Please note: This event is now at capacity, but it will be livestreamed at wellesley.edu/live.

An expert on U.S.-Korea relations and contemporary political life in East Asia, Professor Katharine H.S. Moon will analyze the United States’ current relationship with North Korea and contrast it with South Korea’s attempts at relationship-building and reconciliation. She will also examine the power of finding common ground based on universal experiences and the impact that can have on possible policy transformations.

Professor Moon is a professor of political science and the Edith Stix Wasserman Chair of Asian Studies at Wellesley. Her current book project, New Koreans: Defectors, Immigrants, and the Future of Democracy, analyzes the political impact of international migration and demographic change in South Korea and the implications for “peninsular democracy.” She is also working on North Korean Lives Matter, a book based on interviews with members of the North Korean diaspora around the world, in which she explores their views on universal experiences—love, death, family, friendship, favorite foods, community, generational gaps, and homeland. Her previous books include Protesting America: Democracy and the U.S.-Korea Alliance, an analysis of the impact of South Korea’s democracy on the U.S.-Korea alliance, and Sex Among Allies: Military Prostitution in U.S.-Korea Relations, which examines the interactions between traditional foreign policy, gender dynamics, and women’s lives.

Professor Moon, who has taught at Wellesley since 1993, is an affiliated research faculty at the Korea Institute, Harvard University; a member of the Harvard Kennedy School Korea Working Group; and a member of the steering committee of the National Committee on North Korea. She was the inaugural holder of the SK-Korea Foundation Chair and a senior fellow in the Center for East Asia Policy at the Brookings Institution.

In addition to her scholarly writing, Professor Moon has provided lively and incisive commentary for many media outlets, including Reuters, CNN, the New York Times, and NPR, and is frequently sought out by journalists to share her expertise.

Sponsored by the Office of the President, the Distinguished Faculty Lecture was established in 1999 to provide an opportunity for the College’s accomplished and respected faculty members to deliver a public lecture that allows the community to reflect on the meaning of a liberal arts education.