Biography
Alex Jong-Seok Lee is a Research Associate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC). His work examines how gender, labor, and mobility intersect with race in contemporary South Korea and transnational contexts. He holds a PhD in Anthropology with a minor in Asian American Studies from UIUC. He has held positions at the University of the South and at Rice University’s Chao Center for Asian Studies, and has published in Men & Masculinities, The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, Kalfou, and Transnational Asia. Beyond academia, he applies anthropological methods to research and product strategy in tech and other settings.
Education
2018: PhD, Anthropology, Minor in Asian American Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2003: BA, Ethnic Studies, University of California, San Diego.
Awards and Honors
- 2020 Rice University Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning Course Development Grant
- 2015 Social Science Research Council Korean Studies Dissertation Workshop – Honorable Mention
- 2013 US Department of Education Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship in Arabic, Academic Year
- 2012 UIUC Department of Anthropology Joseph B. Casagrande Research Award
- 2012 UIUC Department of Anthropology Summer Research Award
- 2012 Social Science Research Council and MIGRINTER Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship
- 2011 US Department of Education Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship in Korean, Academic Year
- 2011 US Department of Education Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship in Korean, Summer
Courses Taught
- Race and Asia
- Anthropological Social Theory
- Introduction to International and Global Studies
- Globalization and Migration in Asia
- Race, Nation, and Empire in Modern Asia
- Introduction to Transnational Asian Studies
- Introduction to Asian American Studies
- Anthropology in a Changing World
- The Biology of Human Behavior
- Introduction to Asian American Popular Culture