I graduated from Seoul National University’s Graduate School of International Studies (SNU GSIS) with a Master of International Studies. I graduated as SNU GSIS’s valedictorian. The video below includes my full valedictorian speech (valedictory) and all other highlights from the SNU GSIS commencement ceremony and the main SNU commencement ceremony. The commencement ceremonies took place on February 26, 2025.
I wrote in English and Korean about my grandfather’s service to the U.S.-ROK alliance in the 2025-1 Issue of the Korea Defense Veterans Association’s (주한미군전우회) ROK-U.S. Alliance Journal.
I recently wrote and published a paper titled “Expanding Horizons: Reciprocal Access Agreements, the Japan-Australia Special Strategic Partnership, and Japan’s Novel Security Cooperation” for the Journal of International and Area Studies (JIAS), which is published by the Institute of International Affairs (IIA) of Seoul National University’s Graduate School of International Studies. I am the first and main author and my
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
It has only been about a month since the opening of the National Memorial of the Korean Provisional Government (국립대한민국임시정부기념관) in Seodaemun-gu (an event commemorating the building of the museum was held on the eleventh to coincide with the 103rd anniversary of the founding of the Korean Provisional Government in Shanghai in April 11, 1919). The new addition to Seoul’s
Perhaps no single industry in the global marketplace has faced quite as much disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic as the aviation industry. With the ossification of national boundaries and de-facto elimination of passenger air travel between countries and within countries, commercial aviation is now looking forward to perhaps its single worst year this century, if not in its entire history.
Iksan (익산) is a city too small to be considered big yet too big to be considered small. Nestled in its rural surroundings in remote North Jeolla Province, much like Naha vis-à-vis the island of Okinawa (which has a similar population), the city is disproportionately large. But the raw population of three hundred thousand pales in contrast with the urban
I made sure to get a long night’s sleep before waking up intentionally late on the morning of January 11, 2020. I knew I would need the rest. I was in Zhongshan District 中山區, Taipei, having finally made my way back to Taiwan more than a year and a half after my previous gap year in East Asia allowed me
In 2015, I won the grand prize in the 20th 3.1 Essay Contest held in Koreatown, Los Angeles. I subsequently won a scholarship and an opportunity to participate in a homecoming program in Korea hosted by an organization of the R.O.K. Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The award winning essay, written in Korean on the great admiral Yi Sun-sin and a
This past fall semester, I received an invitation by Yonsei University’s English magazine, The Yonsei Annals, to write an op-ed piece on a topic of my choosing. At the time, the Seoul Metropolitan Government had just announced that it was suspending its erstwhile vast redesign and expansion plans for Gwanghwamun Square in Jongno District. I wrote down my thoughts regarding