recent-phds

Filed Under: recent-phds

Peter Moody

pmoodyPeter Moody

Field: Korean History
Advisors: Gregory Pflugfelder and Jungwon Kim
Email: pgm2116@columbia.edu

Peter is a PhD student in East Asian History specializing in the cultural and intellectual history of modern Korea and Japan. He is interested in looking at how the discourse of tradition vs. modern evolved during the colonial and post-war periods, particularly when state actors used notions of civilization and advancement to win support for political projects that were sometimes at the expense of the subaltern. Before coming to Columbia, he obtained his Master’s in East Asian Studies from the University of Virginia where he wrote his thesis on mass mobilization campaigns in North Korea. His recent research interests include microhistories of North Korean coastal cities and the intersection of North Korean ideology and cultural production, particularly when it comes to the popular music soundscape.

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Filed Under: recent-phds

Dongming Wu

Dongming Wu

Field: Chinese History
Advisor: Li Feng
Email: dw2595@columbia.edu

Dongming Wu is from China and received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from Sichuan University in China majoring in Chinese Literature. He started his PhD study at Columbia University since 2015. His area of concentration focuses on reconstructing the social lives in the Zhou dynasty (1045-256 B.C.E) by combining archaeological, paleographical, and textual data. His dissertation examines the southern frontier of the Zhou dynasty from the perspective of metal economy to see how economic activities contributed to social interaction and transformation on the southern frontier in Zhou China. By examining the economic activities of metal in the whole spectrum of society, he hopes to demonstrate how metal industry was organized and performed in different social levels and how it was integrated in the state policies in the Zhou dynasty.

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Filed Under: recent-phds

John Thompson

johnthompsonJohn Thompson

Field: Chinese History
Advisor: Eugenia Lean
Email: jbt2112@columbia.edu

John’s dissertation, “Air Defense and the Bombing War in China, 1932–1945,” examines the history of bombing and politics in China during the War of Resistance against Japan and the Second World War. Combining insights from political theory, the history of technology, and critical war studies, it examines how China’s Nationalist Party used air defense to build a fascist political community united in life and death, and how air defense developed into a government logic with legacies inherited by the present day. Before coming to Columbia, John received a BA in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago and a MA in Regional Studies – East Asia from Harvard University.

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