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Gangsim Eom is a PhD Candidate in Anthropology. Her research centers on Korean migration to Indonesia from the Pacific War until the present. Her inquiry unfolds in two main directions: Firstly, by focusing on Korean company towns, urban cemeteries and malls, she examines semiotic, linguistic, and ethnic crossing between Indonesians and Koreans to understand how perceptions of the foreign operate within their intercultural communications and exchanges. Secondly, she probes the historical development of the Korean diaspora in Indonesia to broaden the understanding of inter-Asian racialization dynamics and expand postcolonial studies beyond Anglo- and Euro-centric perspectives on colonialism. She is especially interested in the historical development of Korean company towns in Indonesia and the Korean business strategy of “localization” (hyŏnjihwa) against the backdrop of Indonesia and Korea’s parallel histories in the 20th century Asia Pacific: Japanese colonial rule, postcolonialism, Cold War military dictatorships, anti-communist purges, developmental states, and transition to democracy through grassroots activism. 

Among others, her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation Cultural Anthropology Methods Program Fellowship, Harvard Frederick Sheldon Traveling Fellowship, Stanford University Hoover Institution Silas Palmer Fellowship, Harvard Weatherhead Center for International Affairs Dissertation Writing Grant, Harvard Library Pforzheimer Fellowship, and Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative Award. Before pursuing her PhD at Harvard, she completed an MSc in Anthropology and Development at LSE as a Korean Government Scholarship awardee and worked as an Official Development Assistance Researcher at the Institute of East and West Studies at Yonsei University.

Currently, she is a Visiting Scholar at the University of Indonesia, an Adjunct Professor at Jakarta International University, and a Researcher at the Indonesian & Korean Culture Study.

Her research interests also include: alterity, ethnicity, K-wave, home, foreign, urban studies, spatial analysis.