Nayoung Aimee Kwon is Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of Korean and Japanese Cultural Studies in the Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, Women’s Studies, and the Program in the Art of the Moving Image.

Her recent book, Translating Empires: the Conundrum of Modernity and Collaboration in Korea and Japan, examines the broader problem of colonial/modern and postcolonial contestations in East Asia and the Asia-Pacific region. The issue is examined through the rise and repression of Japanese-language writings and translations by the colonized and their controversial postcolonial legacies. She is also working on a project on the question of absence and presence in trans-Pacific imaginations between Asia and America. Her research and teaching interests include transcultural coproductions (literature, film, theater) in Asia; transnational literary and filmic exchanges; theories of empire, translation, and postcoloniality; global and trans-Pacific migrations; and cultural flows. She is also a translator of Korean and Japanese literature into English.