Peter Moody

  • Lecturer of Korean
P.Moody

Peter G. Moody received MA degrees in East Asian Studies from the University of Virginia, as well as an MA degree in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) before earning his PhD degree in East Asian Languages in Cultures from Columbia University.

He has been awarded fellowships for his archival research, including from the US Fulbright Program and the Academic Exchange Support Program for North Korean and Unification Studies, and has received postdoctoral fellowships at Korea University and the George Washington University.

His research interests center on the industrialization, ideological evolution, mass media, and cultural politics of the two Koreas, as well as the precursors to those developments taking place during Korea’s period of Japanese colonization. In addition to his historical inquiries, Peter analyzes current trends and developments in ROK and DPRK culture and domestic politics. He has been interviewed by several media outlets, including BBC World News and The Wall Street Journal, and he is also an occasional contributor to NK News.

He is currently working on a book manuscript titled Music and the Mobilization of North Korea, which traces the development of the DPRK’s “total music society” and captures the perspectives of North Korean musical figures who struggled to balance their artistic inclinations with the ruling Korean Workers’ Party’s political imperatives.

Publications:

  • “악보와 음원 자료를 통해 본 조선(DPRK) 아리랑 연구” [A Study of North Korean Songs of Arirang Through Musical Scores and Audio Recordings], in 아리랑: 상실과 재생의 노래 [Arirang: Song of Loss and Regeneration], edited by the International Society for Korean Studies (Gyeongin Munhwasa, 2025): 152-169.
  • “Dueling and Converging Soundscapes in China and Korea.” CHINOPERL: Journal of Chinese Oral and Performing Literature 44, no. 2: 208-213.
  • “Cementing the Sounds of State-Building: Early North Korean Mass Music and Staged Works of Music (1945–1949).” Seoul Journal of Korean Studies 37, no. 2: 113-135.
  • “Life Songs and Lifelong Expertise: The Hidden Sustainable Properties of Music North Korean Secondary Cities,” in Pursuing Sustainable Urban Development in North Korea, edited by Pavel Em (Routledge, 2024): 48-58.
  • “From MacArthur’s Landing to Trump’s Fire and Fury: Sonic Depictions of Struggle and Sacrifice in a North Korean Short Story, Film, and Opera,” with Alexandra Leonzini, Korean Studies 46 (2022): 73-106.
  • “Girl Power” DPRK Style: The Girl Group Phenomenon in North Korea and its Fans Across East Asia,” with Seunghee Ha, in Perspectives of Gender, Sexuality, and Stereotype in the Korean Wave, edited by Marcy L. Tanter and Moisés Park. (Lexington Books, 2022): 37-61.
  • “Yanggak Island Discs: Seeing and Hearing North Korea Through Eight Songs,” with James Banfill, North Korean Review 17, no. 1 (2021): 121-130.
  • “Reconstructing the National Heritage: Socialist Folk Music in North Korea and East Germany, 1945-1963,” Korea Journal 61, no. 1 (2021): 186-218.
  • “From Production to Consumption: The Socialist Realism/ Personality Cult Divide in North Korean Popular Music,” European Journal of Korean Studies 20 (2020), no. 1: 7-35.
  • “Chollima, the Thousand Li Flying Horse: Neo-traditionalism at Work in North Korea,” Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies 13, no. 2 (2013): 211-233

Research and Teaching Interests:

modern Korean history, Korean film, inter-Korean relations, cultural diplomacy, popular music, North Korean culture and society, Korean humanism