For my BA thesis as a history major at the University of California at Berkeley, I wrote concerning the formation and development of a colonial city in Iri (modern-day Iksan in North Jeolla Province). I detailed this process of urban genesis via the lens of a Japanese settler in the city, Ōhashi Sokujō, whose written account served as a major source for my paper. I received permission from UC Berkeley’s Department of History to remain in Korea during my final semester to conduct field research for my thesis. Such research was conducted in the summer and fall of 2021, and I stayed in Korea through my thesis submission and graduation in December 2021.
An abridged version of my resulting thesis titled “Ambitious Policies and Ideal Colonists: Building a Colonial City in Iri, North Jeolla Province” was selected to be published in the Spring 2022 edition of UC Berkeley’s undergraduate history journal, Clio’s Scoll (Vol. 24, No. 2). The link to the Clio’s Scroll archive as well as a downloadable PDF file of the Spring 2022 edition of Clio’s Scroll featuring my paper can both be accessed below.