Hyun Suk Park 朴賢淑 (she/her)

Bio

My primary field of research is Korean literature and culture from the seventeenth through the nineteenth century. As a scholar of Korean literature both in Korean and literary Sinitic (hanmun 漢文) by training, my research is deeply engaged with the East Asian cultural tradition. My research interests include the intersections between literature and performance, the history of gender and sexuality, the comparative history of slavery, and the cultural history of natural disasters in early modern East Asia and beyond.

My first book manuscript, Government Courtesans in Military Uniforms: State Slavery, Gender, and Performance in Chosŏn Korea, 1392–1910 (forthcoming; Harvard University Asia Center, 2027), explores the cultural production of government courtesans (kwan’gi 官妓) at the nexus of the studies of slavery, gender, and performance in Korean literature. In this work, I illuminate how the spectacular performances of courtesans, offered in state events, were involved in the constitution and reproduction of state power of Chosŏn. I also examine how courtesan performances represent state power as multivalent and unstable through the frequent incorporation of heterogeneous elements, as exemplified by martial entertainment offered by cross-dressing courtesans.

I am currently in the process of designing a new research project that explores the same-sex intimacy created by the practice of letter writing between the literati of Chosŏn and Qing outside of diplomatic venues. I am also developing a long-term research project in environmental humanities that focuses on climate disasters in seventeenth-century East Asia and explores the new methodologies of writing a literary and cultural history that considers climate as an actant.

Before joining Stanford in 2025, I have taught at UCLA (2018–2025), Seoul National University (2016–2018), and UC Berkeley (2013–2016).

Academic Appointments

• Assistant Professor, East Asian Languages and Cultures

Professional Education

• Ph.D., University of Chicago, Korean and East Asian Literatures
• M.A., Seoul National University, Classical Korean Literature
• B.A., Seoul National University, Korean Literature and English