The Korea Institute is pleased to announce the Spring 2023 Kim Koo Visiting Professor at Harvard University.
Katharine H.S. Moon, Kim Koo Visiting Professor in the Department of Government, Spring 2023
Headshot image of Dr. Katharine Moon
Katharine (Kathy) H.S. Moon is Professor of Political Science Emerita at Wellesley College where she taught since 1993. She was the inaugural holder of the SK-Korea Foundation Chair in Korea Studies at The Brookings Institution (2014-16). She received a B.A., magna cum laude, from Smith College and a doctorate from Princeton University, the Department of Politics. She was born in San Francisco.
Professor Moon’s research encompasses the U.S.-Korea alliance, inter-Korean relations, and East Asian politics with special focus on women, nationalism, and international migration. She is the author of Protesting America: Democracy and the U.S.-Korea Alliance, which discusses the impact of South Korean democracy on the U.S.-Korea alliance and the institutional and procedural changes needed to improve the management of the alliance. Kathy Moon also authored Sex Among Allies: Military Prostitution in U.S.-Korea Relations, which explains how foreign policy decisions affect local communities hosting U.S. bases, particularly, women. Her current book project, North Korean Narratives: The Personal is Political, is based on intensive interviews of North Korean diaspora members. Her research awards include grants from the Henry Luce Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the U.S. Fulbright Program, the American Association of University Women, the National Bureau of Asian Research, and the Social Science Research Council.
Kathy Moon is a member of the Advisory Committee of the National Committee on North Korea and a former trustee of Smith College. She has been an affiliated faculty at the Korea Institute, Harvard University and a member of the Korea Working Group at the Kennedy School. Her op-eds and media interviews have been widely circulated, many of which can be found at https://www.brookings.edu/author/katharine-h-s-moon/. Kathy is also engaged in creative writing, both fiction and personal essays.