Dr. Nam Lee
- Education:
- Seoul National University, Bachelor of Arts
University of Southern California, Master of Arts
Sogang University, Master of Arts
University of Southern California, Ph.D.
Biography
Nam Lee received her B.A. in Korean Language and Literature from Seoul National University, Korea, and her M.A. and Ph.D in Critical Studies from USC School of Cinematic Arts. Prior to joining the academia, she worked as a film critics and journalist in Seoul, South Korea, writing film reviews and feature articles on Korean film industry. Her scholarship is grounded in the socio-historical analysis of contemporary Korean cinema, authorship in the 21st global cinema, and women’s filmmaking. She is the author of The Films of Bong Joon Ho (Rutgers University Press, 2020). Her current research trajectory is oriented toward examining the ideologies of the “feminine,” especially as it intersects with portrayals of motherhood and the nuances of aging femininity in cinematic representations. Her recent publications include essays and book chapters on Korean cinema in the Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema, Rediscovering Korean Cinema (University of Michigan Press, 2019) and East Asian Remake (Edinburgh University Press, 2023).
Lee has taught a range of courses at Dodge College since 2008 including Korean Cinema, East Asian Cinema, French New Wave Cinema, Video Essay Workshop, and the graduate seminars Film and Critical Theory and Survey of World Cinema. She has also taught the Thesis Workshop in the Film and Media Studies MA program. Additionally, she has been the chair of more than 50 MA in Film and Media Studies Thesis Committees.
She curated and organized three editions of the Busan West Asian Film Festival on campus with Korean directors Park Chan-wook (2009), Bong Joon Ho (2011) and Kim Jee-woon (2013) as the main guest filmmakers. For her class “Korean Cinema Today,” she has collaborated with the Korean Cultural Center, Los Angeles, to bring prominent Korean filmmakers to Chapman. Notable guests include directors Ryoo Seung-wan, Jung July and Yoon Ga-eun; producer Shim Jae Myung; cinematographer Kim Hyung-koo; production designer Shim Bo-kyoung, and singer-songwriter Jeong Ji-hoon, among others.
Lee was awarded the Chapman’s Pedagogical Innovation Grant Award in 2023 for her course “Video Essay Workshop." Her collaborative efforts were acknowledged in 2022 with a co-teaching award for the course “Representation of Motherhood in Contemporary Literature and Film,” conceived for the Motherhood to motherhoods: Ideologies of the ‘Feminine’ conference, which she co-organized in April 2023. She was also the recipient of the Chapman University Unit Faculty Excellence Award (2021) and Diversity & Inclusion Educational Curricular Innovation Award (2017).
Recent Creative, Scholarly Work and Publications
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“The Power of Healing in Little Forest(s): Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Food, Friendship and Self-Identity, from Japan to Korea.” In East Asian Film Remakes, edited by David Scott Diffrient and Kenneth Chan, 239–56. Edinburgh University Press, 2023.
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Curator and moderator, Screening of Korean Documentary "Coming to You" (2022) followed by Q&A with Directory Byun Gyuri, and featured mothers Nabi and Vivian, Folino Theater, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, April 30, 2023.
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Moderator, Bong Joon Ho Masterclass, Chapman University, April 7, 2021.
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The Films of Bong Joon Ho, New Brunswuck, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2020.
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“Construction of the female self in South Korean feminist documentaries Family Project: House of a Father (2001) and The Two Lines (2011),” co-authored with Inyoung Nam, Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema, Vol.12:2, November 2020.
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“A Wider Lens on Korean Cinema,” Seen, Issue 001, November 20, 2020.
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The Night Before the Strike (1990): The Legendary Minjung Realist Film
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"Korean New Wave of the 1980s," The Directory of World Cinema: South Korea, Intellect Publishing, 2014
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"The Minjung Cultural Movement and Korean Cinema of the 1980s: the Influence of Minjung Theater and Art in Lee Jang Ho's Films," in Storytelling in World Cinema Vol.2: Contexts, Wallflower Press, 2013.
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3rd Busan West Film Festival, March 8-10, 2013
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“Visualizing “Feminine Writing”: Agnès Varda ‘s cinécriture in Cléo from 5 to 7 and Vagabond”, Image & Film Studies, Vol. 20 (May 2012)
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2nd Busan West Film Festival, November 11-13, 2011