Seoyeon Choi

Regional focus: Southeast Asia (particularly Malaysia) and Korea.

Topical interests: Nationalism, language ideology, language and education policies, modernization, postcolonial history.

My current research interests involve two sides of language and education policies: the formulation of policies and their connections to nationalism and modernization ideologies; and the effect of implementing those policies on how social, cultural, and ethnic differences are experienced in schools. I am currently working on my dissertation about the recent "return" of the English language in Malaysian public schools (in 2003) after its gradual expulsion under the project of "nationalizing" the educational system since the country's independence from British rule in 1957.

My interests in anthropology, especially in the topics of education, language, nationalism, and modernization ideologies reflect my schooling experience as well as my training as a secondary school English teacher in South Korea. (My undergraduate major was English education). I conducted both of my major field research projects in secondary schools (first in South Korea and second in Malaysia). Returning to schools as an anthropologist gave me a fascinating experience to examine how assumptions and beliefs about social and cultural differences construct everyday lives in schools, which once looked neutral and natural for me when I stayed there as a student or a teacher. In the future, I plan to develop my research interest in comparative studies about the history and politics of education in Asian countries, especially countries that experienced rapid economic development after their independence from colonial rule.

MA Paper (UVA): 2003. Learning Under the Same Roof: The Formation of the National Education System in Malaysia and the Changing Definitions of "Malayness."

MA thesis (Seoul National University): 2001. Vocational Education and Identity Formation: A Case Study of an Information Technology High School in South Korea.