I am Assistant Professor of Korean Studies at the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, within the Department of History at Lund University. My research explores the transnational politics of care and the body as key sites of modern governance in postcolonial societies.

I received my MSc in Migration Studies from the University of Oxford and my PhD in Korean Studies from the University of Tübingen. Prior to my appointment at Lund, I held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of California, Irvine (as a Korea Foundation Fellow) and at Harvard University (as SBS Korean Studies Fellow).

My book in progress, tentatively titled Governing Care: Professional Social Work and the Making of the International Adoption System in Cold War South Korea, interrogates the formation of the world’s most extensive international adoption program through the institutional and ideological frameworks of professional social work. This project is based on extensive archival research in six countries, oral history interviews with key professionals, and examination of personal adoption files. My work has been published in the Journal of Social History and the Journal of Asian Studies.

My research has been supported by various institutions, including the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), the Korea Foundation, the Academy of Korean Studies, the Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies at Seoul National University, the Clarke Chambers Travel Fellowship at the University of Minnesota, and the Presbyterian Historical Society Research Fellowship.

At Lund, I teach BA and MA courses on modern and contemporary Korean societies, body politics and governance in Southeast and East Asia, and research methods in Asian Studies. 

I have also been featured in media outlets such as The Washington Post, The Guardian, and Sydsvenskan, where I have commented on a range of issues related to South Korea.

I can be reached at youngeun.koo@ace.lu.se.

My first name, Youngeun, is pronounced [Young-oon] with a soft ending.