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Iris Kim

Iris Kim

Field: Korean Literature
Advisor: Theodore Hughes
Email: ik2398@columbia.edu

Iris is a Ph.D. student of modern Korean literature and cultural studies. Her research interests include constructions of family and gender, visual culture, and translation. In her M.A. thesis, she examined how the changing representations of the orphan in the cultural field intertwined with constructions of motherhood and gendered identities in postwar South Korea. Iris received her B.A. in International Comparative Studies from Duke University and completed her M.A. in EALAC before joining the Ph.D. program.

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Tianyuan Huang

Tianyuan Huang

Field: Japanese History
Advisor: Gregory Pflugfelder
Email: th2750@columbia.edu

Tianyuan Huang is a PhD student in early modern and modern Japanese history. Through the evolving conceptions, discourses, and practices surrounding female-specific health issues, her research explores the intersection of the history of medicine, gender and sexuality studies, and the sociology of knowledge. In her dissertation, Tianyuan investigates both the deliberate and the unintentional enacting of ignorance in relation to women’s health, analyzing how different forms of “not knowing” shaped social relationships, legal proceedings, along with individuals’ life and death. In addition, Tianyuan is interested in the historical movement of medical texts, techniques, and therapeutic substances in East Asia, as well as digital humanities and the application of historical geographic information systems (HGIS).
Tianyuan received her Bachelor of Laws (2014) and Master of Laws (2017) in International Politics from Peking University and a Master of Public Policy (2017) from the University of Tokyo. Before entering the PhD program at Columbia University, she worked for an LGBTI rights NGO as a part-time researcher with a focus on international human rights mechanisms and human rights diplomacy.

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Michelle L. Hauk

Michelle L. Hauk

Field: Japanese History
Advisors: Gregory Pflugfelder & Paul Kreitman
Email: mlh2210@columbia.edu

Michelle L. Hauk’s research explores the social, cultural, and material history of domestic architecture in Japan through the lens of water and water-related technologies. Her research on water combines her interest in urban and architectural history with the histories of technology, everyday life, and gender and family dynamics in Japan. Before entering the Ph.D. program at Columbia University, Michelle taught design studio and architectural history at the Sam Fox School of Art & Design at Washington University in St. Louis, including a history seminar on Women in Architecture. Michelle earned an M.Arch and MSAS at Washington University in St. Louis in 2015 and received her BA in studio art and East Asian studies from Kalamazoo College.

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