Hetty Ye-Jae Lee

Field: Korean Cultural History
Advisor: Theodore Hughes
Email: yl2693@columbia.edu

Hetty Ye-Jae Lee is a PhD candidate in EALAC studying the history of forensic psychiatry and psychology in modern South Korea. Her research examines how diagnostic technologies shaped the medical-legal categories of “mental incapacity,” “deception,” and “trauma” from 1945 to 1987, amid postcolonial technology transfer, national security legislation, and democratization movements. She is also pursuing a certificate in the Psychoanalytic Studies Program within ICLS.

Hetty received her BA in Comparative Literature from Princeton University with a focus on German and Ancient Greek literature and psychoanalysis. She received her MA in modern Korean cultural studies from Columbia University in 2023.