Sookja Cho

Sookja Cho is Associate Professor of Korean and Comparative Literature at Arizona State University. Professor Cho’s academic interests encompass three distinct but interrelated areas: 1) East Asian comparative literature with a focus on Sino-Korean literature (hanmunhak) and cultural exchange, 2) women and gender in history (women's biographies) and religious and performance literature, and 3) the history of premodern Korean literature. Professor Cho has published many articles and translations on Korean and Chinese literature, and is the author or co-author of several books including her most recent solo publications: Transforming Gender and Emotion: The Butterfly Lovers Story in China and Korea (University of Michigan Press, 2018) and The Tale of Cho Ung: A Classic of Vengeance, Loyalty, and Romance (Columbia University Press, 2018). She is currently working on projects concerning Sino-Korean literature and diaspora, such as organizing the international workshop "Sinocentric Involution and Oscillation in Choson Korea."

Professor Cho has received grants, fellowships, and awards from prestigious institutions including the James P. Geiss & Margaret Y. Hsu Foundation, the Association for Asian Studies, the Korea Institute at Harvard University, the Harvard-Yenching Institute, the Academy of Korean Studies, the Korean Ministry of Education, the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs (including the Korea Foundation), the Korea Foundation of Advanced Studies (KFAS), the Literature Translation Institute of Korea, the Kyujanggak Institute of Korean Studies at Seoul National University, and ASU's Humanities Institute (HI) and Asia Center.

Professor Cho' s teaching focuses broadly on East Asian literature and culture as examined through the lenses of comparative and world literature, gender and religious studies, cross-culturalism, and transnationalism. In recent years she has taught a variety of courses including Love Stories in East Asia, Gender and Emotion in East Asian Literature, Women of Korea, Premodern Korea in a Global Context, Sino-Korean Words and Texts (hancha wa hanmun), Korean Literature in Translation, and Korean Culture and Society.