Min Joo Lee

Currently, I am working on a book project, tentatively titled "Racialized Erotics: Korean Television Dramas, Sex Tourism, and Interracial Relationships," which examines the transnational popularity of Korean television dramas and how they generate erotic desires in their viewers for Korean men. I draw on ethnographic fieldwork with women from Europe and North America who travel to Korea to form intimate relations with Korean men in a phenomenon known as Hallyu tourism. By analyzing the Hallyu tourists’ racialized erotic desires for Korean men, I demonstrate the entwinement of erotics with race and gender.

At Wellesley College, I teach classes on feminist theories on romance and sex (“Romance Films and Feminist Theories”), transnational feminist theories (“Sex, Gender, and Race in Transnational Perspectives”), and Asian feminisms (“Asian Feminism”).

I am committed to creating a classroom environment where we can discuss key issues in Women’s and Gender Studies from a transnational and intersectional framework. Furthermore, I strive to create a classroom environment where folks learn to work across differences in world views. I do so in hopes that the folks in my class will incorporate these skills in their future – academic as well as nonacademic – endeavors to work with others who have different opinions and backgrounds.