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I'm a sociocultural geographer with interdisciplinary interests in religion, mobilities, and difference.

My teaching and research interests lie at the nexus of political economy and cultural politics through the interdisciplinary frameworks of social/cultural geography, postcolonial cultural studies, and critical race, sexuality and gender studies. Reflecting my training in feminist and interdisciplinary cultural studies with a commitment to social change, my work tends to gravitate towards cultural dynamics and political contestations in contemporary articulations of race, sexuality, gender, religion, and nation. I work closely with colleagues in anthropology, Asian studies, religious studies, and gender studies.

I emphasize informed engagement and critical thinking in my courses, and encourage self-reflexive writing and creative research. I recently helped launch On the Move: an undergraduate journal of creative geographies for students who want to develop interpretative and analytical writing skills and showcase research-based storytelling.

My previous and ongoing project on South Korean and Korean American evangelical missionaries addresses evangelical capitalism and the postcolonial geography of transnational mobility and faith-based projects. Current major projects include temporary overseas migration of South Korean youth, and the spatial politics of religious growth and urban aspirations in Seoul. I worked for many years in the arts and nonprofit sector in the United States as a technology and information designer, and consider myself an aspiring comic book artist.

Research Interests & Work in Progress

  • Postcolonial Geography of Religion: Korean/American Missionary Aspirations
  • Urban Aspirations in Seoul: Megachurches and Megacities
  • Purposeful Mobilities: Working Holiday and Temporary Residency
  • Military Conscription and Conscientious Objection (Jehovah's Witnesses in Korea)

Teaching Interests & Responsibilities

  • Social and cultural geographies
  • Travel, tourism, and mobilities
  • Religion and secularism
  • Contemporary Korean studies

Current and Upcoming Courses

GGRB55: Geographies of religion and secularism (Winter 2013, Winter 2014)
GGRC56: Spaces of Travel (Fall 2012, Winter 2014)
GGR1706H: Geographies of religion and secularism (Graduate seminar, Winter 2013)

Affiliations

  • Association of American Geographers (AAG)
  • Association for Asian Studies (AAS)
  • American Anthropological Association (AAA)
  • Centre for the Study of Korea, University of Toronto

Awards & Grants

  • 2011-2016 Co-Researcher, Urban Aspirations in Seoul: Religion and Megacities in Comparative Studies, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity and Academy of Korean Studies (total grant $1.2 million, individual research support approximately $40,000 annually)
  • 2012-2014 Provost's Connaught Fund, University of Toronto ($10,000)
  • 2012-2014 Connaught Start-up Grant, University of Toronto
  • 2010-2012 SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship in Geography, University of British Columbia
  • 2009-2010 Korea Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in Asian Studies, University of British Columbia

Selected Publications

  • Han, J. Forthcoming journal article in Critical Asian Studies. “Beyond safe haven: a critique of Christian custody — Missionaries and North Koreans in China”
  • Chun, J. and Han, J. Forthcoming journal article. “Living and Working as Temporary Sojourners: the Language Travels of Korean Youth.”
  • Han, J. 2011. “Vacant warehouses as placeholders of fortune.” In Korean: “재산증식의 자리맡기” (Korean translation by Kwon Insook). Temporary Storages: Joo Hwang, Seoul, Korea: mediabus.
  • Han, J. 2011. “If You Don’t Work, You Don’t Eat”: Evangelizing Development in Africa. In New Millennium South Korea: Neoliberal Capital and Transnational Movements, ed. Jesook Song. London: Routledge.
  • Han, J. 2010. Neither friends nor foes: Thoughts on ethnographic distance. Geoforum 41 (1): 11 – 14.
  • Han, J. 2010. Reaching the Unreached in the 10/40 Window: The Missionary Geoscience of Race, Difference and Distance. In Mapping the End Times: American Evangelical Geopolitics and Apocalyptic Visions, ed. Jason Dittmer and Tristan Sturm. Hampshire: Ashgate.
  • Han, J. 2008. Missionary. Aether: the Journal of Media Geography 3: 58 – 83.
  • Han, J. 2005. Missionary Destinations and Diasporic Destiny: Spatiality of Korean/American Evangelism and the Cell Church. Institute for the Study of Social Change. ISSC Fellows Working Papers.