Sung Eun Kim, Assistant Professor of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies

Sung Eun Kim is an interdisciplinary historian of modern Korea whose research focuses on the racial and sexual politics of colonial soldiering at the intersections of transnational Korean militarism and U.S. imperialism in the Asia-Pacific region. His book manuscript, Augmenting Empire: Race, Gender, and the Making of KATUSA under U.S. Military Empire, 1945–2021, offers a critical history of the Korean Augmentation Troops to the U.S. Army (KATUSA), a unit of South Korean soldiers that have been conscripted into the U.S. Army in Korea from 1950 to the present. Drawing from the fields of Korean studies, critical race and gender studies, and U.S. war and empire studies, his research pioneers new frameworks for understanding U.S.–ROK relations and advances theoretical, transnational, and interdisciplinary approaches to U.S. colonialism in Korea and the Asia-Pacific. His research on Korean augmentees under joint U.S.–French command during the Korean War, which traces how the multilateral militarized alliances under the U.S.–led United Nations banner reshaped colonial racial hierarchies and situates Korea’s history within broader entanglements with European and American empires, has been published in The Journal of Asian Studies.

Currently, he is co-leading "The Transpacific Korean War" project, which convenes eight scholars from multiple disciplines and geographic specializations to reconceptualize the Korean War's transregional ramifications. Following The Transpacific Korean War Symposium at Duke University (October 24–25, 2025), he is co-editing the special issue of Korea Journal, "Echoes and Shadows: The Transpacific Korean War," scheduled for publication in Summer 2027. Drawing from Indigenous studies and feminist theories of color, this project excavates the absent geographies, histories, and epistemologies suppressed in dominant narratives of the Korean War. Opening new pathways for transdisciplinary research in the humanities, the special issue creates a space for innovative scholarship that combines diverse methodologies such as diaspora studies, indigenous studies, critical ethnic studies, gender and sexuality studies, queer studies, environmental humanities, and disability studies.

He serves on the editorial board of The Journal of Korean Studies, and actively contributes as a sought-after reviewer, discussant, and dissertation committee member. He has co-organized collaborative projects resulting in major conferences at the University of Maryland and Yale University, and frequently organizes and participates in panels at national associations including the Association for Asian Studies (AAS), the American Studies Association (ASA), and the Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS). 

Prior to Duke, he has held postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard University and George Washington University. His research was supported by the Korea Foundation/Association for Asian Studies Northeast Asian Council (NEAC) Korean Studies Grant and Seoul National University's Kyujanggak Junior Fellowship. He received his Ph.D. in modern Korean history from UCLA, his M.A. in East Asian Regional Studies from Columbia University, and his B.A. in Asian Studies and Political Science from Vassar College.

Contact Info:

Office Location:	2204 Erwin Road, Room 104, Box 90414, Durham, NC 27708-0414
Email Address:

Teaching (Fall 2026):

• AMES 254S.01, KOREA, EMPIRE, DIASPORA Synopsis

  Languages 109, TuTh 01:25 PM-02:40 PM

  (also cross-listed as AADS 254S.01, HISTORY 252S.01, LIT 254S.01)

• AMES 339.01, MILITARISM ACROSS ASIA-PACIFIC Synopsis

  Gray 319, TuTh 03:05 PM-04:20 PM

  (also cross-listed as AADS 339.01, GSF 339.01, HISTORY 339.01, ICS 387.01)

Office Hours:

https://calendly.com/sungeun-kim

Schedule an appointment above or reach me at sungeun.kim@duke.edu

Education:

Ph.D.

University of California, Los Angeles

2023

Specialties:

Security, Peace, & Conflict
Methods

Recent Publications

1. Kim, SE, “Freedom Is Not Free from Colonialism”, The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 83 no. 3 (August, 2024), pp. 594-618, Duke University Press [doi]  [abs]
2. Redefining U.S. Military Camptowns: Reviewing Keum Bowoon’s “Bases' Expansion and Borderland of Life”, in 우리 역사 속의 디아스포라와 경계인 [Diaspora and Liminal Subjects in Korean History] (December, 2020), pp. 384-90  [abs]