Spotlight with Seungsook Moon, Associate Professor of Sociology & Director of Asian Studies Program

By Mikey Velarde, '09

Professor Moon, born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Brandeis University and began teaching Social Studies courses in the Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Honors Program at Harvard in 1994. Shortly afterward, she was offered a full-time position at Vassar.

A Fulbright Scholar Award was bestowed upon Professor Moon for the 2004-2005 academic year. During which time she went to South Korea, conducted fieldwork and collected data on two grassroots movements: one that was a women’s group, and the other that was gender-neutral. The researched carried out there will be used in an upcoming book—the sequel to her Militarized Modernity and Gendered Citizenship in South Korea, published last year by Duke University Press. From 2005-2006 Moon was a Visiting Fellow at the Yale Center for International and Area Studies where she read through her research and began writing the book.

In Spring 2007, Professor Moon will teach a Sociology course (cross-listed with Women’s Studies) entitled, "Food, Culture, and Globalization." Her current research project deals with U.S. military presence in East Asia and Western Europe, and covers such topics as Asian "comfort women," immigration patterns, marriage between American soldiers and Asian women, and the effects of the growing militarization of the region. Professor Maria Hoehn from the History department is collaborating with her on this venture. In March of 2007, Moon plans on bringing the director of the South Korean documentary, "Me and Owl" to screen the film and have a subsequent lecture followed by a discussion. She will need many students to help her with this!

Moon believes militarization touches people of color in profound ways. A good is example is the fact that most of the U.S. military is comprised of people of color. This impacts communities all across the world in numerous ways.



Professor Moon would love to meet more students of color and has had very pleasant experiences with the ALANA center in the past, and would love to have many more in the future.

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