South Korea

Industry Partnerships

Artificial Intelligence

Computer Science

Faculty of Information

Research & Innovation

The University of Toronto will work with South Korean technology company Naver Corp. – and its Toronto-based subsidiary Wattpad – on artificial intelligence research aimed at harnessing technology to empower human creativity.

Guided by a partnership framework agreement, Naver will collaborate with ��˾��ֱ�� on four research projects spanning subject areas ranging from human-computer interaction to natural language processing. Two of the projects will be carried out in partnership with Wattpad, a digital storytelling platform that was founded by ��˾��ֱ�� alumni and acquired by Naver in early 2021.

The five-year research partnership – which would train dozens of master’s, PhD and post-doctoral researchers – was recently announced following a visit by senior leaders from ��˾��ֱ��’s Office of the Vice-President, International to South Korea.

“The partnership with Naver and Wattpad is a landmark corporate partnership,” said Alex Mihailidis, ��˾��ֱ��’s associate vice-president, international partnerships. “It allows us to pair the support of a Toronto-based business in Wattpad with the global ambitions of their corporate parent, Naver, all while combining two of ��˾��ֱ��’s greatest strengths in computing: artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction.

“This partnership is multi-disciplinary, multi-party and multi-year. It is a great testament to the power of comprehensive expertise – something that ��˾��ֱ�� is uniquely positioned to deliver.”

The project will see Naver, one of the largest companies in South Korea and a global powerhouse in AI research and development, provide funding for research projects led by Anastasia Kuzminykh and Tony Tang of the Faculty of Information, and Daniel Wigdor, Fanny Chevalier, Frank Rudzicz and Gerald Penn of the department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science.

The projects will address one of the biggest challenges in the field: how to establish an effective human-computer conversation architecture and realize the AI’s power in writing and social reading technologies – all while ensuring that diversity and fairness are incorporated into AI text recommendations.

“AI is a powerful technology, but its true value is only realized when paired with world class human-computer interfaces,” said Jung-Woo Ha, head of Naver AI Lab. “We are excited to be working with some of the foremost experts in these topics through the partnership with ��˾��ֱ��.”

From left: Namsun Kim, Suk-geun Chung, Jung-woo Ha, Sang-doo Yun, Young-ho Kim, Illan Kramer, Alex Mihailidis, Catherine Lee and Trevor Novak (photo courtesy of Naver)

The announcement comes on the heels of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s recent visit to ��˾��ֱ��’s St. George campus, where he met with ��˾��ֱ�� President Meric Gertler and discussed the growth and applications of AI with leaders and luminaries in the field, including University Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Hinton.

The event included presentations on avenues for AI research and collaborations by South Korean tech companies, including Naver.

Kuzminykh says her research with Naver will examine how human perceptions of – and interactions with – conversational “agents” (like chatbots and virtual assistants) are affected by various aspects of “conversational architecture,” or the structure and flow of conversation.

“The lack of understanding of these effects, [which are] critical for informing the agent’s speech synthesis, leads to shortcomings in the current human-agent interaction design,” says Kuzminykh.

She noted current conversational user interfaces are dominated by transactional exchanges that convey information, rather than prolonged back-and-forth interactions. “If agents are truly to be communication partners to human users and to provide meaningful input, their operations should support extended conversations, augmenting transactional interactions with social ones used to establish and maintain social relationships,” Kuzminykh says.

Rudzicz, meanwhile, said his project with Wattpad will focus on disentangling linguistic information in modern language models so that the syntactic, semantic and rhetorical aspects of texts within neural networks are better understood.

“This will be applied to identify sources of bias in text and in the model, towards more fair machine learning,” he says.

Headquartered in Seongnam, a satellite city of South Korea’s capital Seoul, Naver boasts several companies and services including its eponymous search engine, the Line instant communications app, Naver Clova interactive AI engine and digital comics platform Webtoon.

In early 2021, Naver acquired Wattpad, founded by ��˾��ֱ�� alumni Allen Lau and Ivan Yuen, for $600 million US. At the time, Lau told ��˾��ֱ�� News that the opportunity to tap into Webtoon’s digital comics audience was a key driver behind the acquisition, which he said would help take Wattpad “to the next level.”

“We are very excited to partner closely with both ��˾��ֱ�� and Naver in developing research that will help us provide more innovative experiences to our users,” said Brendan Cone, Wattpad’s head of engineering. “Between Wattpad’s content platform, with millions of stories from diverse voices around the world, Naver’s impressive hyperscale AI technology, and ��˾��ֱ��’s comprehensive AI expertise, we hope to help our users find and create more of the content they love.”

Patrycja Thompson, ��˾��ֱ��’s partnerships officer and lead on the Naver relationship, said the collaboration between ��˾��ֱ�� and Naver will provide significant training opportunities for graduate and postdoctoral students.

“We hope that both Naver and Wattpad see this partnership as a launchpad to a long-term relationship with the university and will continue to leverage ��˾��ֱ�� innovations to further support their missions to empower human creativity.”

Learn more about industry partnerships at ��˾��ֱ��

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol visits ��˾��ֱ�� for AI roundtable

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 14:02:18 +0000

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol visits ��˾��ֱ�� for AI roundtable

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 09/26/2022 - 10:02

Cutline

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, left, shakes hands with ��˾��ֱ�� President Meric Gertler outside of Simcoe Hall (photo by Polina Teif)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Leah Cowen

Artificial Intelligence

CIFAR

Computer Science

Deep Learning

Geoffrey Hinton

Meric Gertler

Research & Innovation

Robotics

Vector Institute

The University of Toronto welcomed South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol to campus last week to discuss artificial intelligence (AI) – its rise, potential applications and opportunities for further collaboration between ��˾��ֱ�� and South Korean partners.

President Yoon hailed Toronto as an AI powerhouse, saying that Canada’s status as a world leader in AI and a centre of the global AI supply chain was the result of the country recognizing the potential economic and social impacts of the technology early on.

He also said the tenacity and persistence of researchers such as University Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Hinton, a pioneer of the AI field of deep learning, served as a “benchmark” for South Korean efforts to advance the technologies of the future, adding that he was delighted to visit ��˾��ֱ��, which he described as “one of the most prestigious universities in North America.”

��˾��ֱ�� President Meric Gertler, for his part, said he was “deeply honoured” to welcome President Yoon, who, he said, “has made it a priority to work closely with South Korea's allies and partners, advancing openness, human rights, democracy and the rule of law, with clear purpose and integrity.”

(Photo by Polina Teif)

President Gertler noted that the South Korean delegation’s visit comes at a time when Toronto has emerged as the third-largest tech hub in North America, with the city’s AI and machine learning ecosystem at the heart of this growth.

“Together with the Vector Institute, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), MaRS and other partners – all within a walking distance of this room – we have created one of the world’s richest pools of talent,” President Gertler said.

He added that ��˾��ֱ��, its local partners and South Korean organizations stand to learn much from each other when it comes to AI research, development, innovation and education.

“Partnering with Korea’s leading universities, innovative firms and exceptionally talented researchers is an extraordinary opportunity for all parties to benefit as we deepen our collective commitment to excellence and to tackling the world’s most pressing challenges.”

(Photo by Johnny Guatto)

President Yoon’s visit to ��˾��ֱ�� took place during the first day of his two-day visit to Canada, which included a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa the following day.

It also came less than two weeks after the government of Ontario concluded a trade mission to South Korea and Japan, led by Vic Fedeli, the province’s minister of economic development job creation and trade.

Fedeli, who attended the ��˾��ֱ�� event, said Toronto’s reputation as a global hub in AI was regularly impressed upon him during his time in South Korea.

“At every single stop that we made, we heard people talk about Canada, AI, ��˾��ֱ��, the Vector Institute – they see Canada as a real leader in AI and they’re very eager to learn,” Fedeli said.

He noted there was a strong desire in South Korea to see more Korean students come to Canada to further their education in STEM fields, including in AI. “They want a bigger influx of Korean students – and we told them, ‘The door’s open,’ because we really believe this is going to help society. We’ve seen some examples of what AI has done and we’re very eager to continue to see the development of AI.”

(Photo by Johnny Guatto)

Fedeli added that he hoped the high-level meeting would further strengthen the economic relationship between Ontario and South Korea, helping to spark AI advances that give both Ontarian and Korean companies a competitive edge on the global stage.

Held at Simcoe Hall, the meeting included a roundtable discussion titled “AI for the Better Future of Humanity,” that featured AI leaders and luminaries, including Hinton and Lee Jong-ho, the Republic of Korea’s Minister of Science and ICT (information and communication technology).

The talk, moderated by Leah Cowen (pictured below), ��˾��ֱ��’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives, also included contributions from Garth Gibson, president and CEO of the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence; Elissa Strome, executive director of Pan-Canadian AI Strategy at CIFAR; and Professor Lisa Austin, chair in law and technology at ��˾��ֱ��’s Faculty of Law and associate director at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society.

(Photo by Johnny Guatto)

Attendees watched demonstrations by ��˾��ֱ�� professors and graduate students from the ��˾��ֱ�� Robotics Institute, as well as presentations by South Korean companies, including Samsung and LG – both of which have expanded their presence and connections with Toronto and ��˾��ֱ�� in recent years – and was also used to announce a new ��˾��ֱ�� exchange program with the South Korean government’s Institute for Information & communication Technology Planning & evaluation (IITP).

(Photo by Polina Teif)

On the subject of AI, Hinton said he believes the deep learning revolution is just getting underway and that he expects tremendous growth in the years ahead.

“We now know that if you take a neural net and you just make it bigger and give it more data and more computing power, it’ll work better. So even with no new scientific insights, things are going to improve,” Hinton said during the roundtable discussion. “But we also know there are tens of thousands of brilliant young minds now thinking about how to make these networks better, so there will be many new scientific insights.”

(Photo by Johnny Guatto)

In the long-term, Hinton (pictured at the lecturn above) said he envisions a revolution in AI hardware led by advancements in “neuromorphic hardware” – computers and hardware that model artificial neural networks.

“I think Korea may have a big role to play in this,” Hinton said, noting one of the world’s leading experts in this area is Sebastian Seung, Samsung’s president and head of research – who attended the Simcoe Hall event.

When asked to share his thoughts on how Canada achieved its leadership position in AI, Hinton cited three foundational factors: a tolerant, liberal society that encourages leading researchers to settle here; the federal government’s funding for curiosity-driven basic research; and CIFAR’s funding, in 2004, of the Neural Computation and Adaptive Perception program, which is credited with kickstarting the revolution in deep learning.

Following the discussion, event attendees, including ��˾��ֱ�� students, watched presentations on avenues for AI research and collaboration by representatives of five South Korean companies: LG, Samsung, Naver, KT (formerly Korea Telecom) and SK Telecom.

(Photo by Johnny Guatto)

Alex Mihailidis, ��˾��ֱ��’s associate vice-president, international partnerships, then announced that ��˾��ֱ�� had signed a memorandum of understanding with IITP, based in Seoul, to launch a bi-national education program in AI.

“We expect that in the fall of 2023, we will be accepting 30 students from Korea who will be going through a custom-made program around AI and its applications,” Mihailidis said. “This is a groundbreaking program that we expect will not only flourish here in Toronto but will grow – hopefully across our two great countries and around the world.”

(Photo by Johnny Guatto)

Earlier, Mihailidis and President Gertler led President Yoon and Fedeli through four demonstrations showcasing some of the cutting-edge technologies being developed by ��˾��ֱ�� professors and their graduate students.

The technologies included: a wearable robotic exoskeleton for walking assistance and rehab demonstrated by Mihailidis and post-doctoral researcher Brokoslaw Laschowski; a sensory soft robotic hand for human-robot interaction demonstrated by Professor Xinyu Liu of the department of mechanical and industrial engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, graduate student Zhanfeng Zhou and post-doctoral researcher Peng Pan; a multimodal perception system for autonomous vehicles showcased by Jiachen (Jason) Zhou, a graduate student in robotics and aerospace engineering; and a nanorobot for precision manipulation under electron microscope that was demonstrated by Yu Sun, professor in the department of mechanical and industrial engineering and director of the ��˾��ֱ�� Robotics Institute.

(Photo by Johnny Guatto)

Read a story about the visit in the Korea Times

��˾��ֱ��'s Centre for the Study of Korea takes centre stage with South Korean superstars at TIFF

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 18:53:21 +0000

��˾��ֱ��'s Centre for the Study of Korea takes centre stage with South Korean superstars at TIFF

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 09/14/2022 - 14:53

Cutline

Lee Jung-jae and Jung Woo-sung attend the screening of "Hunt" during the 75th-annual Cannes Film Festival (photo by Joe Maher/Getty Images)

Topic

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Toronto International Film Festival

The Centre for the Study of Korea – housed at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy’s Asian Institute – is taking centre stage at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this week as the University of Toronto scholars Michelle Cho, Hae Yeon Choo and Juwon Kim take part in conversations about South Korean film and popular culture.

Michelle Cho

Cho, an assistant professor of East Asian popular cultures and cinema studies in the department of East Asian Studies in the Faculty of Arts & Science who teaches courses on Korean film, media and popular culture, will moderate a discussion on Sept. 16 with two South Korean superstars: Lee Jung-jae and Jung Woo-sung.

Lee is best known for his work in Squid Game (2021), Assassination (2015) and Thieves (2012), and directs and stars in Hunt, which is being shown at this year’s festival. Jung, meanwhile, is featured in Hunt and his directorial debut, A Man of Reason, is also showing at TIFF. He is known for his work in blockbuster films such as Steel Rain (2017), Cold Eyes (2013), and The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008).

Cho, an expert in South Korean cinema and global media, said she is looking forward to leading a conversation with Lee and Jung about their careers, their friendship and the success of Korean filmmakers at home and internationally – just days after Lee won an Emmy for best lead actor in a drama series for his role in Squid Game.

“TIFF invited six Korean films this year, following on the huge success of ‘Summer of Seoul,’ a Korean film series hosted by the TIFF Lightbox Cinematheque this past summer,” Cho said. “I’m really fortunate that my research allows me to be a part of public events like this, which are only possible because of how much interest there is, locally, in cultural content from South Korea.”

Choo, director of the Centre for the Study of Korea and an associate professor of sociology at ��˾��ֱ�� Mississauga, and Kim, a PhD student in East Asian studies, will also be taking part in the TIFF event and providing translation.

“An event like this is a prime example of what our centre strives to do – to support scholarship on Korea and make it meaningful for our communities in Toronto and beyond,” Choo said. “Korean cinema and other cultural creations are having a moment across the globe, which calls for an informed analysis based on in-depth knowledge of Korean culture, history, and society.

“Personally I grew up watching Lee Jung-Jae and Jung Woo-Sung from my teenage years and am excited to see them up close as an interpreter, together with Juwon Kim, a PhD student in East Asian Studies.”

K-pop, fandom and the BTS boys: ��˾��ֱ�� researcher brings ‘Korean Wave’ into classroom

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 29 Aug 2019 17:32:07 +0000

K-pop, fandom and the BTS boys: ��˾��ֱ�� researcher brings ‘Korean Wave’ into classroom

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 08/29/2019 - 13:32

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BTS perform onstage during the 2019 Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas earlier this year (photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for dcp)

Topic

If you’ve tuned into a late night show, listened to the radio or logged onto Twitter lately, it’s likely you’ve heard of Korean boyband BTS, or at least come across the name.

The K-pop darlings have performed on Saturday Night Live, sold out New York City’s 40,000-seat Citi Field and topped the Billboard charts – all while inspiring a devoted, global and cross-cultural fan base.

So it’s no wonder that Michelle Cho, an assistant professor in the University of Toronto’s department of East Asian studies in the Faculty of Arts & Science, is captivating students with her courses on Korean film, media and popular culture.

“The really unique thing about East Asian studies is that it’s interdisciplinary by design,” says Cho. “You have students coming from all across the arts and sciences. My courses attract students who have an interest in Asian pop culture.”

It’s not only students who are interested. North Americans in general have demonstrated a growing interest in Korean pop culture in recent years, part of the global “Korean Wave.”

In her courses exploring fandom and transmedia – storytelling across multiple platforms – Cho allows her students to bring their own expertise as fans to the classroom, which she says has been useful as a researcher of fandom culture.

At its most basic level, the term “fandom” is used to describe a subculture or community formed around a collective love of something in the pop culture sphere. Whether it’s a sports team, TV show, book series, movie franchise or band, fandom is a shared love of something that builds community – often online – and becomes a significant part of a person’s identity.

Michelle Cho is an assistant professor in ��˾��ֱ��’s department of East Asian studies (photo courtesy of Michelle Cho)

Cho’s research addresses a phenomenon that’s becoming more engrained in our modern lives.

“You see fandom culture becoming much more important in the way that people define themselves in a media landscape that can seem very fragmented,” says Cho. “In a way, everybody has their niche little worlds online, or on media platforms.”

It’s the idea of finding likeminded people online that makes way for fandoms to blossom.

“We have this sort of infinite seeming choice of what kind of media we consume. I think it makes a lot of sense that the communities that form around those choices become much more significant,” Cho says.

“Fandom helps people to find a form of collective identity that seems more open and expansive than the kinds of group identities that are ready-made like national identity or generational identity.”

While the stereotypes of fans haven’t changed much since the days of Beatlemania – think hysterical young women and geeky young men – Cho says K-pop fans are more diverse than you might think. And she says it’s even more surprising that they tend to be self-reflexive in a way that contradicts what’s been understood historically about fandom.

“Reflexive awareness is thought to make you less emotionally invested and more neutral,” says Cho. “So self-critical consumers of popular culture should be a completely different group than the fangirls and teens swooning at concerts, right? But they're not. They're the same group.

“I’m really interested in looking at how self-reflexivity makes fans more invested in their love object.”

Cho also looks at the types of media technologies that enable K-pop fans to communicate with others in their community, as well as feel a sense of intimacy with their idols – even if that intimacy doesn’t really exist.

Take, for instance, V Live.

It’s a popular app – and one that the members of BTS use regularly – that mimics Apple’s FaceTime or other livestreaming apps that create a kind of digital intimacy between users.

Except unlike FaceTime, there’s no back-and-forth conversation. It’s a way for K-pop stars to open their lives up to their fans in a way that makes them seem ordinary and approachable, even if they’re not.

The tactic is used outside the world of K-pop as well.

Cho says you can even see U.S. politicians following suit by using their social media channels to create a sense of intimacy with followers.

U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is one high-profile example. The young Democratic congresswoman – known for her progressive views – made headlines during her first months in Washington for talking directly to her 3.2 million followers on Instagram Live while assembling IKEA furniture, making chili and drinking wine.

It’s that direct-to-camera intimacy – feeling like you’re chatting with a friend – that Cho says K-pop stars have become known for when it comes to fan interaction.

As for whether we have K-pop stars like BTS to thank for Korea’s increased visibility in the North American zeitgeist, Cho says they certainly play a part.

“I think that the rising interest in Korean language, culture and history – and just Korean studies in general – is coming from the increased visibility of Korean pop culture,” said Cho. “When I was growing up in the U.S., and even in college, a lot of people didn't actually know that Korea was a separate country from Japan or China, which is hard to believe now.

“But that just says something about Korea’s visibility. And the fact that it's in people's consciousness, whether or not they have anything to do with Asia or know any Koreans. It has a lot to do with media representation.”

While Cho’s research into K-pop fandom will continue, this year she’s returning to her research roots by teaching a course on Korean cinema, as well as a first-year foundation seminar that explores how media producers and fans engage with media worlds in East Asia.

��˾��ֱ�� expert on the politics of precarious labour and democracy in South Korea

rasbachn — Fri, 03 Nov 2017 04:00:00 +0000

��˾��ֱ�� expert on the politics of precarious labour and democracy in South Korea

rasbachn Fri, 11/03/2017 - 00:00

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Yoonkyung Lee in Toronto's Koreatown on Bloor Street West (photo by Jaclyn Shapiro)

Diana Kuprel

Topic

Yoonkyung Lee is an associate professor of sociology in the Faculty of Arts & Science who studies labour politics, social movements and political representation.

She was appointed to the University of Toronto in 2016, and holds the Korea Foundation Chair in Korean Studies.

She spoke with Diana Krupel about the uniqueness of political life in South Korea, and why we have to be careful not to judge the country and its democratic experience through a Western lens.

“Politics in [South Korea and Taiwan] cannot be understood without the historical legacies of colonialism, war and national division, which have set a different terrain for the creation of democratic politics,” she says.

You trace the historical formation of political opposition in South Korea. What is unique about South Korean society and political life?

Our understanding of democratic politics is hugely pre-defined by the political experience of Western societies. We work with presumed notions, such as modern political systems emerging with industrialization, political pluralism exercised by political parties, and civil society buttressing micro-level democratic processes. By doing so, we often make the mistake of assuming that if something is “different” from the “Western standard,” democracy is an aberration and deficient.

Over the years of my comparative study of political development in non-Western societies like South Korea and Taiwan, I have come to learn that they need to be approached on their own terms. Politics in these societies cannot be understood without the historical legacies of colonialism, war and national division, which have set a different terrain for the creation of democratic politics. My task as a scholar is to identify the different trajectories and to explain what this “difference” adds to our knowledge of politics, democracy and social change.

In this sense, South Korea presents an intriguing case, with a strong state, a contentious social movement, and relatively weak political parties. These three actors have formed a unique political dynamic under which political stability and predictability are hard to come by. The political force that seizes state power strives to use the overarching authority. Vocal social movements mobilize to contest the excessive state. And political parties are unable to harness the conflicting interests into the formal political process. It is this very dynamic that creates sporadic historical moments when people mobilize, become politically enlightened, directly participate, and make a drastic change in the course of politics. The phenomenal protest that occurred in South Korea over several months in 2016 and 2017 led to the formal impeachment of the incumbent president Park Geun-hye – there is no better example that shows the unique political dynamic of Korea.

What does your research tell us about the rising socioeconomic inequality in East Asia and how labour is reacting to it?

East Asian countries like South Korea and Taiwan are often praised for achieving both economic affluence and political democratization in just a few decades after their devastating experience of colonialism and war. Yet, workers and labour unions have never been fully embraced as legitimate actors. Military dictatorships that led economic development repressed labour for two reasons: to keep labour costs low in order to spur the success of export-oriented industrialization, and to inhibit workers from becoming a collective force for political opposition. Political democratization in the late 1980s could not overturn the weakness of labour, and the neoliberal change in the 1990s worsened labour’s position.

In a sense, rising economic disparity in South Korea is a result of weak labour and its lack of political voice, which in turn further undermines the bargaining position of labour. About half of the South Korean labour force is known as “irregular” workers who have few protections under labour law or social welfare. Fewer than 10 per cent of all paid employees are unionized. In short, South Korean workers are placed under a highly exploitative system without proper channels of intermediation. Workers who are pushed into an extreme corner resort to an extreme form of protest, like protesting in a high-altitude structure (such as industrial cranes and transmission towers) for days and months. Precarity and poverty have reached a point where it is no longer a class issue but a social issue that requires a serious political intervention.

As we look at our own society in North America, are there lessons that can be drawn from East Asia and to which we should pay heed?

The starting point of addressing issues of inequality is to understand the reality of the rising economic gap and its distinctive features. My concern for Canada is that there isn’t enough recognition and discussion about worsening inequality despite the fact that income gaps have been rising in the past 20 years. Racial and ethnic dimensions are important features of inequality that require public and scholarly attention, too. If a serious social issue is unspoken, it will never be addressed.

You came to Toronto from the United States to take up the Korea Foundation Chair in Korean Studies. What attracted you to the University of Toronto?

Around the time I was getting my tenure and promotion to associate professor at Binghamton University in the United States, I was looking for an opportunity to move to an academic institution that offers a more diverse and vigorous intellectual community. I was familiar with a number of ��˾��ֱ�� faculty in sociology, political science, East Asian studies and anthropology, and I admired their scholarship. Then I saw the job posting for a Korean studies social scientist. Equally attractive was the city. I had been to Toronto for conferences before, and I could definitely see the vibrancy of the city. Toronto has so much to offer, from cultural diversity to unlimited culinary choices, as well as a perfect mix of metropolitan features, traditional neighbourhoods and natural landscapes. Now that I am here, I am excited to be a part of this incredible intellectual community in such a beautiful city.

What are your goals as the Korea Foundation Chair in Korean Studies?

I want to fully realize the potential of the existing resources by encouraging collaborations between faculty and graduate students at the University of Toronto and York University. We have so many excellent scholars across different disciplines at these two institutions that exciting and innovative scholarly projects can readily be launched by working together.

��˾��ֱ��'s Citizen Lab finds faulty South Korean child-monitoring app returns

ullahnor — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 15:46:56 +0000

��˾��ֱ��'s Citizen Lab finds faulty South Korean child-monitoring app returns

ullahnor Tue, 09/12/2017 - 11:46

Cutline

A new Citizen Lab report focuses on a South Korean smartphone app that monitors and censors children's online behaviour (photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

Topic

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Citizen Lab