Bio


I joined the department in 2006 after I completed my dissertation on the last phase of Korean reformist movements and the Japanese colonization of Korea between 1896 and 1910. In my dissertation, I revisited the identity of the pro-Japanese collaborators, called the Ilchinhoe, and highlighted the tensions between their populist orientation and the state-centered approach of the Japanese colonizers. Examining the Ilchinhoe’s reformist orientation and their dissolution by the Japanese authority led me to question what it meant to be collaborators during the period and what their tragic history tells us about empire as a political entity. I am currently working on a book manuscript centered on the theme of collaboration and empire, notably in relation to the recent revisionist assessments of empire. My next research will extend to the colonial period of Korea after the annexation and will examine what constituted colonial modernity in people’s everyday lives and whether the particulars of modernity were different in colonial and non-colonial situations. To explore these questions, I plan to look at the history of movie theaters in East Asia between 1890 and 1945, a subject which will allow me to study the interactions between the colonial authority, capitalists and consumers, as well as to look at the circulation of movies as consumed texts.

Academic Appointments


  • Associate Professor, History
  • Associate Professor (By courtesy), East Asian Languages and Cultures

Administrative Appointments


  • Assistant Professor, Modern Korean History, Stanford University (2007 - Present)
  • Lecturer in Modem Korean History and Society, Seoul National University (2006 - 2006)
  • Lecturer in Korean History, Ajou University, Suwon, South Korea (2005 - 2005)
  • Teaching Fellow, Sophomore Tutorial in East Asian Studies, Harvard University (2003 - 2003)
  • Visiting Fellow, Harvard-Yenching Institute, Harvard University (1998 - 1999)
  • Administrative Assistant, Department of lnternational Relations, Seoul National University, South Korea (1997 - 1998)
  • Researcher, Korean Women's Development Institute, South Korea (1996 - 1997)

Honors & Awards


  • Scholarship for Visiting Fellows, Harvard-Yenching Institute (1998-1999)
  • Scholarship for Doctoral Studies, Harvard-Yenching Institute (1999-2002)
  • Acting Assistant Professorship for Research, Stanford University (2006-2007)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations


  • Member, Graduate Fellowships Committee, Center for East Asian Studies M.A. Program, Stanford University (2013 - 2013)
  • Member, Korean Studies Faculty Search Committee, FSI and the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University (2012 - 2013)
  • Member, University of Hawai'i Press (2012 - 2013)
  • Member, University of Hawai'i Press (2011 - 2012)
  • Member, University of Washington Press (2007 - 2008)
  • Member, Association for Asian Studies
  • Member, American Historical Association
  • Member, Graduate Affairs Committee, Department of History, Stanford University (2012 - 2013)
  • Member, Faculty Appointments Committee, Department of History, Stanford University (2010 - 2011)
  • Member, Graduate Fellowships Committee, Center for East Asian Studies, M.A. Program, Stanford University (2011 - 2011)
  • Organizer, The Korean Studies Program Luncheon Colloquium, Stanford University (2011 - 2011)
  • Organizer, The Korean Studies Program Lecture Series, Stanford University (2010 - 2010)
  • Member, Internship Selection Committee, Bing Overseas Studies Program, Stanford University (2009 - 2009)
  • Member, Korean Studies Faculty Search Committee, FSI and the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University (2009 - 2010)
  • Member, Graduate Affairs Committee, Department of History, Stanford University (2009 - 2010)
  • Member, Undergraduate Studies Committee, Department of History, Stanford University (2008 - 2009)
  • Discussant, "From Democracy to Civil Society: The Evolution of Korean Social Movements" Conference, Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University (2008 - 2008)
  • Member, Undergraduate Studies Committee, Department of History, Stanford University (2007 - 2008)
  • Member, Graduate Admission Committee, Center for East Asian Studies, M.A. Program, Stanford University (2008 - 2008)
  • Discussant in the "Divided Memories: History Textbooks and the War in Asia" Conference, Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University (2008 - 2008)
  • Member, Internship Selection Committee, Bing Overseas Studies Program, Stanford University (2008 - 2008)
  • Member, The Search Committee for the Bill Perry Chair Professor in Korean Studies, School of Humanities and Sciences, and the Stanford Institute for International Studies, Stanford University (2007 - 2007)
  • Member, Korean Studies Faculty Search Committee, Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University (2009 - 2010)

Professional Education


  • Ph.D., Harvard University, History and East Asian Languages (2005)
  • Ph.D., Seoul National University, coursework in Political Science and International Relations (1997)
  • M.A., Seoul National University, Political Science and International Relations (1994)
  • B.A., Seoul National University, Political Science and International Relations (1990)

2024-25 Courses


Stanford Advisees


All Publications


  • Immoral Rights: Korean Populist Collaborators and the Japanese Colonization of Korea, 1904-1910 AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW Moon, Y. 2013; 118 (1): 20-44
  • Modern Utopia or Animal Society: American Imaginaries in Wartime Colonial Korea, 1931 - 1945 Korean Histories Moon, Y. 2013; 3 (2): 16-33
  • Populist Collaborators: The Ilchinhoe and the Japanese Colonization of Korea 1896-1910 Moon, Y. Cornell University Press. 2013
  • Minkwon kwa Cheguk: Kukwon Sangsilgi Minkwon Kaenyom ui Yongpop kwa Pyonhwa,1896 -1910 [Rights and Empire: The Concept of Popular Rights and Its Changes during the Period of the Great Korean Empire, 1896-1910] Kundae Han 'guk ui Sahoe Kwahak Kaenyom Hyongsongsa [The History of Social Science Concepts in Modern Korea] (In Korean) Moon, Y. edited by Yong-son, H., Yol, S. Ch'angjak kwa Pi 'yongsa. 2012: 269–306
  • From Periphery to a Transnational Frontier: Popular Movements in the Northwestern Provinces, 1896-1904 The Northern Region, Identity, and Culture in Korea Moon, Y. edited by Kim, S. J. University of Washington Press. 2010: 181–215