---

Korean America and U.S.-Korea Relations

April 17 (Fri), 2026 / Tutor Campus Center 450, USC Parkside Campus

This symposium examines the historical and contemporary relationship between Korea and the United States, with particular attention to the Korean diaspora in Los Angeles. Korean migration to the United States began shortly after the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1882, and by the early twentieth century Korean communities had taken root in Hawai’i and California. Korean Americans played a key role in the Korean independence movement during the period of Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945), and they contributed as activists and as soldiers to the U.S. military effort during WWII. Today, Korean Americans continue to shape political, economic, and cultural developments to both their ancestral land and their home country.

Bringing together regional as well as national experts, this event seeks to develop a more nuanced understanding of the place of Korean Americans within the interwoven histories of the two nations, in the process also deepening our knowledge of national histories themselves. Along with scholarly panels, the symposium will feature a roundtable of youth activists from Los Angeles’s Korean American community, seeking to identify policy concerns and future directions in light of both history and current conditions.

This symposium is organized by USC’s Korean Studies Institute and is sponsored by the Korea Foundation, the UCLA Center for Korean Studies, and USC’s Korean Heritage Library. 

Symposium Schedule

9:30–9:50 a.m. Welcoming Remarks by Sunyoung Park, Director, USC Korean Studies Institute

9:50–10:00 a.m. Congratulatory Remarks by William Deverell, Dean, Division of Social Sciences

10:00- a.m-10:15 a.m. Opening Address by Jane Junn, USC Associates Chair in Social Sciences and Professor of Political Science and Gender and Sexuality Studies

10:30–12:30 a.m. Session 1: Korean America in National and International Politics

• Richard Kim (UC Davis), “From Diasporic Nationalism to Asian American Justice: The Durham Stevens Assassination and Chol Soo Lee Legal Cases”
• Christine Hong (UC Santa Cruz), “Police State, Police Action, Police Brutality: Dongnip Sinmun and Freedom Newspaper on the Korean War”
• Ga Young Jung (UC Davis), “Unexpired: Time, Imperial Futurity, and the Undocumented Korean Immigrant Justice Movement”

               Moderator: Dillon Sung (USC)

12:30–1:40 p.m. Lunch Break

1:40–3:10 p.m. Session 2: New Directions in Korean American Studies

• Shelley Lee (Brown University), “Korea and Korean America: Convergent and Divergent Paths”
• Jong-Hyun Lim (Korean American Legacy Foundation), “Memory, Identity, and Shared Transnational Heritage: Rehabilitating the Young Korean Academy (Hung Sa Dahn) Historic Site in Los Angeles”

               Moderator: Zavi Kang Engels (USC)

3:10–3:30 p.m. Coffee Break

3:30–4:30 p.m. Roundtable Discussion with Korean American Youth Activists

• Matty Kim (Co-Founder, Koreans 4 Decolonization)
• Eujean Doo (Ph.D. student, UC Berkeley)

Moderator: Michael Chwe (UCLA)

4:30-4:40 p.m. Closing Remarks

5:00 p.m. Reception Dinner for Panelists and Invitees at the University Club