Suyoung Kim’s research investigates the transformation of women’s work, labor, and social space in the Japanese empire (1868–1947), namely Japan and colonial Korea. She is especially interested in the role of legal and illegal labor brokers and seeks to understand how they shaped women’s work participation and work migration in the early 20th century. Her previous research examined the writings of Japanese and Korean cafe waitresses in the empire and shed light on the “emotional” dimension of their labor.
Master of International Studies, Korean Studies, Seoul National University
Bachelor of Arts in History and Japanese Literature, University of Washington
Gender, Labor, Labor Brokerage, Emotional Labor, Illegible Labor, Colonial Korea, Japanese Empire
Association for Asian Studies