Well, here’s something slightly embarrassing, but I should share. My 2009 PhD dissertation was reviewed by Laura Nelson as part of the online Dissertation Reviews series. It’s titled “Contemporary Korean/American Evangelical Missions: Politics of Space, Gender, and Difference” (obviously in need of a better title for the book manuscript). Incredibly, the folks at Dissertation Review informed me that the review was shared over 80 times on Facebook in just two days — “a Facebook phenomenon,” ha! — which is curious since I could see that only 4 of my friends shared it. Who are all these people interested in Korean/American missionaries?
In this 2009 dissertation for the department of geography at UC Berkeley, Ju Hui Judy Han asks what lies behind the many world evangelical missions undertaken by Koreans and Korean-Americans: What motivates the participants? What enables the mobilization of so much human effort? What beliefs underlie the enthusiasm for evangelical work abroad? And, finally, what understandings and effects are produced through the experience of mission? In exploring these questions, Han draws on theory, primary textual sources, and a multi-sited ethnography of missionary projects. Read more…