Se-Mi Oh is an Assistant Professor of Modern Korean History in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University, and served as a post-doctoral fellow at the Korean Institute of Harvard University. Her research focuses on the architectural and urban practices of Colonial Seoul of the 1920s and 1930s and explores the relationship between space and history.

As this lecture will be the first in the series, it will introduce important events in modern Korean history. Starting from the late nineteenth century, it will trace the tumultuous processes of Korea’s modernization, colonialism, war, division, nation building, industrialization, dissident movement, cultural development, and explore the entangled history of two Koreas from 1945 to the present day.

This is the first of a six-lecture series. The subject is The Koreas – More Than You Know. The next lecture series starts October 25th and runs through December 6th. The subject is Immigration.