My Framer Site

Tian (Esther) Li

Assistant Professor at Korea University

Founder and CEO of Seed Consultancy

Korean & Chinese Film, Media, and Cultural Studies

Academic Positions

Research & Teaching Experience

Honors & Fellowships

Professional Service

Resume

esthertianli@gmail.com

Hi, I'm Tian Li!

I am a Assistant Professor at Korea University.

Previously, I have held the following academic positions:

Lecturer in the Department of East Asian Languages at Yale University. (2023 - 2025)
Postdoctoral Associate and Lecturer, Council on East Asian Studies, Yale University (2022 - 2023)
Korea Foundation–Korea Institute Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer, Harvard University (2020 - 2021)
Lecturer, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Stanford University (Spring 2020)

I am also the Founder and CEO of Seed Consultancy.

I am a Assistant Professor at Korea University.

Previously, I have held the following academic positions:

Lecturer in the Department of East Asian Languages at Yale University. (2023 - 2025)
Postdoctoral Associate and Lecturer, Council on East Asian Studies, Yale University (2022 - 2023)
Korea Foundation–Korea Institute Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer, Harvard University (2020 - 2021)
Lecturer, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Stanford University (Spring 2020)

I am also the Founder and CEO of Seed Consultancy.

I am a Assistant Professor at Korea University.

Previously, I have held the following academic positions:

Lecturer in the Department of East Asian Languages at Yale University. (2023 - 2025)
Postdoctoral Associate and Lecturer, Council on East Asian Studies, Yale University (2022 - 2023)
Korea Foundation–Korea Institute Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer, Harvard University (2020 - 2021)
Lecturer, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Stanford University (Spring 2020)

I am also the Founder and CEO of Seed Consultancy.

About Me

I specialize in Korean and Chinese film, media, popular culture, and critical theory. My research explores how human relations are (re)shaped by media and culture, with a particular focus on the Sino-Korean media interaction.

I particularly examine the reverse question of how the audiovisual media mechanism (re)defines what it means to be collaborative and symbiotic for the human community within the context of media convergence and capitalist globalization.

My first book Riding the Korean Wave in China: The Reception and Remaking of Popular Korean Screen Culture investigates the contemporary Sino-Korean cultural dynamics in the screen media, at intersections with affect, language, ideology, and gender.

My second book project, tentatively titled Jurisprudence of the Spectral Screen, focuses on screen media’s potentiality of opening an affective and representational space of virtuality that directly impacts the criminal justice system in actuality.

Research & Teaching Overview

Research Areas: Korean and Chinese Screen Cultures, Law and Justice in Film, Gender and Media Theory, Transnational Cultural Flows

Teaching Areas: East Asian Cinema, Digital Media Politics, Modern Chinese Literature, Global Korean Culture

Research Experience

Yale University

2023 - 2025

Research Director

• Conduct research on the intersectional discourse on cinema, justice, and law.

Yale University

2022 - 2023

Postdoctoral Associates

• Supervisor: Hwansoo Kim

Conduct research on film, media convergence, critical theory, and gender politics with a regional focus on Korea and China

Harvard University

2020 - 2021

Postdoctoral Fellow

• Supervisor: Sun Joo Kim

Conducted research project “Screen-capitalism: Transnational Korean Screen Culture in Postsocialist China”

Seoul National University and UC Irvine

2019

Researcher and Translator

• Supervisor: Choongmoo Choi

Co-translated, Forcibly Taken Korean Military ‘Comfort Women’ 4: History Rewritten through Memories.

Department of East Asian Studies, UC Irvine. Center for Asian Studies

2018

Research Director

• Supervisor: Kyung Hyun Kim.

Designed study on Chinese documentary television program.

Department of East Asian Studies, University of California, Irvine

2017

Research Director

• Supervisor: Kyung Hyun Kim

Conducted research project “The spread of screen-capitalism off screen” in Korea.

Department of English, University of California, Irvine

2017

Research Assistant

• Lead Researcher: Jerry Won Lee

Annotated and translated secondary sources on the study of language ideology.

Department of English, University of California, Irvine

2016

Research Assistant

• Lead Researcher: Jerry Won Lee

Translated and annotated texts from Chinese, Korean, and Japanese sources of the semiotic landscape of the Koreatowns in Beijing and Shanghai.

UC Irvine, UC San Diego, the University of Tokyo

2016

Research Project Organizer

• Supervisor: Chungmoo Choi

Organized multi-campus collaborative research project “Women’s identity and history between home and nation in East Asia.”

Teaching Experience & Pedagogical Training

Korea University

2025-

Assistant Professor

• K-Contents and Korean Wave (Spring 2026)

• Creative Media Planning and Expressions (Spring 2026, Fall 2025)

• Politics of East Asian Digital Media (IWC Spring 2025)

• Global Korean Cinema (IWC 2025)

• Politics of East Asian Digital Media (IWC Spring 2025)

• Boundary Crossing Media (Fall 2025)

Yale University

2022 - 2025

Lecturer

• Beyond Hallyu: Korean and Chinese Screen Culture in the Global Media Situation (Fall 2024)

• Global Korean Cinema (Fall 2024, 2022)

• Politics of East Asian Digital Media Culture (Spring 2025, 2024)

• What Happened to Socialism: Chinese Cinema and Society, 1905-2015 (Spring 2025, 2024)

• Modern Chinese Literature (Fall 2023)

• Love, Death, and Life: Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature (Fall 2023)

• Politics of East Asian Screen Culture (Spring 2023)

Harvard University

2020-2021

Lecturer

• Korean Cinema as World Cinema (Fall 2020)

Stanford University

2020

Lecturer

• Asian Screen Cultures (Spring 2020)

Department of English, University of California, Irvine

2017

Research Assistant

• Lead Researcher: Jerry Won Lee

Annotated and translated secondary sources on the study of language ideology.

University of California, Irvine

2017

Sole Instructor

• Korean Popular Culture (Summer 2017)

University of California, Irvine

2017

Teaching Assistant

• Served as the sole instructor for leading course material review and facilitating discussions for a group of 70 students.

Gender and Visuality in Korea (Winter 2017)

Asian American Communities (Winter 2018)

Language Teaching, University of California, Irvine

2014 - 2018

Sole Instructor

• Korean Language (7 sections; Fall 2015-Spring 2018)

• Chinese Language (Fall 2014, Winter/Spring 2015)

Pedagogical Training

• Equitable Teaching and Learning, Yale (Spring 2023)

• Online Course Planning Workshop, Harvard (Summer 2020)

• Teaching Methods Seminar, UCI (Fall 2014, Winter 2015)

• Creative Course Design Program, UCI (Fall 2017)

Honors & Fellowships

Fellowships

American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Fellowship

2021 - 2022

Korea Foundation-Korea Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship

2020 - 2021

Association of Asian Studies Graduate Student Stipends

2019

UC Irvine Office of Graduate Study External Fellowship Fee Coverage Grant

2019

Korea Foundation Graduate Dissertation Fellowship

2018

Conference Fellowship, International Federation of Research in Women’s History

2018

Summer Dissertation Fellowship, UC Irvine

2018

Center of Asian Studies Graduate Research Grant, UC Irvine

2017 - 2019

Graduate Research Fellowship, Humanities Commons, UC Irvine

2017

Summer Fellowship Award, Center for Critical Korean Studies, UC Irvine

2017

Conference Travel Award, Nam Center for Korean Studies, University of Michigan

2017

Regents Year Scholarship, UC Irvine

2013

Art Major Asian Scholarship, Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism

2007 - 2011

Top Marks Distinguished Students Scholarship, Communication University of China

2005

Honors & Awards

Poorvu Center Instructional Enhancement Award, Yale

2023

ACLS Yvette and William Kirby Centennial Fellow in Chinese Studies

2022

Teaching Excellence Award by the Office of Undergraduate Education, Harvard

2021

Modern Language Association Travel Grant Award

2019

Stanford University Institute for International Studies Travel Grant Award

2018

Active to Captive Public Speaking Certificate

2018

Yonsei University the Most Distinguished Student Prize (Advanced-level Language Program)

2017

Graduate Student Spotlight, Center for Critical Korean Studies Annual Report

2017

Humanities Commons Research and Travel Award, UC Irvine

2017

Seoul G20 Summit Service Award

2010

Beijing Olympic Games Service Award

2008

Top Marks Distinguished Students, Communication University of China

2005 - 2006

Professional Service

Related Professional Experience

Planning Executive, Hong Kong International Media Group

2021- 2012

Manager Assistant & Translator, Beijing Olympic Press & Media Center

2008

Selected Service

Lab to Life, KU Global Grad Talks, Korea University, Seoul

Screening Series Opening Speaker, Bong Joon Ho: Film Retrospective and Director Visit, Council of East Asian Studies& Yale Film Society, Yale University, CT

2025

Senior Thesis Advisor, Departments of Film and Media Studies & East Asian Languages and Literatures, Yale University, CT

2024 & 2025

Reviewer for Book: Roses in the Smokehouse: Biographical Essays of Suffering and Love, by Miroslav Volf, Yale Center for Faith & Culture Consultation, Yale University, CT

2023

Academic Advisor, Yale University-New Asia Undergraduate Exchange Program (YUNA), Yale-China Association, Yale University and Chinese University of Hong Kong

2022 - 2023

Reviewer for Journals: Journal of Intercultural Communication Research and The Harvard Undergraduate Research Journal

2021

Co-organizer for Event: Film Screening & Discussion Series 1-3, Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures, UC Irvine, CA

2015 - 2017

Co-organizer, Book Talk & Signing with author Park Min Gyu, Center for Critical Korean Studies, UC Irvine, CA

2018

Co-translator, Lights, Camera, Action!: Translating for Film and Television with Netflix K-drama translator and reviewer Jisu Kim, UC Irvine, CA

2018

Coordinator for Event: Lunar New Year Festival event, Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures, UC Irvine, CA

2014 - 2018

Co-organizer, Theory and Methodology Collaborative Workshop, UC Irvine, CA

2015

Coordinator & Translator, Seoul International Art Seminar, Korean National University of Arts & Shanghai Theatre Academy, South Kore

2010

Education

University of California, Irvine

East Asian Languages and Literatures, Ph.D.

2019

Memberships & Skills

Professional Membership

• Association for Asian Studies

• Modern Language Association

• Society for Cinema and Media Studies

Certificates

Activate to Captivate Public Speaking, Graduate Resource Center, UC Irvine

2018

Creative Course Design, Center for Engaged Instruction, UC Irvine

2017

Proficiency in Korean Level 6, Korean National Institute for International Education

2011

Languages

• Chinese: native language

• Classical Chinese: native proficiency

• Korean: near-native proficiency

• English: near-native proficiency

• Japanese: professional working proficiency

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