Ex-CCEA

Brain Korea 21

Participating Professors

Associate Professor LEE Hyeon Jung
Prof. Lee is a medical anthropologist whose work focuses extensively on state violence, family and gender relations, and their psychosocial influences on mental health outcomes among peasants in China and the urban poor in South Korea. Prof. Lee’s research has been oriented toward understanding the local contexts of social suffering and its relations to various social, political, and cultural factors, along with how the interventions of the state, medical professionals and NGOs affect mental health situations. Her main research topics include suicide and depression among Chinese female peasants, political memory and caring for the elderly with dementia in rural China, spousal care of Alzheimer’s disease patients in South Korea, elderly suicide and South Korea’s welfare programs, and social suffering after the Sewol ferry disaster in South Korea.
Education & Positions

2016 – Present  Director, The Institute for China Studies, Seoul National University

2016 – Present  Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Seoul National University

2015 – 2016  Visiting Scholar, Harvard-Yenching Institute

2012 – 2016  Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Seoul National University

2009  Ph.D. (Anthropology), Washington University in St. Louis

2009  Certificate (Women and Gender Studies), Washington University in St. Louis

2000  M.A. (Anthropology) Seoul National University

1998  B.A. (Anthropology) Seoul National University 
Office Address
Room 407, Bldg. 16 (College of Social Sciences)
Office Tel. / E-mail
+82-2-880-9062 / anthrolee@snu.ac.kr
Courses Taught
Chinese Society and Culture, Anthropology of the Body, Medical Anthropology, Anthropology of China, Anthropology of Family and Kinship, Anthropology of Ethics
Research Interests
Medical Anthropology, Gender, Family and Kinship, the State and Subject Formation, China
Publications
[Books]
2017 『침몰한 세월호, 난파하는 대한민국』[Challenges of modernization and governance in South Korea: The sinking of the Sewol and its causes]. Seoul: Hanul Academie 한울아카데미. (서재정 등과 공저) (co-author with Seo Jaejung).

2017 『의료, 아시아의 근대성을 읽는 창』[Medicine and modernities in Asia: Anthropological perspectives]. Seoul: Seoul National University Press 서울대학교출판문화원. (김태우와 공편) (​co-author with ​Kim Taewoo).

2017 『세월호가 묻고 사회과학이 답하다』[The Sewol ferry disaster: Social science perspectives] . Seoul: Oruem 오름. (이재열 등과 공저) (​co-author with ​Yee Jaeyeol).

2015 『팽목항에서 불어오는 바람: 세월호 이후 인문학의 기록』[The wind from the Paengmok Port: An anthropological record after the Sewol ferry disaster]. Seoul: Hyunsil Book 현실문화. (노명우 등과 공저) (​co-author with ​No Myeongwu).


[Articles]

2017 현대 중국 농촌의 시장개혁과 혼인관습의 변화: Jack Goody의 신부대 이론에 관한 비판적 고찰 [Market reforms and changing marriage customs in contemporary rural China: A critique of Jack Goody’s theory on brideprice]. 『한국문화인류학』[Korean Cultural Anthropology] 50(1): 93-131. 

2017 李紅梅的故事: 農村婦女防止自殺工作个案硏究. [The story of Li Hongmei: A case study of suicide  intervention for women in rural China]. 『廣西民族大學學報』 [Journal of Guangxi University for  Nationalities] 39(1): 46-51.

2016 세월호 참사와 사회적 고통: 표상, 경험, 개입에 관하여 [Social suffering after the Sewol ferry sinking: On representation, experience, and intervention]. 『보건과 사회과학』[Health and Social  Science] 43: 63-83.

2015 노인 자살위험 집단의 삶의 태도에 관한 인류학적 연구: 서울시 거주 기초생활수급대상 노인들을 대상으로. [Life attitudes of the Korean elderly at high risk of suicide: Focusing on the elderly beneficiaries of national basic livelihood in Seoul, South Korea]. 『노인복지연구』 [Journal of Welfare for the Aged] 67: 249-276.

2014 고령화시대 한국의 복지 프로그램과 새로운 노년 주체의 형성: 서울 K복지관 도시락 배달 사업의 사례 [Welfare programs and the formation of new elderly subjects in South Korea].『한국문화인류학』[Korean Cultural Anthropology] 47(3): 161-203.

2014 무엇이 한국인들을 죽음으로 내모는가?: 타인 지향적 삶과 경멸의 문화 [What drives Koreans to  death?: Other oriented life and a culture of contempt]. 『지식의 지평』[Orbis Sapientiae] 17: 69-87.

2014 잊혀진 혁명: 중국 개혁개방시기 농촌 잔류여성(留守婦女)의 삶 [Revolution forgotten: Market  reforms and left-behind women in rural China]. 『한국여성학』 [Journal of Korean Women’s Studies]  30(1): 1-33.

2014 Fearless Love, Death for Dignity: Female Suicide and Gendered Subjectivity in Rural North China. China Journal 71: 25-42.

2013 중국 농촌의 자살 현상에 관한 의료인류학적 분석: 구조적 폭력과 체현 개념을 중심으로 [An anthropological analysis of suicide phenomena in rural China: Focusing on structural violence and embodiment].『보건과 사회과학』[Health and Social Science] 34: 61-86.

2013 의료인류학: 인간의 질병과 건강, 의료체계 및 치유에 관한 인류학적 접근 [Medical anthropology: An anthropological approach to understanding human disease, health, medical systems, and healing].『지식의 지평』[Orbis Sapientiae] 14: 125-137.

2012 부모-자녀 동반자살’을 살펴 본 동아시아 지역의 가족 개념: 한국, 중국, 일본 사회에 대한 비교문화적 접근 [“The parent-child suicide pact” and the concept of the family in East Asia: A cross-cultural approach of South Korea, China, and Japan]. 『한국학연구』 [The Journal of Korean Studies] 40: 187-227.

2012 1991-2010년 한국 일간지 분석을 통해 살펴 본 우울증에 대한 사회문화적 인식의 변화 [The changing discourse of depression and its cultural implications in South Korea: An analysis of newspaper coverage between 1991 and 2010]. 『한국문화인류학』[Korean Cultural Anthropology] 45(1): 43-88.

2011 헤게모니 경합의 場인 정신보건: 중국 개혁시기 여성주의 NGO와 의료전문가의 자살예방 접근방식에 관한 민족지적 연구 [Mental health care as a field of hegemonic contestation: An e thnographic study on suicide prevention approaches of a feminist NGO and a psychiatrist group in reform China]. 『현대중국연구』 [The Journal of Contemporary China Studies] 12(2): 41-82.

2010 중국 농촌 여성의 자살은 과연 저항인가: 서구 저항 담론에 대한 비판적 검토와 자살행위에  관한 인류학적 사례분석 [Is suicide among rural women in China a form of resistance?: A critical review of Western discourse about resistance and the anthropological analysis of suicidal behavior in rural China].『한국문화인류학』[Korean Cultural Anthropology] 43(3): 75-124.

2010 “자살에 관한 문화적 학습 및 재생산의 경로: 중국 농촌 여성의 사례 [Paths of the cultural  learning and reproduction about suicide: A case of rural women in China].『비교문화연구』 [Cross- Cultural Studies] 16(2): 115-149.

2010 한국 자살현상의 특징과 인류학적 연구의 가능성 [Characteristics of suicide phenomena in South  Korea and possibilities of anthropological research]. 『한국문화인류학』[Korean Cultural  Anthropology] 43(1): 307-324.

2001 조선족의 종족 정체성 형성에 관한 연구 [A study on the making process of the Korean-Chinese  ethnic identity].『비교문화연구』[Cross-Cultural Studies] 7(2): 63-105.


[Book Chapters]
2017 From Passive Citizens to Resistant Subjects: The Sewol Families Stand Up to the State. In Jae-Jung Suh and Mikyoung Kim, eds. Challenges of Modernization and Governance in South Korea: The Sinking of the Sewol and Its Causes, pp. 187-208. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan. 

2017 중국 근대화와 사회적 고통: 개혁시기 자살예방 프로그램의 사례 [Modernization and social suffering in China: A case of suicide prevention programs during the reform period]. In Hyeong Jung Lee and Taewu Kim, eds. 이현정·김태우 편. 『의료, 아시아의 근대성을 읽는 창』 [Medicine and modernities in Asia: anthropological perspectives], pp. 71-110. Seoul: Seoul National University Press 서울대학교출판문화원.

2012 Modernization and Women’s Fatalistic Suicide in Post-Mao Rural China: A Critique of Durkheim. In Andrew Kipnis, ed. Chinese Modernity and the Individual Psyche, pp. 149-165. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 

[Book Reviews]
2011 식민지 조선에 대한 두 가지 의학적 시선 그리고 의료인류학적 가치 [Two medical views of colonial Joseon and their anthropological value]. (『조선의 농촌위생: 경상남도 울산읍 달리의 사회위생학적 조사 』)와 『토막민의 생활과 위생: 1940년 경성의 풍경 』에 대한 서평)  (A book view of [Rural sanitation of Joseon: A study of social sanitation of Kyeongsang namdo Wulsaneup Dalri] and [People living in shacks and their hygiene practices: Kyeongseong in 1940) .『한국문화인류학』 [Korean Cultural Anthropology] 44(1): 203-215.


[Thesis and Dissertation] 
2009 States of Suffering: Female Suicide, Subjectivity, and State Power in Rural North China. Washington University in St. Louis Ph.D. dissertation.

2000 “한국 취업”과 중국 조선족의 사회 문화적 변화: 민족지적 연구 [“Korean dream” and  sociocultural changes among Korean minority in China: An ethnographic study.]  Master’s thesis for Seoul National University 서울대학교석사학위논문.​
Recent Research Projects
Comparative Studies on Suicide Phenomena in China and Korea
Market Reform and Changing Marriage Customs in Rural China
Welfare Discourses and Elderly Subjectivities in Aging South Korea 
Social Suffering after the Sewol Ferry Disaster
Dementia, Political Memory, and Elderly Life in Rural China