IDENTITIES OF DISPLACEMENT: WOMEN, HOME, AND TRANSNATIONAL VISUAL CULTURE

This dissertation explores how gender and globalization interweave in visual culture from a transnational feminist perspective, aiming to challenge the neoliberal, gendered discourses of globalization and to offer an alternative framework for remapping the relationship between women and globalization. Employing the concepts of home and displacement, it examines the visual cultural practices of marginalized communities of women, which are negotiated in a global-national-local nexus. It discusses the specific visuality of Third World/South femininities in the First World/North media, the displaced Korean women's visual cultural works, and the video-making workshops for the women migrants in Korea. As a transnational feminist visual culture study, it provides both a critique of how women's experiences are represented in transnational visual culture, and an understanding of the ways in which transnational visual culture enables women to identify their location and agency in the complex encounter between locality and globality

CIVIL SOCIETY AND RELATIONSHIP CULTURE: KOREAN AMERICANS' EXPERIENCE WITH THEIR ETHNIC COMMUNITY AND BEYOND

Along with the increase in interest in civil society among Political Theorists, there is the growing concern with the decline in community amongst Americans. Ethnic communities, however, are largely excluded from this discussion, though ethnic minorities are often found to be quite active in their communities and civil society. Diversity is hailed as an ideal, and we are uncomfortable with homogeneous groups, especially those racially/ethnically homogeneous; and yet, ethnic communities seem to be thriving. Using the Korean community as a case study, the overarching question of my dissertation is: What can we learn about building community from the Korean American community? Is the Korean community incompatible with a healthy and vibrant American civil society? Through interviews and participant observation of the second and 1.5 generation of Korean Americans in the Washington metropolitan area, I argue that there is more than common ethnicity to the livelihood of the Korean community, and that the relationship culture, the defining of oneself and others in terms of relationships, reinforces the obligatory nature of relationships that are in place within this ethnic community. I further argue that there are serious benefits the ethnic community has provided for its members, and that we need not categorically be uncomfortable with ethnic homogeneity, as diversity is not a good in itself. I conclude by acknowledging that Korean Americans are at a point in time that will not be repeated, and that while we do not yet know what the nature of the ethnic community will be for the third and later generations of Korean Americans, there is a glimpse of hope for compatibility between the relationship culture and a healthy American civil society

Inverted Race Tube Assay for Circadian Clock Studies of the Neurospora Accessions

Although the Neurospora crassa circadian clock has been studied for forty years, population studies of natural accessions have been limited by technical difficulties associated with the conventional race tube assay (CRTA) that is used to measure asexual development (conidiation). Due to the buildup of CO2 in the CRTA that represses banding, a mutant strain band (bd) has been utilized for increased visualization of the banding phenotype. In order to study the circadian clock in natural accessions of Neurospora multiple techniques have been explored. One such technique, the rubidium chloride-supplemented race tube assay (RRTA) has been used successfully. Here we present a new technique, the Inverted Race Tube Assay (IRTA) that is a simple modification of the CRTA. We analyzed 5 natural accessions of Neurospora using CRTA, IRTA and RRTA and discuss the advantages of the IRTA in natural variation studies in Neurospora

A Pilot Study on the Relationship between Urban Green Spaces and Fine Particulate Matter

This study aims at identifying the relationships among various variables that influence city-wide PM2.5 pollution levels in the six largest cities in Texas. The variables were categorized into three groups for statistical analysis: 1) urban components (city land area, urban population, population density); 2) green space components (coverage, percentage, connectivity, and shape); and 3) meteorological factors (ambient temperature and wind speed). To identify the relationship between meteorological features and daily PM2.5 concentration, we used descriptive statistics for each city and all six cities combined. A bivariate statistical test was used to examine the correlation between urban and green feature components and city-level PM2.5. To avoid a collinearity problem, the combination of variables that have perfect correlation (e.g., city land area and population) were excluded from the statistical model. Lastly, the hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) technique was used to estimate the effects of the meteorological features and urban and green space variables on the daily particle pollution level, which accounts for the clustering of particulate measurements within cities. The results showed that city-wide particulate pollution has significant, positive associations with temperature, city land area, population, population density, and shape complexity, and negative associations with wind speed, amount of green spaces, tree canopy, and connectivity of green spaces. It is notable that there are negative synergies in the cities with higher population density where there was a greater increase in the pollution level. Similarly, the cities with less green spaces exhibited a modest green space mitigation effect, whereas the cities with more green spaces had only a gradual increase in the pollution level even if it increased due to a higher temperature. This study indicates that both the quantity and spatial configuration of green spaces can play an important role in managing fine particulate matter in large cities

A step toward East Asian regionalism? Comparing the negotiation approaches of South Korea and Japan in their preferential trade agreements with ASEAN

In the early 2000s, Korea and Japan competitively initiated their preferential trade agreements (PTAs) with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in response to the unexpected progress of the China–ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations. In contrast with China, Korea and Japan initially preferred to negotiate PTAs with individual Southeast Asian countries, rather than with ASEAN. In 2003, however, Korea redirected its strategy and began the Korea–ASEAN FTA. Japan continued to emphasise a bilateral approach to negotiations but sought harmonisation of the individual PTAs through the ASEAN–Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership. Sharing common international political and economic challenges, why did Korea and Japan take diverging negotiation paths? This research investigates the factors that shaped Korea and Japan’s respective negotiation methods with ASEAN by focusing on the interplay of domestic interests, institutions and ideas. The research findings suggest that Korea and Japan initially preferred bilateral PTAs because of their efficiency and to minimise the backlash of the agricultural sector. Japan had a greater incentive to promote bilateral strategy than Korea, not only to counter China’s move, but also to utilise its diplomatic leverages against ASEAN. The direct causes of the two countries’ divergence, however, came from ideas and institutions. The influence of ideas became evident when Korea’s and Japan’s initial emphasis on the East Asia-based PTAs began to head toward the different directions. Japan was path-dependent of its initial step-by-step strategy focused in East Asia. In contrast, Korea accommodated the new ideas that aimed at cross-regional PTAs, making the Korea-ASEAN FTA a stepping stone for cross-regional PTAs rather than East Asia-based PTAs. Institutional factors account for the supply side of PTA decision-making processes by demonstrating how the intra-democracy variations, combined by bureaucracy discretion, empowered relevant decision-makers, which led to the reversal of negotiation progresses between Korea and Japan. The empirical research findings significantly contribute to the international political economy literature by testing the applicability of the domestic level analysis. They provide an alternative perspective to the existing debate on the compatibility of bilateralism and regionalism in East Asia and thus to the political economy of trade policy in the region. The findings also shed light on the country-specific factors shaping the economic regionalism of East Asia

LSE-Waseda University PhD Exchange Programme 2016

I am a third year Ph.D. student in the Department of International Relations, interested in International Political Economy, particularly on Korea and Japan’s Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). I am currently on an exchange programme at Waseda University, Graduate School of Asia Pacific Studies (GSAPS), in Japan

Third Places to Work in the Digital Age: Implications from Coworking Space Users' Motivations and Preferred Environmental Features

In light of the continued growth of the digitization and changing economy, work is increasingly not an identifiable place to go, but a virtual network containing individuals who still need to be connected with the support of a tangible community. The trend has fueled the rise of the widespread coworking phenomenon, referring to a style of work commonly adopted by independent, mobile workers. The objective of this research was three-fold: (1) to understand the importance of physical workplace in motivating people to use the coworking spaces; (2) to evaluate the importance and satisfaction of environmental features; and (3) to generate design toolkit for third places to work in the digital age. As the main methodology, Coworking Space Survey was developed and tested with 75 participants recruited from the current coworking communities. This research has implications for evaluating, creating, or reimagining the third places to work in the new era

A PROPOSAL FOR THE PRESERVATION OF EARLY WESTERN ARCHITECTURE IN SEOUL, KOREA

137 pagesEarly Western architecture generally refers to buildings shaped by Western influences built during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when Korea opened its doors to the West and confronted Western culture for the first time. Compared to traditional Korean architecture, early Western architecture is not yet fully accepted as a part of Korean culture, partly because of its bad association with the colonial period, 1910-1945. However, this architecture represents characteristics of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Korean society. To understand the development of modern Korea, early Western architecture deserves more attention. This thesis can be regarded as a preliminary proposal for a new national register system which advocates the preservation of early Western buildings in Seoul, Korea. This proposed new national register system is coupled with analysis and suggestions for legislation, administration, implementation, and incentives of the existing register system. The thesis, which focuses on the preservation of early Western buildings, can be directed toward the preservation of other significant cultural properties of the modern era and recent Korean history. The role of the private sector in preservation and structure of preservation education that produces future preservationists should be further investigated