Our Graduate Students

Elena Bonitz

Elena Bonitz is a first-year MA student in East Asian Studies with a focus on Korea. She received her BA in History, with a minor in Asian Studies, from Northern Kentucky University in December 2022. During her undergraduate career, she studied for a semester at Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul, South Korea (2021). Broadly, her current research interests include Korean food studies and how that plays into Korean public diplomacy. She is the recipient of the EASC/IKS fellowship.

Chaewon Lee

Chaewon Lee is originally from South Korea, but lived in the UAE for 17 years. She received her BA in International Studies with a concentration in Diplomacy, Security, and Governance as well as East Asian Languages and Cultures from Indiana University. Her broader research interests include the political economy and international relations in East Asia, with a particular focus on Korea. She is the recipient of an AKS Fellowship.

Bethany Mazuerk

Bethany Mazurek is a first-year graduate student pursuing an MA in East Asian studies with a focus on Korea. Her research interests are in the intersection of popular culture and soft power in East Asia. Before coming to IU, she received a BA from Grand Valley State University in Anthropology and Chinese studies. She also studied Korean through the Critical Language Scholarship in Korean (‘18), and in the following year returned to Korea to teach English through the Fulbright ETA fellowship (‘19-’20). After Fulbright, she continued teaching English in South Korea until spring of 2022 when she returned to the USA to pursue an MA at IU. Outside of school, she enjoys writing, hiking, and D&D.

Dakotah Meadows

Dakotah is a first year MA student in East Asian Studies with a focus on Korea. She received dual BAs in English and East Asian Languages and Cultures (Korean track) from IUB in May 2022 and decided to continue her studies at the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Affairs. Her research interests include modern South Korean literature, film, and history, with a focus on the way that objects and spaces reflect and enforce social norms related to the creation of female social identities. She is the recipient of an EASC/IKS fellowship.

Noah Placzek

Noah Placzek is an MA student in the East Asian Studies program. He received a BA with Honors in History from the University of Washington (‘21) with a minor in International Studies: Korea. His current studies focus on Modern Korean history and memory.

Yanira Rhymer-Stuart

Yanira Rhymer-Stuart is an MA student in the East Asian Languages and Cultures Department. She received a BA in East Asian Studies and Politics and Government with a minor in Religion from Ohio Wesleyan University. Her current research interests include Inter-Korean and U.S-Korean Relations, the Democratization of Korea, the early presidencies of Korea (1945-1980), authoritarian nostalgia, and Cultural Appropriation within the Hallyu Wave. She is a recipient of the FLAS Fellowship in Korean.

Seth Warnick

Seth Warnick is pursuing a dual degree with a MA in East Asian Studies and Master of Public Affairs from the Paul H. O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. He received a BA in Korean Studies from Brigham Young University ('18) as well as an AA in Mandarin Chinese from the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center ('20). His primary research interests include US-Korea policy and East Asian security issues.

Eojin Yang

Eojin Yang is a first-year MA student in the program of Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures (EALC), focusing on Korea. Her research interests currently include the problem regarding mothering and motherhood, sexuality and gender seen through the lens of Korean films, literature and visual materials in Modern and Contemporary Korean society. She is also at an EALC departmental associate instructor position for teaching Korean. Eojin holds a BA in Russian Language and Literature from Sungkyunkwan University, and before joining IU, she worked for four years in the department of Business Strategy at LG in Seoul, South Korea.