Korean Wave and Global Korea

Speaker: Areum Jeong, Assistant Professor of Korean Studies, Arizona State University

Moderator: Jungwon Kim, King Sejong Associate Professor of Korean Studies, EALAC, Columbia University

How did K-pop become a global phenomenon with more than 200 million fans around the world? And how do fans influence K-pop’s explosive global popularity? Dr. Areum Jeong will discuss the Korean Wave and K-pop in a global context followed by a Q&A.

Speaker’s Bio: Dr. Areum Jeong is an Assistant Professor of Korean Studies at Arizona State University, where she researches and teaches Korean and Korean diasporic film, popular culture, theater and performance. Her first monograph, Beyond the Sewol: Activist Theatre and Performance in South Korea and the Diaspora (University of Hawaii Press, forthcoming September 2025), examines how commemorative performances memorialize one of South Korea’s most devastating events. Her second monograph, K-Pop Fandom: Performing Deokhu from the 1990s to Today (University of Michigan Press, forthcoming February 2026), examines how fans shape K-pop by performing materialization of affective labor.

This event is hosted by the Center for Korean Research.

Registration: To attend this event online, please register HERE.