Introduction

Tēnā koe / hello,

I am Associate Professor of Asian Studies, School of Humanities, at the University of Auckland. I am an interdisciplinary scholar in sociolinguistics, migration, and diasporic studies, and a qualitative methodologist. I have researched language, migration, and identity with a particular focus on the language maintenance of East Asian languages and linguistic discrimination in Asia. I was initially trained in Korean linguistics. 

However, since being in Auckland (2014), I have broadened my research foci to address three key thematic concerns: language and identity, heritage language maintenance & family language policy, and linguistic discrimination – exploring these themes in relation to both South Korea and Korean diasporic communities worldwide. My work on language and identity has focused on the voices of marriage-migrant women, study abroad students, and elite bilingual returnees in South Korea and Korean New Zealanders.

My research on heritage language maintenance examines the experiences of mixed-heritage children in South Korea and New Zealand, as well as 1.5- and 2nd-generation Koreans in Australia, New Zealand, and the US. Most recently, my linguistic discrimination research has examined the experiences of Southeast Asian marriage-migrant women and North Korean refugees in South Korea while my current work explores linguistic diversity and discrimination in New Zealand higher education.

I am co-editor of “Mobilizing multilingual identities: Language policy, teaching, and learning” (with Professors Gary Barkhuizen, Stephen May), published by Routledge in March 2026, and forthcoming “Language and identity in Korean and diasporic contexts” (with Dr. Nicola Fraschini) which is in press and scheduled for publication by Multilingual Matters in late 2026 or early 2027.

I am currently co-editing the Routledge Handbook of Korean Language Teaching with Drs Nicola Fraschini and Min Jung Jee.