Through the lenses of race, gender, and religion, Noh reveals the complex impacts of colonialism and evangelical missions linking Korea, the U.S., and Haiti
Minjung Noh has a surprising answer when you ask how she began studying Korean women missionaries.
It began with a K-Pop star, the assistant professor of religion, culture and society, explains.
Noh, a native of South Korea, is a fan of the Korean popular music known as K-Pop. When a member of one of her favorite bands, The Wonder Girls, left the group a decade ago, Noh found a connection between the performer – a born-again evangelical Christian -- and Haiti, a country Noh was studying in her academic research.
“She was at the top of the Korean K-Pop industry, and she just left and got married to a Korean Canadian pastor. That was 10 years ago, and that was shocking,” Noh recalls. “And then she was doing missions in Haiti. I thought, ‘What is happening?’”
An interest in studying the Haitian Vodou religion (also known as voodoo), led her to work with Terry Rey, a professor at Temple University who specializes in Haiti. The role of Korean women missionaries in Haiti would become the focus of her doctoral dissertation.
Spotlight Recipient
Minjung Noh
Assistant Professor