CedarBough T Saeji

Saeji in 2024

CedarBough T. Saeji () is a US-born scholar of Asia and specialist in Korean studies . Saeji moved to Korea in the mid 1990s, and post-PhD worked in South Korea, Canada, and the United States, before beginning a tenure track position at Pusan National University in Busan in 2021.

Life and career

Early years and education

Saeji was born in Washington State. Saeji began undergraduate studies at Simon's Rock at Bard College and earned a BA in Human Ecology at College of the Atlantic before working for several years for various environmental organizations and the Yakama Indian Nation. In the mid-1990s Saeji relocated to Daegu, where she trained in hapkido, taekkyon, pungmul drumming and traveled Korea taking photographs. After spending a year in Lanzhou, Saeji earned an MA in Korean Studies at Yonsei University in Seoul (2004-2006), with the top GPA and top thesis score, writing AbOUT Bongsan Talchum, one of Korea's heritage mask Dance dramas. Saeji is married to Karjam Saeji. After spending several months on Buddhist pilgrimage, walking 2,600 kilometers across the Tibetan plateau, Saeji began a PhD in Culture and Performance at UCLA in 2007, and after a Fulbright-Hays sponsored research year in Korea, graduated in 2012 with a dissertation on memory, heritage, and authenticity focused on three mask dance dramas that she personally trained in, Bongsan Talchum, Songpa Sandae Noli, and Goseong ogwangdae, as well as one type of pungmul drumming, as practiced by the Imsil pilbong nongak preservation association.

Career

Following graduate studies, Saeji taught at a variety of different universities, including Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Korea University, University of British Columbia, Indiana University, University of California, Irvine and Copenhagen University. Saeji became known as the first professor to teach an entire dedicated course on Korean popular music, or K-pop, rather than survey courses of Korean film, music, television, games, and other pop culture. Saeji earned the moniker the "K-pop Prof" at that time, and continues to be known that way. Saeji also taught courses on contemporary Korean culture, pre-modern and modern cultural history of Korea, Korean performing arts, Korean media, tourism in Korea, East Asian popular culture, and general courses on Korean Studies as a field. Saeji moved back to Korea, this time to Busan when offered a tenure track position at Pusan National University in 2021.

Saeji has published extensively on Korean performance, often at The Intersection of traditional and popular culture . Her articles and book chapters include titles on shamanism, Korean drumming, Korean traditional dance, Korean mask dance drama , Korean television shows, tourism in Korea , hanbok or Korean traditional clothing, Korean heritage protection, and Korean pop music . Starting in the late aughts she began to be frequently called upon by the press to provide statements and analysis on Korean topics, particularly related to K-pop but also gender, tourism, and the protection of tradition, this is usually in English, but sometimes in Korean . She regularly appears on the radio and television as a commentator . In addition, Saeji has served as co-editor of the Asian Dance Journal since 2021 , is on the editorial board of the Korea Journal, and is currently the Chair of the Committee on Korean Studies, a sub-group of the Association for Asian Studies.

  • by Hamilton Lugar School at Indiana University, (14 October 2020)

  • by Kelley International, (1 May 2021)

  • by Institute of International Affairs, (19 August 2024)

  • by Vancouver Public Library, (27 May 2022)

  • by CedarBough T. Saeji, East Asia Forum (Australia National University (February 2026)

  • by CedarBough T. Saeji, East Asia Forum (Australia National University (December 2021)