My Publications… Recent Media Commentary on North Korea, and Chinese-North Korean Relations 23 Mar 201623 Mar 2016 With the apparent breakdown of Chinese-North Korean cultural diplomacy in December, North Korea's testing of a purported hydrogen bomb in January, and a missile test and sanctions debate in February,…
Art… The Moranbong Band and Regime Consolidation in the DPRK 9 Dec 20159 Dec 2015 Today, media in Beijing announced that the Moranbong Band, the all-female ensemble associated closely with Kim Jong-un, will be travelling to China for five days of performances. An academic paper…
Borderlands… Trains, Trade, and Corruption: Dandong Data Points 22 Sep 201522 Sep 2015 While analysts were surely right to parse the dynamics of the 3 September parade in Beijing, the work of assessing the state of Chinese-North Korean relations needs to go well beyond…
My Publications… Recent Writings and Commentary on North Korea 20 May 2015 Essays 'Purges, Baekdu, and the Moranbong Band: Data Points around General Hyon,' Sino-NK, 16 May 2015 'Kim Jong-un's vulnerability on display as North Korean rumours abound,' The Guardian, 15 May 2015 'Satellites…
American Foreign Policy… Atrocities, Insults, and “Jeep Girls”: Depictions of the U.S. Military in China, 1945-1949 13 May 201514 May 2015 Controversy continues to surround various military occupations in East Asia in the 20th century. Specifically, the connection between military occupation and sex work carried out by women the occupied countries remains…
Art… Researching the Moranbong Band: An Abstract 30 May 2014 Even before Kim Jong-il's tremulously-announced death in Dec. 2011, the North Korean musical-cultural apparatus-elite-complex was in valedictory mode, producing huge orchestral canatas that expressed a perfect --and complete-- vision of…
China… The Guardian’s North Korea Network, and a Note on Journalism, Fieldwork, and Academia 30 Apr 2014 The Guardian has created a new North Korea Network, of which the web journal which I edit, Sino-NK, is very much a part. Graciously, the editors in London also saw fit…
Art… Enemies and Allies in North Korean Art and Archives, 1948-1952 29 Mar 201429 Mar 2014 This is the introduction to a paper which I prepared for an Association of Asian Studies panel on captured wartime documents in Korea, Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting, Philadelphia,…
My Publications Moved to Leeds 17 Sep 201317 Sep 2013 As some readers may have noted, I have moved from my previous position at Queen's University, Belfast, and am presently (and happily) lodged as a lecturer in history at the…
My Publications… Ears Plugged, Fuses Lit 6 Jan 2013 Just prior to the tolling of the bells that marked the turning of the year, I was fortunate to have an essay published in South China Morning Post on the subject of…