Faculty-Discipline

Lu Kou

Lu Kou

Assistant Professor

Office: 412 Kent Hall
Office Hours: On leave for Fall 2026

Email: lk2950@columbia.edu

Educational Background

BA: Peking University (2010)
MA: Harvard University (2012)
PhD: Harvard University (2018)

Classes Taught

EAAS UN3935 The Fantastic in Pre-Modern China
EAAS GU4031 History of Chinese Literature
EAAS GU4534 Medieval Travel Writing
CHNS GR6107 Readings in Chinese Scholarship
CHNS GR6510 Chinese Bibliography
EAAS GR8042 Classical Chinese Poetry
EAAS GR8029 Historiography in Early Medieval China

Research Interests

As a medievalist and a scholar of premodern Chinese literature, Lu Kou’s research interests include medieval Chinese literature and culture, poetry and poetics, historiography, and comparative studies of China’s Middle Period and medieval Europe. He is currently at work on two book projects: War of Words: Contesting Discourses of Legitimacy in Early Medieval China, which examines the “discursive battles” fought among rival states in China’s early medieval period and investigates how rhetoric constructed and contested political legitimacy in this age of multipolarity; and (tentatively titled) Locked Seal, Heart of Poetry: Bureaucracy and the Representation of Work in Medieval Chinese Poetry, 400-900 CE, which studies the dialectic between poetry and bureaucratic systems, between the lyrical and quotidian renderings of “work” in medieval poetry. Before joining the faculty at Columbia, he was Assistant Professor of Chinese at Bard College (2019-2022) and Visiting Assistant Professor at Williams College (2018-2019).

Selected Publications

“As If Heaven Was Warning: Omens and Interpretations in Shen Yue’s Song shu 宋書.” Journal of American Oriental Society 145.2 (2025): 285–308.

“间谍、越境、修辞：南北朝跨境交流中的“言”和“志” ([Spies, Border-crossing, and Rhetoric: “Words” and “Intent” during Early Medieval Interstate Contacts]). Wenyi yanjiu 文藝研究 (Literature and Arts Studies), vol. 383.1 (2024): 45–61.

“The Poetics and Politics of Space: Writing Imperial Visits of Private Estates in Early Tang Court Poetry.” The Nanyang Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture. 2023. Special issue on “court culture.” (May, 2023): 34–63.

“Audible Empire: Musical Orthodoxy and Spectacle in the Sui Dynasty.” Early Medieval China, vol. 28 (2022): pp. 73-96.

“Epistolary Exchange and Psychological Warfare: Tuoba Tao’s 拓跋燾 (408–452, r. 423–452) Letters to his Southern Audience.” Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture, 7.1 (2020): pp. 34-59.

[Chinese version:] “Shuxin zhong de junwang xingxiang yu xinli zhan: Tuoba Tao (408–452, r. 423–452) de guoshu he ta de nanfang duzhe” 書信中的君王形象與心理戰：拓跋燾（408–452）的國書和他的南方讀者. Lingnan xuebao 嶺南學報, 13 (2020): pp. 51-72.

Seong Uk Kim

Seong Uk Kim

Il Hwan and Soonja Cho Associate Professor of Korean Culture and Religion

Office: 616 Kent Hall
Office Hours: M/W 2:30-3:30 PM
Email: sk4236@columbia.edu

Educational Background

PhD: University of California, Los Angeles (’13)

Classes Taught

ASCE UN1363 Introduction to East Asian Civilizations: Korea
AHUM UN1400 Colloquium on Major Texts: East Asia
EARL GU4320 Buddhism and Korean Culture

Research Interests

Korean Buddhism and Religions, East Asian Buddhism and Religions

Seong Uk Kim’s research interest lies in the intersections between Buddhism and other religions in pre-modern Korea. His first book, Monks and Literati, examines the relationships between Buddhist monastics and Confucian elites with diverse attitudes toward Buddhism in the late Chosŏn period from the 17th to 19th centuries. His current research explores the development of self-identifying Sŏn Buddhist communities of the same period to reconstruct the social, cultural, and religious history of Korean Sŏn tradition. Before coming to Columbia, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Washington University in St. Louis (2013-2014) and Harvard University (2014-2015), teaching “Buddhist Traditions,” “Introduction to Korean Religions,” and “Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion

Selected Publications

“The Intersections between Buddhism and Folk Religions in the Late Chosŏn: The Case Study of the Kitchen-God Cult,” International Journal of Buddhist Thought & Culture 30.1(2020).

“Kwanŭm (Avalokiteśvara) Divination: Buddhist Reconciliation with Confucianism in the Late Chosŏn,” Religions 11 (2020)

“Korean Confucianization of Zen: Ch’oŭi Ŭisun’s (1786–1866) Affirmation of a Confucian Literati Approach to Buddhism in Late Chosŏn,” Acta Koreana (2016)

“The Zen Theory of Language: Linji Yixuan’s Teaching of ‘Three Statements, Three Mysteries, and Three Essentials,’” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies (2015)

Jungwon Kim

Jungwon Kim

Director of Graduate Studies, King Sejong Associate Professor of Korean Studies

Office: 402 Kent Hall
Office Hours: F 4:00-6:00 pm
Email: jk3638@columbia.edu

Educational Background

PhD: Harvard University
AM: Harvard University

Classes Taught

ASCE UN1363 Introduction to East Asian Civilizations: Korea
EAAS UN3412 Colloquium on Conflict & Culture in Korean History
HEAS UN3862 The History of Korea to 1900
EAAS GU4310 Narrating Premodern Korea
HSEA GU4860 Culture and Society of Chosŏn Korea, 1392-1910
EAAS GU4888 Women and Gender in Korean History
HSEA GR8861 Colloquium on Korean History to 1900
HSEA GR9860 Seminar on Korean Historical Texts

Research Interests

Premodern Korean History; Legal History; Gender and Sexuality; Women’s Writing

Jungwon Kim is a historian of premodern Korea, specializing in the Chosŏn dynasty (1392–1910). Her research focuses on gender and sexuality, law and justice, crime and punishment, ritual and emotion, women’s writings, and the history of knowledge.

She is the author of Virtue That Matters: Chastity Culture and Social Power in Chosŏn Korea, 1392–1910 (Harvard University Asia Center, 2025), which received an honorable mention for the 2025 Book Prize from the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender. Her other publications include the co-authored Wrongful Death: Selected Inquest Records from Nineteenth-Century Korea (University of Washington Press, 2014) and the co-edited Beyond Death: The Politics of Suicide and Martyrdom in Korea (University of Washington Press, 2019). She also edited the special issue “Archives, Archival Practices, and the Writing of History in Premodern Korea” (Journal of Korean Studies, 2019). Her articles have appeared in journals including Acta Koreana, Gender & History, Journal of Asian Studies, Journal of Women’s History, Journal of Confucian Philosophy and Culture, and Journal of Korean Studies.

She is currently working on a book manuscript on law, local courts, and the administration of justice in Chosŏn Korea. She earned her PhD from Harvard University, previously taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, and was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton before joining Columbia.

Selected Publications

Virtue That Matters: Chastity Culture and Social Power in Chosŏn Korea, 1392-1910 (Harvard University Press, 2025)

“Inscribing Grievances, Litigation, and Local Community in Eighteenth-Century Korea,” Journal of Asian Studies 81.2 (2022)

Beyond Death: The Politics of Suicide and Martyrdom in Korean History (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2019), co-edited with Charles Kim, Hwasook Nam, and Serk-bae Suh.

“Between Morality and Crime: Filial Daughters and Vengeful Violence in Eighteenth Century Korea,” Acta Koreana (2018)

Wrongful Deaths: Selected Inquest Records from Nineteenth Century Korea (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2014), co-authored with Sun Joo Kim.

“You Must Avenge on My Behalf: Widow Chastity and Honor in Nineteenth-Century Korea”, Gender and History (2014)