Dr. Jinhee J. Lee
History Professor & Asian Studies Chair Office: 3755 - Coleman HallPhone: 217-581-3310
Email: jlee@eiu.edu
INTRODUCTION
Growing up with three sisters, Prof. Lee realized that interpretations and memories of the seemingly shared past could vary dramatically even within a family. As a natural extension of her interest in such dynamic process of producing historical memories and narratives, Dr. Lee's research focuses on unraveling complexity behind the competing narratives of collective violence in the context of modern East Asia. Committed to generating cross-disciplinary methodological innovation to turn various historical "facts" on mass violence into meaningful knowledge and wisdom, Prof. Lee incorporates a variety of "texts" such as rumors, children's drawings, oral testimonies, trial records, and (de)classified documents on collective violence in and beyond the wall of conventional archives.
As a passionate public historian and historical educator, Dr. Lee collaborates frequently for applied history projects for the public by sharing her findings on twentieth-century Japan, Korea, and China through multimedia publications, invited lectures, and museum exhibits. In classroom, Prof. Lee teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on the history of East Asia, global empires, war stories, world religions, and the issues about historical knowledge and narrative formation from a comparative, global, and gender perspective. Her teaching and mentoring excellence has been recognized widely with a number of teaching awards and national and international historical education grants such as Students' Distinguished Professor Award (Student Government), (Graduate College), Most Influential Faculty for the Presidential Scholars (Honors College), and Excellent Undergraduate Teaching Award. Dr. Lee has served as Chair of the American Historical Association's Mentorship Award Committee as well as the founding chair for the interdisciplinary Asian Studies program (elected). She also served as the founding and continuing faculty advisor for a number of Asia-specific registered student organizations such as , Japanese Culture Club, Asian Cinema Organization, and History Club.
Dr. Lee has been an invited speaker, fellow, and research associate at renown academic institutions such as Harvard University, Princeton University, University of Oxford, the University of Tokyo, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO), University of Bonn, Seoul National University and others. Her critical commentaries on history denialism, fraudulent historical scholarship, and academic integrity amidst rising global populism have appeared in and such as the , and major television and radio news programs. Dr. Lee's groundbreaking historical documentary film "" (2024) was featured at the legislatures of the Republic of and which resulted in the enactment of the special historical truth-finding law in the ROK Parliament in 2025.
Prof. Lee got her interdisciplinary training in history, anthropology, linguistics, and literature at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Tokyo, Drexel University, and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. Dr. Lee is currently focusing on her book on the Great Kanto Earthquake in Japan and the Korean War oral history project while collaborating on East Asian Christian biography project.
Graduate Mentoring
Diversity as Power
Education & Training
Ph.D. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Japanese Ministry of Education Fellow at the University of Tokyo
College Women’s Association of Japan Scholar, Yokohama
M.A. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
B.A. Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, Korea
Alison Rose Fellow at Drexel University, Philadelphia
International Culture College, Utsunomiya, Japan
Language Proficiency
Korean (native; publications in Korean)
Japanese (near native; publications in Japanese; training in classical Japanese)
Chinese (intermediate; training in classical Chinese)
Spanish (rudimentary)
Research & Creative Interests
Modern East Asia; Twentieth-century China, Korea, Japan; Japanese Empire
Narratives of Collective Violence in East Asia; Genocide Studies; Civil Wars; Historiocal Knowledge Production and Collective Memories
Comparative Colonialism; Empire Studies; Legacies of Imperialism and Postcoloniality in East Asia
Class, Race, and Gender in Early Twentieth-century East Asia; Gendered Violence and Violated Gender Perspective in East Asia
Comparative Christianity and Colonialism in Empires; Christianity and Women in East Asia
Transnational/Transregional/Trans-Pacific Exchange of People, Cultures, and Ideas
[Visit Dr. Lee's publications, lectures, films, and interviews repository .]
Frequently Taught Courses
- The Two Koreas; Modern Japan; Modern China (upper-level undergraduate history courses)
- Women in East Asia; Japanese Empire (interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate courses)
- Narratives of Collective Violence in East Asia; Proseminar in Modern World History (graduate courses)
- Modern East Asia; East Asia through Film; Japanese Language and Cultural History; (interdisciplinary undergraduate courses)
- World War II; War Stories (interdisciplinary ROTC and senior seminars)
- Empires in Global History; Twentieth-Century World History; World Religions (general education courses)
- Courses and Field Trips
Conference Presentations
INVITED TALKS
"Beyond East Asian Languages and Cultures: Educators and Global Impact," University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2026 (scheduled)
"The Enemy Within: The Stories of the Chinese Massacre during the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake in Japan," Symposium Peace and Reconciliation in East Asia, , 2026
Film and Lecture, "1923 Kanto Massacre," History Department and East Asian Studies, , 2025
"For the Living and the Dead: The Kanto Massacre Stories in Our Midst," History Department, , 2025
Documentary Film "1923 Kanto Massacre" (), (the Hall of the House of Councilors), Tokyo, Japan, 2024
Documentary Film "1923 Kanto Massacre" (Creative Producer Talk), (Members' Office Building), Seoul, Korea, 2024
"Memories of the Kanto Massacre and History Denialism," Global Memory Work amidst Postcolonial and Postmigrant Shifts, Berlin and Leipzig, Germany, 2024
"1923 Kanto Massacre," , Paris, France, 2024
"1923 Kanto Massacre," , France, 2024
"1923 Kanto Massacre," , A²BC (African and Asian Berlin Communities) by Korea Verband, Berlin, Germany, 2024
"1923 Kanto Massacre," University of Bonn, Germany, 2024
, 2023
, Japan, 2023
, 2023
Korean Studies Working Group, Harvard University
Center for Korean Studies, University of California, Berkeley
Korean Studies Lecture Series, Calvin University
Critical Studies on Asia Workshop, Dartmouth College
National Institute of Korean History, Seoul, Korea
The Independence Hall of Korea
Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies, Seoul National University, Korea
Korea Foundation Global Korean Studies Forum, Seoul, Korea
University of Tokyo, Japan
Bunka Senta- Arirang, Kawaguchi-shi, Japan
ChÅsenshi kenkyÅ«kai [Korean History Association of Japan], Tokyo, Japan
Modern Japanese History Workshop, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
Liberty in North Korea (LiNK), University of Illinois
The College Teaching Effectiveness Network, University of Illinois
Graduate Professional Development Seminar, University of Illinois
Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies K-12 Educators Workshop, University of Illinois
Asian Educational Media Service Film Festivals
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
American Historical Association Annual Conference
Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference
American Anthropological Association Annual Conference
Association for Asian Studies Film Expo
Association of American Colleges and Universities Symposium
Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs
Southwest Conference on Asian Studies
Society for Cultural Interaction in East Asia
Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities Annual Conference
The University of Oxford Global Conference, UK
Eastern Illinois University's , Women's History Month Symposium, Asian Studies Colloquium, History Colloquium, , Asian Heritage Month Symposium, Interdisciplinary Center for Global Diversity Annual Symposium, etc.
Publications
Visit Dr. Lee's publications, lectures, films and interviews repository .
Professional Affiliations
Community
As a public intellectual and committed educator, Prof. Lee leads and collaborates frequently with historically-informed, global and local grassroot organizations such as and
As a trained docent Dr. Lee enjoys connecting her historical profession with art education and art therapy for children and the elderly population in her local community.