Ex-CCEA

Brain Korea 21

Participating Professors

Professor KANG Yoonhee
As a linguistic anthropologist, Prof. Kang Yoonhee focuses on the issues of language ideology, sociolinguistics, multilingualism, and education. She has conducted research on a wide variety of topics, including Indonesian magic spells and ritual language, language education among Korean pre-college students in Singapore, and the multilingual practices of transnational employees in Indonesia. She is currently conducting a research project entitled “Parenting strategies around children’s education in urban China, South Korea and Singapore: A comparative ethnographic study” funded by the Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Science (PI: Prof. Kristina Göransson, Lund University, ~ 2021, Dec. 31)
Education & Positions
2023 - Present Director, SNU Department of Anthropology BK21

2022 - Present Editorial Board, Journal of Sociolinguistics 

2018 – 2020 Committee for Research and Exploration, National Geographic Society, 

2018 – 2020 Chair, Department of Anthropology, Seoul National University

2018 - Present Professor, Department of Anthropology, Seoul National University 

2013 - 2018 Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Seoul National University

2011 - 2013 Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Seoul National University

2007 - 2011 Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore)

2002 - 2007 Research Associate, Center for Folklore and Ethnography, University of Pennsylvania

1995 - 2002 M. Phil, Ph.D. (Anthropology) Yale University

1991 - 1993 M.A. (Anthropology) Seoul National University

1987 - 1991 B.A. (Anthropology) Seoul National University
Office Address
Room 409, Bldg. 16 (College of Social Sciences)
Office Tel. / E-mail
+82-2-880-6231 / yhkang@snu.ac.kr
Courses Taught
Language and Emotion, Language and Identity, Language and Communication, Linguistic Anthropology, Culture and Verbal Art, Sociolinguistics
Research Interests

Linguistic Anthropology, Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Singapore), Transnational Migration and Education

Publications

[Articles]
Forthcoming, "Not to study, but to experience: Parental aspirations, children's happiness, and alternative pathways to going global in South Korea," Global Networks [SSCI] 


2024 "Becoming a 'good parent': Social class and talk labour among South Korean Parents," Children & Society [SSCI] 


2023 "'Play with passion! It will lead you to perseverance in study': Negotiating parents' aspirations through play in Seoul," Education and Aspirations in East Asia, International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) 


2022 "Navigating conflicting desires: Parenting practices and the meaning of educational work in urban East Asia", Ethnography and Education [SSCI]


2021 "Introduction to the theme series 'decentring the Anglosphere,'" Journal of Sociolinguistics [SSCI]


2020 "Achievements and prospects of Korean linguistic anthropology research," The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 28 (3) ("한국언어인류학의 평가와 전망" 『​사회언어학』​ 28 (3) )


2018 “A pathway to ‘constant becoming’: time, temporalities and the construction of self among South Korean educational migrants in Singapore," Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education: 1-16. [SSCI, SCOPUS]
 
 
2018 “Singapore 2017: Challenges and Prospects in the Post-Lee Kuan Yew Era,” The Southeast Asian Review, 28(1): 83-120. (“싱가포르 2017: 포스트-리콴유 시대의 도전과 과제” 『​동남아시아연구』​ 28(1): 83-120. (공저)) 
 
2017 “공장말”: 인도네시아 내 한국 기업의 언어사용과 권력 [“Factory talk”: Language use and power in a Korean multinational corporation in Indonesia].『한국문화인류학』[Korean Cultural Anthropology] 50(2): 237-285.

2016 “Beat Your Child with a Flower! ”: Asian Advantage and Educational Connectivity between South Korea and Singapore. Asian Journal of Social Science 44(6): 740-761. [SSCI, SCOPUS]

2016 The Old Rhetoric of Emergent Motherhoods: Mothers’ Heartfelt Care and Children’s Education among South Korean Educational Migrants in Singapore. Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific, Issue 39. 
 
 

2016 언어와 감각: 커피 향미 표현에 대한 민족지적 사례 연구 [Language and the senses: an ethnographic case study of coffee flavor terms in South Korea]. 『사회언어학』 [The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea] 24(1): 1-36.

2015 “커피 배우기”: 언어, 향미, 그리고 감식안의 습득과정 [“Learning coffee”: Language, flavors, and 
the learning process of connoisseurship]. 『비교문화연구』[Cross-Cultural Studies] 21(2): 5-41.

2014 인도네시아 한인 기업의 언어사용과 의사소통 [Language and communication in a Korean company in Indonesia].『동남아시아연구』[The Southeast Asian Review] 24(3): 121-158.

2014 언어자원과 언어능력의 재구성: 싱가포르 한국조기유학생들과 동반가족의 사례 [Reconstituting language resources and competencies: A case study of South Korean pre-college students and their accompanying families in Singapore]. 『비교문화연구』[Cross-Cultural Studies] 20(1): 87-118.

2013 “Global Citizens in the Making”: Child-Centred Multimedia Ethnographic Research on South Korean Student Migrants in Singapore. Ethnography 14(3): 324-345. [SSCI, A&HCI, SCOPUS]

2012 “Any One Parent Will Do”: Negotiations of Fatherhood among South Korean “Wild Geese” Fathers in Singapore. Journal of Korean Studies 17(2): 269-298. [SSCI, A&HCI]

2012 “Singlish or Globish”: Shifting Language Ideologies and Global Identities among Korean Educational Migrants in Singapore. Journal of Sociolinguistics 16(2): 165-183. [SSCI]

2012 환영 받지 못하는 천국의 시민: 미국 내 인도네시아 미등록 이주민들의 체험된 경험으로서의 “불법성”[Unwelcomed citizens of heaven: “Illegality” as lived-experience among Indonesian undocumented Indonesian migrants in the U.S.].『비교문화연구』[Cross-Cultural Studies] 18(2): 5-51.

2007 Unintelligibility and Imaginative Interpretation in a Petalangan Healing Ritual. TEXT & TALK 27(4): 409-433. [SSCI]

2007  인도네시아 여성들의 외설주문: 언어, 몸, 그리고 욕망 [Indonesian Petalangan women’s obscene spells: Language, desire and the body]. 『비교문화연구』[Cross-Cultural Studies] 13(1): 5-34.

2006  “Staged” Rituals, “Veiled” Spells: Multiple Language Ideologies and Transformations in Petalangan Verbal Magic. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 16(1): 1-22. [SCOPUS]

2006 쁘딸랑안 의례언어의 시적구조와 다기능성 [Poetic structure and multifunctionality of the Petalangan honey-collecting ritual].『한국문화인류학』 [Korean Cultural Anthropology] 39(1): 73-104.

2004 주변화에 따른 전통구술장르의 변화와 언어이데올로기: 인도네시아 쁘딸랑안 부족의 사례 [Social marginalization, language ideologies, and changes of traditional verbal genres in Petalangan society, Indonesia]. 『한국문화인류학』[Korean Cultural Anthropology]  37(2): 37-48.

2003  The Desire to be Desired: Magic Spells, Agency and the Politics of Desire among the Petalangan people in Indonesia. Language & Communication 23(2): 153- 167. [SSCI]

2002  Addressing the Invisible World: Indexicality, Iconicity and the Cultural Concept of Self in Belian, a Petalangan Healing Ritual in Indonesia. Texas Linguistic Forum 44(1): 90-103.

2002  “Endearing or En-daring?”: The Pragmatics of Love in a Performance of Honey Collecting Ritual among the Petalangan People in Indonesia. Texas Linguistic Forum 44(2): 302-312.


[Book Chapters]
2018 A translated chapter “Anthropology: Beyond individual cases,” The Mind’s New Science: a History of the Cognitive Revolution, by Gardner, Howard, translated by Chang, Byung-Tak et al. Seoul: Seoul National University Press. [“인류학: 개별 사례를 넘어서,” 『마음의 새로운 과학: 인지혁명의 역사』, 하워드 가드너 지음. 장벽탁 외. 서울: 서울대학교 출판문화원 (역서).] 

2018 “Language, Culture, and Social Interactions,” in Modern Cultural Anthropology, by Kweon, Sug-In et al. Seoul: Hyung Sul. [“언어, 문화, 사회적 상호작용,” 『현대문화인류학: 인간과 문화에 대한 열일곱 가지 주제들』, 권숙인 외. 서울: 형설출판사.] 

2018 “Transnational split households and the reconstruction of ‘fatherhood’: A case of Korean migrant students and their accompanying fathers in Singapore,” The Anthropology of Korean Family and Kinship, edited by Jung, Hyang Jin. Seoul: Seoul National University. [“초국가적 분거가족과 아버지됨의 재구성: 싱가포르 조기유학생과 동반 아버지들의 사례”, 『한국 가족과 친족의 인류학: 이론, 쟁점, 변화』, 정향진 외. 서울: 서울대학교 출판문화원]. ​

2015 Korea-Singapore Relations: A Focus on Educational Exchanges. In Lee, Choong Lyol, Hong, Seok-Joon, and Youn, Dae-yeong, eds. ASEAN-Korea Relations: Twenty-five Years of Partnership and Friendship. Seoul: Nulmin Books. 

2015 Going Global in Comfort: Korean Educational Exodus in Singapore. In Lo, Adrienne, Abelmann, Nancy, Kwon, Soo Ah, and Okazaki, Sumie, eds. South Korea’s Education Exodus: The Life and Times of Early Study Abroad. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press. 

2014 인도네시아 생산현장에서의 말하기: 삼익 인도네시아의 사례 [Language use in a multinational workplace: A case of Samick Indonesia]. In Oh Myungsoek [오명석], ed. 『말레이세계로 간 한국 기업들』[Korean companies in the Malay world], pp. 129-169. Seoul: Nulmin Books 눌민.

2013 Student Migration: An Overview. In Immanuel Ness, ed. The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration, Volume V, pp. 2895-2899. Blackwell Publishing. 

2012 Transnational Motherhood in the Making of Global Kids: South Korean Educational Migrants in Singapore. In Caroline Pluss and Chan, Kwok-Bun, eds. Living Intersections: Transnational Migrant Identifications in Asia, Pp. 149-166. Dordrecht, NL: Springer.

2010 제주사회의 두 방언 사용현상 [Use of two dialects in Jeju society]. In 왕한석 엮음 [Wang Han-Sok, ed.『한국어, 한국문화, 한국사회』[Korean language, Korean culture, Korean society] Seoul: Gyomunsa 교문사.

2009 “God Crossing Borders”: Religious reconciliation and trans/national identities among Indonesian migrants in Philadelphia. In F. Dhont, K. W. Fogg, and M. C. Hoadley, eds. Towards an Inclusive Democratic Indonesian Society: Bridging the Gap Between State Uniformity and Multicultural Identity Patterns, pp. 299-316. Yogyakarat: Atma Jaya Yogyakarat University Press.

2002 “Open Desire, Close the Body”: Magic spells, Desire and the Body among the Petalangan Women of Indonesia. In Kathryn Campbell-Kibler, Robert J. Podesva, Sarah Roberts, and Andrew Wong, eds. 
Language and Sexuality: Contesting Meaning in Theory and Practice, pp. 267-288. Stanford: CLSI. 


[Book Reviews] 
2019 “Book review of Statehood, Scale and Hierarchy, Language and Identity in Indonesia, by Lauren Zentz,” Journal of Sociolinguistics


[Books] 
2021 The Linguaculture of Contemporary Korean Society, Seoul: SNU Press. (edited voulme) [현대 한국사회의 언어문화]

2021 The Achievements and Challenges of 30 Years of Korean Sociolinguistic Research, Seoul: Global Contents. (edited volume) [한국사회언어학연구 30년의 성과와 과제]

2020 Anthropologists Talk about Southeast Asia, Seoul: Nulmin. (edited volume) [인류학자들 동남아를 말하다]

2005 Untaian kata leluhur: marjinalitas, emosi, dan kuasa kata-kata magi di kalangan orang Petalangan Riau. [The string of ancestral words: marginality, emotion, and the power of magical words among Petalangan Riau]  Pusat Penelitian Kebudayaan dan Kemasyarakatan, Universitas Riau. [Center for Social and Cultural Research, Riau University] 
Pekanbaru: Indonesia 
Recent Research Projects
Parenting and Education in East Asia
Education and Migration within Asia
Transnational Families
Language and Identity
Korean Companies in Indonesia
Food Culture in Contemporary Korea