Studies.

Currently, he is co-leading "The Transpacific Korean War" project, which convenes eight scholars from multiple disciplines and geographic specializations to reconceptualize the Korean War's transregional ramifications. This project will culminate in a symposium at Duke University (October 24–25, 2025) and the publication of his co-edited special issue "Echoes and Shadows: The Transpacific Korean War." Drawing from Indigenous studies and feminist theories of color, this project excavates the absent geographies, histories, and epistemologies suppressed in dominant narratives of the Korean War. Opening new pathways for transdisciplinary research in the humanities, the special issue creates a space for innovative scholarship that combines diverse methodologies such as diaspora studies, indigenous studies, critical ethnic studies, gender and sexuality studies, queer studies, environmental humanities, and disability studies.

He serves on the editorial board of The Journal of Korean Studies, and actively contributes as a sought-after reviewer, discussant, and dissertation committee member. He has co-organized collaborative projects resulting in major conferences at the University of Maryland and Yale University, and frequently organizes and participates in panels at national associations including the Association for Asian Studies (AAS), the American Studies Association (ASA), and the Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS). 

Prior to Duke, he has held postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard University and George Washington University. His research was supported by the Korea Foundation/Association for Asian Studies Northeast Asian Council (NEAC) Korean Studies Grant and Seoul National University's Kyujanggak Junior Fellowship. He received his Ph.D. in modern Korean history from UCLA, his M.A. in East Asian Regional Studies from Columbia University, and his B.A. in Asian Studies and Political Science from Vassar College.

https://calendly.com/sungeun-kim

Schedule an appointment above or reach me at sungeun.kim@duke.edu