Gonsalves, Calvin

(M.A.)

E-mail: calvinclin26[at]gmail.com 

2021 Chittagong Independent University, Bangladesh (English, B.A.)

2025 Sogang University (Critical Global Studies, M.A.)

Research Interests: Postcolonial Literature, Environment, Anglophone Literature (South Asia)

CGS MA Thesis: Setting Sail at Sea: Amitav Ghosh, the Indian Ocean, and the Pluriversal Worldview in Sea of Poppies

Advisor: Richard Bonfiglio

Academic Advising Committee: Richard Bonfiglio (CGS), Jisoon Hong (CGS), Sanghyun Kim (CGS)

| About Calvin | Calvin Gonsalves has a BA in English from Chittagong Independent University. He graduated from Critical Global Studies on 19th February 2025.  After graduating, he returned to his home country to prepare for his next journey. For his thesis, he worked on Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies, Where is explores how a pluriversal world may be imagined. With regional interest in South Asia, his research revolves around Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies, Global South, Anglophone and World Literature, and Environment. Currently, he is a London Critical Theory Summer School fellow, for which he will be virtually attending the Critical Theory summer school organized by the Institute for the Humanities, London University. 

| Conference Presentations and Publications |

Kim, Aeran

(M.A.)

E-mail: aerankim532[at]gmail.com 

2014 Kyungpook National University (Philosophy/Sociology, B.A)

2025 Sogang University (Critical Global Studies, M.A.)

Research Interests: Modern State, Nationalism and Civil Religion, North-South Korea Relations and Unification Discourse, System Theory, Cybernetics, Machines, Games

CGS MA Thesis: Hanbando as an Imagined National Territory: The Us/Them Dichotomy in Unification Discourse

Advisor: Eunsung Cho

Academic Advising Committee: Eunsung Cho (CGS), Jihyun Kim (CGS), Ilyeong Jeong (CGS)

| About Aeran | Aeran Kim received her B.A in philosophy and minored in sociology from Kyungpook National University. As an undergraduate, she founded and ran a cultural magazine for Daegu and Gyeongbuk university students called Modi. After graduating, she continued her interest in unification issues by working as a coordinator at an NGO working on North Korean refugee resettlement and social integration programs. When she realized that there was a need for content with a new perspective on the issues, she founded the publishing company 'Hilde and Sophie’. Currently, she is engaged in publishing and research activities in various fields.

| Conference Presentations and Publications |

Kim, Sohee

(M.A.)

2020 Sogang University (American Cultural Studies/Psychology, B.A.)

2022 Sogang University (American Cultural Studies, M.A.)

2023 Sogang University (Critical Global Studies, M.A.)

CGS MA Thesis: Construction of Hanbok in Memories of "Comfort Women": Fabricating the Patriarchal Nation through Fashion

Advisor: Kyung-Sook Boo

Advising Committee: Kyung-Sook Boo (CGS), Jie-Hyun Lim (CGS), Juyeon Bae (CGSI)

Research Interests: Cultural Studies, Fashion Studies, Women of Color, Intersectionality, Representation of Women

| About Sohee Kim | Sohee Kim received her B.A. in American Culture and Psychology, and her M.A. in American Cultural Studies at Sogang University. She graduated from the Critical Global Studies program with an M.A. degree on August 22, 2023. With the help of her thesis advisor Professor Kyung-Sook Boo and her academic advising committee—Professor Lim Jie-Hyun and Professor Bae Juyeon, she wrote her M.A. thesis titled, Construction of Hanbok in Memories of “Comfort Women”: Fabricating the Patriarchal Nation Through Fashion. Her thesis focused on the representation/memories of “comfort women” in hanbok and its meaning through her theory of hanbok as the “fashion of the patriarchal nation”. 

| Conference Presentations and Publications |

- April, 2023. “At the Crossroads of Fashion and Style in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” (MELUS 2023 Conference, Indiana, U.S.).

- March, 2023. “Disrupting Historical Discourses on the Politics of Respectability through Fashion in George C. Wolfe’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020).” (Barnes Conference, Temple University, U.S.).

- February, 2023. "'Comfort Women' in Hanbok": Androcentric Nationalism Clothing in Cho Jung-rae's 2016 Film Kwihyang" (International Conference on Intercultural Humanities, Sanata Dharma University, Indonesia).

- October, 2022. “Diversifying the Representation of 'Comfort Women' in Style through Digital Exhibitions” (“Ethics, Evaluation and Emerging Methodologies in Digital Exhibitions and Complex Heritage”, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom).

- October, 2022. “Aloha Shirt: The Cultural Prostitution Clothing in Blue Hawaii (1961) and Beyond” (American Studies Association of Korea Annual Conference, Seoul, South Korea).

- Empowering Black Middle-Class Female Bodies in Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020) Through the Strategic Use of Self-Defining Style. 2022, Sogang University, M.A.

- May, 2019. “Fashion-ology and Country Music: Study into the Change of Fashion in Country Music” (American Studies Association of Korea Undergraduate Workshop, Seoul, South Korea).

| Next Chapter in Sohee's Journey |

- Sohee Kim matriculated in the PhD program of the English Department at Texas A&M University in College Station, starting in August of 2023.

Lee, Seungho

(M.A.)

E-mail: seungho942[at]gmail.com 

2022 Keimyung University (International Relations, B.A.)

2025 Sogang University (Critical Global Studies, M.A.)

Research Interests: Audience studies, Comfort Women, Memory Studies, Nationalism

CGS MA Thesis: Study of Vernacular Memory Representation of Comfort Women: Focused on the Exhibition of Heeum and the Reaction of Visitors

Advisor: Ilyeong Jeong

Academic Advising Committee: Ilyeong Jeong (CGS), Jie Hye Kim (CGS), Juyeon Bae (CGS)

| About Seungho | Seungho Lee received his B.A. in International Relations from Keimyung University. In Poland, where he went as an exchange student, he saw the contrast between the efforts of European society to remember the Holocaust and hate crimes against Asians right after the outbreak of COVID-19. Working as a researcher at an NGO, which put efforts into resolving the “Comfort Women” issue, he engaged in various projects of research, exhibitions, etc. Currently, he studies the memories of comfort women that visitors have before and after watching the exhibition.

| Conference Presentations and Publications |

Song, Gayoon

(M.A.)

E-mail: sgy8923[at]gmail.com 
2022 Sogang University (Art&Technology, B.A.)

2024 Sogang University (Critical Global Studies, M.A.)

CGS MA Thesis: A Study on Hybrid Reader Response Contestation in Namsunghyang/Yeosunghyang Hybrid Narrative Structure of Shinmuhyup Web Novels: Focusing on the Hwasan-Gwihwan and the female character “Dang Soso”

Advisor: Hyun Kyung Lee

Advising Committee: Hyung Kyung Lee (CGS), Ki Yoon Jang (CGS), Juyeon Bae (CGSI)

Research Interests: Media Literacy, Web Novels

| About Gayoon Song | Gayoon Song received her B.A. in Art&Technology from Sogang University. By her experiences, she is interested in Media Literacy and now her research focuses on shinmuhyup web novels.