Myungji Yang

Background

Born and raised in South Korea, where large political spectacles characterized by the fall of the military regime, democratic transition, and radical student activism and labor movements occurred in the 1980s and 1990s, I became naturally interested in contentious politics, social movements, and social transformations. I was curious about what made college students and workers turn into revolutionaries, sometimes at the risk of ruining their own lives; how large-scale social mobilization from below was possible under the brutal military regime; and how the authoritarian legacies remained in the postauthoritarian years and impact democratic life and political norms. This led me to study sociology as an undergraduate and write my MA thesis on the political strategies of the Park Chung Hee regime (1961-1979). Earning my PhD in Sociology from Brown University in 2012, I continued my career as a political sociologist. Before I joined the sociology department at UH Mānoa, I was in the political science department at UH Mānoa from 2013 to 2020. I have served as a visiting fellow at the USC Korean Studies Institute (2015-16), MaxPo (2019-20), and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (2020-21).

Education

• PhD, Sociology, Brown University, 2012
• MA, Sociology, Yonsei University, South Korea, 2003
• BA, Sociology and Korean Literature, Yonsei University, South Korea, 2001

Courses

• SOC 100: Introduction to Sociology
• SOC 180: Introduction to Global Studies
• SOC 316: Survey of Social Change
• SOC 318: Sociology of Korea
• SOC 715: Seminar on Political Sociology
• SOC 750: Seminar on Social Movements

Research

I am a political sociologist and social movement scholar interested in the questions of power, inequality, civil society, and democracy. By pursuing comparative historical and qualitative methods, I have explored challenges to democratic systems and to democratic solidarity, focusing on far-right politics and movements in South Korea and beyond. I examine how existing political contexts—both global and local—shape the ideas and strategies of the far right and what these political practices entail for the future of democracy and development. My research has appeared in Nations and Nationalism, Politics and Society, Mobilization: An International Inquiry, Urban Studies, and Sociological Inquiry, among other venues. I am the author of two books, From Miracle to Mirage (2018, Cornell University Press) and Reactionary Politics in South Korea: Historical Legacies, Far-Right Intellectuals, and Political Mobilization (2025, Cambridge University Press). I am currently developing my research project on young men’s radicalization and anti-feminist politics.