About 🙋‍♂️ (as of Mar. 23, 2025)

I am a Ph.D. student in the History of Medicine@Johns Hopkins University.

I am interested in

• knowledge-making processes that emerge through interactions between elites and locals
• influence of public health discourse on disease perception and medicalization
• roles of space and place in medical practices
• impact of emotional interactions among historical actors on policy-making processes.

Recently, I have been working on the global histories of public health in East Asia and the United States, with a particular focus on health insurance, biological warfare, and international cooperation in public health.

📰News📰

2025

• 📅 04/24/25 I am presenting my second-year paper titled “Insects on Ice 🦟🧊: Disease Uncertainty and Local Knowledge in Germ Warfare Narratives of the Korean War (1950–1953)” at the Spring 2025 Colloquia hosted by the Johns Hopkins Program in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology (Baltimore, MD).
• 📅 03/16/25 I first participated in the Annual Conference of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS), where I served as both 📖 panel organizer and presenter🎤. I presented a paper titled “Patient or Martyr of Imperialism: Uncertainty of Disease and ‘Germ Warfare’ During the Korean War (1950–1953).” (Columbus, OH).

• 🎉 03/12/25 A big personal milestone for me! With support from The Alexander Grass Humanities Institute (AGHI) at Johns Hopkins, I’m teaching 👨‍🏫 my own online course (Humanities Blast Course) on medicine in Asia for the first time this coming summer, tentatively titled “Acupuncture, Moxibustion, and Herbs: A Journey Through the History and Living Practices of Medicine in Asia.” (Baltimore, MD).

2024

• 📅 03/02/24 I presented my part of the dissertation project titled “Going Beyond the ‘Fathers’ of National Health Insurance” at the 4th Korean Studies 🇰🇷 Young Scholars Graduate Student Conference, hosted by James Joo-Jin Kim Center for Korean Studies of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)

2023

• 🎉 08/28/23 Started a Ph.D. in History of Medicine@Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Baltimore, MD)

2022

• 📅 10/20/22 Gave a Talk at the 11th World Congress of Korean Studies held by the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS) (Seongnam-si, South Korea)
• 🎉 06/03/22 Published a post on the Wilson Center Blog discussing the historical analysis of issues surrounding the distribution of vaccines to North Korea [Link]
• 🎉 04/30/22 Published a paper in the Korean Journal of Medical History about debates on the health insurance system among major political groups of Korean and the US Military Government in postwar South Korea (1945-1948) [Link]
• 📅 04/20/22 Gave a talk at the 95th Meeting of the American Association for History of Medicine (AAHM) (Saratoga Springs, NY) [Abstract]
• 📅 04/12/22 Completed the term at the Wilson Center in Washington D.C. as a Korea Foundation Junior Scholar (Washington, D.C.) [Profile]

Current Research Topics

• The history of medicine (health care systems) from the 1930s to the 1980s in the transpacific region (North/South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the US) in the context of the Cold War and post-colonialism.
• What role did the Empire of Japan’s wartime medicine and American medicine play in Japan and its colonies (Korea and Taiwan) after World War II?
• How did national leaders, government officers, physicians, and workers use medicine and public health to negotiate their agency with the Cold War superpowers and harness Cold War discourse for their own interests?
• How did ordinary people in East Asia flip the trope of Cold War discourse for their own interests?

What I did

• The comparison of health care system models among major Korean political groups and the US military government based on their political orientation right after the independence from the Empire of Japan
• What role did the allegation of biological warfare during the Korean War play in formulating North Korea’s characteristic way of using scientific knowledge in domestic public health campaigns and international politics during the Cold War?

Inspiration

My academic curiosity was sparked by one simple question:

Why did the United States Army Military Government in Korea (USAMIGIK) attempt to establish a government-led health insurance system?

It was strange to me because the US at the time—surely, even at present—preferred a private insurance system. I believe searching for the answer to this question, which requires a transnational and interdisciplinary approach can shed light on not only the development of the health insurance system in the transpacific regions (Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the US) but also the interactions between the themes of the Cold War and medicine.