westernpacific

Based on the likes and dislike, I can tell this is some old boys vs. new peeps thing. But I think @Sigaba offers reasonable advice, at least in that it's reflective of my personal experiences as a grad student in Korea.

I anticipated as much. I've not heard of either of these two scholars from within my bubble, so I will keep them in mind. But Victor Seow being an assistant professor means his position is much more tentative right? I heard that even being associate at Harvard doesn't necessarily mean a TT position. Though I've not read her works yet, I have heard of her (and of course Brazinsky). There are a few scholars working on late Joseon and colonial Korea that I know like Sonja Kim. At the very least literature on Korean medicine and public health is growing, and it's my advisor's territory too. But I'm more interested in post-1945 with the division system influencing Korean science. There's many scholars in Korea like Kim Geun-bae and Moon Manyong who do great work on North and South Korea respectively, but I don't really intend to stay in Korea unfortunately, not for my PhD anyway. I'm focused on oceanography in Korea and how it plays into the science-government-business nexus in the 1960's and forward. Would it be possible to study under someone who studies oceanography in the European tradition and still hang out with other Korean historians? Or would it just make more sense to find a Korean history advisor? Just curious.

I'm doing a master's in Korean history in Korea and I'm looking to move to the US for my PhD. But I'm not sure if there are any Korean HoS advisor available, so I'm wondering if I could have apply as a HoS student but have Korean history committee members to supplement. I definitely don't like the idea of going for an EALC/Asian studies PhD, and I would prefer a history of science PhD over a Korean or Asian history one. I'm not exactly certain how much of these distinction matter, at least between history PhD vs history of science PhD on the job market in the future as I pretty much assume even with a HoS PhD I would never get interviewed for a pure HoS job. My current advisor went to Princeton HoS and I've certainly talked about shifting myself towards a more history of science oridented direction (from my Korean history department). But even my advisor was an anomaly in his department, started in American psychiatry before shifting to Korea biomedicine under a Chinese history advisor(!). As such, I was wondering if anyone had any potential advisors in mind for someone interested in Korean HoS or could answer if one could go into HoS and find an advisor that doesn't share the exact area focus, even outside of Asia in general.