Ga Young Chung

Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies

Research Interests

Profile

Ga Young Chung is an Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies affiliated with the Cultural Studies, Human Rights Studies, East Asian Studies, and the School of Education. In her research, she examines the surge of precarity and im/mobility in the era of uneven globalization and racial capitalism. Centering on political activism and resistance of undocumented Asian im/migrants, she unpacks how the meaning of citizenship is dismantled, rearticulated, and reassembled in the Asia-Pacific. Informed by transdisciplinary insights from Comparative Ethnic Studies, Critical Korean Studies, Youth Studies, and Transnational Migration Studies, her work is dedicated to expanding the field of Asian American Studies. 

Chung is co-founder of an interdisciplinary and community-engaged Asian American Seed Stewards Lab and a co-investigator of Resilient Academics: Re-imagining Academic Horizons and Race and Gender: Theorizing the New Racialization of the Asian Migrants in South Korea. In the community, she has been offering weeks-long Ethnic Studies courses in collaboration with the local grassroots organizations. Chung is a Vice Chair of the Board at the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium (NAKASEC) and a board member at the Education Justice Project. Chung received her Ph.D. in Global Studies in Education with a graduate minor in Asian American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and she obtained her M.A. and B.A. in Sociology from Yonsei University in South Korea. 

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

• “This is What We Wanted to Learn”: Anti-Racist and Anti-Colonial Education with 1st Gen Korean American Seniors in a Time of Asian Hate and Racialized Dread. (2024). Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 46(1): 118-134. 
• Opportunities to Breed Diverse Sweetpotato Varieties for California Organic Production. (2023). Agriculture, 13(12): 118-134. (Coauthored with Parker, Travis., Leach, Kristyn., et al.)
• An Ambivalent Magic: Undocumented Asian Immigrants and Racialized “Illegality” in the US Imperial Project. (2022). Amerasia Journal, 47(2): 267-282.
• Teaching Ethnic Studies Remotely Amid Global Pandemic: Rise of Xenophobia, Black Lives Matter, and Pedagogy for Liberation. (2021).  American Educational History Journal, 33-40.
• Divergent Paths toward Militarized Citizenship: The “Unending” Cold War, Transnational Space of Citizenship, and International Korean Male Students. (2018). Korea Journal, 58(3): 76-101. (Coauthored with Choi, H.J.)
• At the Crossroads of Change: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, Undocumented Korean Americans’ Political Participation, and Upcoming Challenges. (2017). Harvard Journal of Asian American Policy Review, 27: 67-73.
• Invisible Children in South Korea: The Adaptive Efforts of Undocumented Mongolian Youth and Their Challenges. (2009). Korean Journal of Social Issues. 18(2): 9-44. 

Book Chapters 

• Beyond Perseverance: Developing Academic Resilience for a Better Normal. (2024). In Priya Goel, Jonathan Simmons, and Smridhi Marwah (Ed.), Building a Better Normal: Visions of Schools of Education in a Post-Pandemic World. Emerald Publishing. (Coauthored with Priya et al.) 
• Dismantling the “Undocumented Korean Box”: Race, Education, and Undocumented Korean Immigrant Activism for Liberation. (2022). In Diane C. Fujino & Robyn Magalit Rodriguez (Ed.), Contemporary Asian American Activism: Building Movements for Liberation. University of Washington Press. 
• Undocumented Korean Immigrant Youth Activists in the United States and the Politics of Resistance. (2017). In Moon Young Cho (Ed.), Hell-Chosun In and Out: Anthropological Research on the Global Mobility of South Korean Youth. Seoul, South Korea: Noolmin. 
• Makeshift Multiculturalism: The Transformation of Elementary School Teacher Training. (2015). In John Lie (Ed.), Multiethnic Korea?: Multiculturalism, Migration, and Peoplehood Diversity in Contemporary South Korea. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. (Coauthored with Abelmann, N. et al.) 
• Undocumented Children of Foreign Migrant Workers in South Korea. (2011). In Minoru, I., Chen, G. & Shunya, Y. (Eds.), Reading Asia through Cultural Studies. Tokyo, Japan: SericaShobo. 

Book

• Undocumented Asian Migrant Youth in South Korea. (2011). Seoul, Korea: Salmi Poinŭn Ch'ang. (Coauthored with Kim, D. et al.) 

Policy Briefs

• “COVID-19 and the Status of Undocumented Korean Immigrants in the New York Region.” (2022). New York: Minkwon Center for Community Action. 
•  “Immigration Policy and the 2011 Presidential Vote.” (2011). November 2011. International Organization for Migration (IOM) Seoul Office. 
•  “Obama Administration’s Immigration Policy and Deportation Regime.” (2011). September 2011. International Organization for Migration (IOM) Seoul Office.               
• “The Rise of Anti-immigrant Policies: An Analysis of State Laws and Implications.” (2011).  July 2011. International Organization for Migration (IOM) Seoul Office.               
• “The Reintroduction of DREAM Act and its Future.” (2011). May 2011. International Organization for Migration (IOM) Seoul Office.                 

Awards & Honors

2024   Emerging Scholar Award, Global Studies Research Network 
2023   Hellman Fellows Award, Society of Hellman Fellows Program
2022   DHI Network-Collaboration Award, Davis Humanities Institute
2021   Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Public Scholarship, UC Davis
2020   Diversity Scholar, National Center for Institutional Diversity, University of Michigan
2018   Teachers Ranked as Excellent, Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning, University of Illinois
2017   Teachers Ranked as Excellent, Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning, University of Illinois
2017   Korean Studies Dissertation Workshop Fellow, Social Science Research Council
2016   Graduate Research Fellowship, Korean American Scholarship Foundation
2016   Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Dissertation Research Award, University of Illinois
2015   Jeffrey S. Tanaka Research Award, University of Illinois
2014   HASTAC Scholar, Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory 
2009   Best Paper Award for Social Research, Korea Social Research Center                             
2008   Award of Honorary Mention for Best Thesis Award, Yonsei University, South Korea     
2008   Outstanding Graduate Student Thesis Award, Korea Institute for Future Strategies