Kyunghee Pyun, PhD

Education

BA, Seoul National University, Korea
MA, PhD, New York University

2018 FIT Faculty Excellence Award
2018-2019 State University of New York Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities

Biography

Professor Kyunghee Pyun is an internationally recognized scholar of art history, visual culture, design history, and material culture whose research brings together the histories of art, technology, dress, collecting, and global cultural exchange. Based at the Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York, she has developed a distinctive interdisciplinary profile that connects rigorous historical scholarship with innovative teaching, creative practice, and public engagement.

Pyun’s scholarship spans Asian and Asian American art, Korean visual culture, European medieval art, the global circulation of luxury objects, and the intersections of art, design, technology, and industrial history. Her influential editorial projects—including Fashion, Identity, Power in Modern Asia; Interpreting Modernism in Korean Art: Fluidity and Fragmentation; American Art in Asia: Artistic Praxis and Theoretical Divergence; and Dress History of Korea: Critical Perspectives on Primary Sources—have expanded conversations about how clothing, images, objects, and technologies shape identity, institutions, and society. Her continuing work on school uniforms in East Asia further explores the relationships among dress, governance, selfhood, and collective memory.

A committed educational innovator, Pyun has led major interdisciplinary initiatives supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the State University of New York. Her projects integrate art and design education with business, labor, technology, and the creative industries, while her digital humanities and Collaborative Online International Learning initiatives connect students and faculty across national and disciplinary boundaries. Her leadership in developing teaching resources, faculty seminars, conferences, and international curricula demonstrates an ability to translate scholarship into institutional and public value.

Recognized with the FIT Faculty Excellence Award and the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities, and selected for prestigious Korea Foundation, Fulbright, and Leon Levy research opportunities, Pyun exemplifies the intellectual breadth and collaborative vision essential to contemporary higher education. Her work offers a compelling model for integrating the humanities with design, technology, global learning, and public scholarship. With her interdisciplinary expertise, commitment to educational transformation, and international perspective, Professor Pyun anticipates more rigorous projects in the arts, humanities, and design education.

Professor Pyun’s forthcoming monographs promise to extend her interdisciplinary scholarship toward an important new direction: the development of multisensory historical narratives that bring together visual, material, embodied, and technological forms of knowledge. Discerning Languages for the Exotic: Collecting Asian Art 1850–1940, her current book project, examines the cultural and interpretive systems through which Asian art was collected, classified, and understood, opening new possibilities for studying the sensory and institutional histories of objects. Coerced Exoticism: Self-censorship and Predicament of Diasporic Artists from Asia, forthcoming in development for the University of Washington Press’s Critical Ethnic Studies and Visual Culture Series, promises to deepen conversations about diaspora, artistic agency, and the politics of representation. Her forthcoming books Encountering Korean Fashion: Intersectionality of Art and Technology 1850–1960 (Bloomsbury Academic, 2027) and School Uniforms in East Asia: Fashioning State and Selfhood (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026) further demonstrate her sustained commitment to understanding dress as a medium through which bodies, technologies, institutions, and identities become historically legible. Taken together, these projects position Pyun to shape an expansive approach to historical storytelling—one that moves beyond the exclusively visual to consider touch, movement, materiality, embodiment, and technological experience. Her scholarship has the potential to influence future research, curatorial practice, museum education, and design pedagogy, establishing multisensory historical narratives as a powerful framework for connecting the humanities with contemporary creative and technological cultures.

Before coming to FIT, Dr. Pyun taught at many colleges and universities in New York, including New York University, the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn College, Hunter College, Wagner College, Manhattanville College, Montclair State University, New School University, Parsons School of Design, and The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. In addition to teaching, Dr. Pyun contributes to not-for-profit organizations that support visual artists and advocate their works, especially public art projects. She is a member of the College Art Association, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Alliance of American Museums, the Association of Asian Studies, and the Association for Asian American Studies. She is serving on several editorial boards of international academic associations. She has also developed programs and written grant proposals for the Archive of Korean Artists in America (AKAA). She is often invited to give public talks on broad topics of art and culture. She has been a curator of contemporary art since 2011, with exhibitions including the Lineage of Vision: Progress through Persistence held at the Korean Cultural Center New York in 2014 and Violated Bodies: New Languages for Justice and Humanity held at The Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York (CUNY) (28 February–13 April 2018); The Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, State University of New York, Old Westbury (5 February–15 March 2018); The Arthur M. Berger Gallery, Manhattanville College (18 October–10 November 2018).

Professor Pyun is engaged with initiatives of digital humanities and global learning. Her short-term study abroad Tradition and Innovation in Asian Art and Design (HA303) is offered in May and June each summer. She teaches the online courses East Asian Art and Civilization (HA117) and Korean Art and Civilization (HA229) at FIT’s Center for Online Learning and Academic Technologies. She developed a blended format for the course Art in New York (HA214). She participated in the Latin America Academy for The US-Mexico Multistate COIL Program (MCP) organized by The Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) Center, SUNY in 2016. She has taught a COIL module with Professor Angelica Sterling at Universidad del Caribe, Cancun, Mexico since 2016 and another collaborative learning with Professor Ruiling Feng and Professor Yingjie Li at Tianjin Normal University in 2017. Her collaboration with the Kansai University in Osaka, Japan was presented at the SUNY COIL Conference in March 2018. She received SUNY Innovative Instructional Technology Grant (SUNY IITG) in 2016-2017 (tier 1) to create a web-based platform for educational videos, called Diverse Techniques of Asian Art and Crafts: Interactive Media. She renewed the IITG for 2017-2018 (tier 3) and has directed a larger project entitled the Bamboo Canvas: Instructional Innovation in a Globalized Classroom with a regional conference held in November 2018. She got a third time SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grant (IITG) in 2025–2026 and received a grant of $50,000 to lead “Instructional Technology for Human-Centered AI: A Multidisciplinary Collaboration.”

Professor Pyun has won a prestigious and lucrative National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) Grant twice with digital humanities websites: Teaching Business and Labor History to Art and Design Students (2018-2021, first time in FIT’s history; AKB-260507-18), and Shop Girls to Show Girls: Teaching Resources on New York’s Working Class for Community College Students (2021-2024; AE-277675-21). Not only was the first NEH project the single largest academic grant of its kind received in FIT history as of 2018, but it was also a project that draws on the unique strengths of FIT as an institution that prepares students for careers in the complex intersection of art, business, and labor history.

Professor Pyun has been a recipient of the Fulbright Scholars in South Korea for 2021-2022; a Fulbright Specialist to Seoul National University’s Kyujanggak Institute of Korean Studies as well as the Korea National University of Arts (roster in 2019-2024); a peer reviewer of the Fulbright Scholars; and a campus advisor and a member of the Fulbright Alumni Association.

Selected Publications

Homemaking: A Spatial and Sensory Inquiry Across Disciplines, co-edited by Jean Amato and Kyunghee Pyun for the series Studia Imagologica: Amsterdam Studies on Cultural Identity (IMAG) (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2027)

Multidisciplinary Representations of Home and Homeland in Diaspora, co-edited by Jean Amato and Kyunghee Pyun for Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature Series (New York: Routledge, 2024; paperback in 2026).

Home and Homeland in Asian Diaspora: Transnational Reflections in Art, Literature, and Film, co-edited by Kyunghee Pyun and Jean Amato (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2024; paperback in 2026)

Dress History of Korea: Critical Perspectives on Primary Sources, co-edited by Kyunghee Pyun and Minjee Kim (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023; paperback in 2024)

Teaching South and Southeast Asian Art, co-edited by Bokyung Kim and Kyunghee Pyun (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023; paperback in 2024)

Expanding the Parameters of Feminist Artivism, co-edited by Gillian Hannum and Kyunghee Pyun (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023; paperback in 2024)

American Art in Asia: Artistic Praxis and Theoretical Divergence, co-edited by Michelle Lim and Kyunghee Pyun (New York and London: Routledge, 2021; paperback in 2024)

Teaching Labor History in Art and Design: Capitalism and the Creative Industries edited by Kyunghee Pyun and Vincent Quan for Routledge Studies in Education, Neoliberalism, and Marxism (New York: Routledge, 2024; paperback in 2025).

Interpreting Modernism in Korean Art: Fluidity and Fragmentation, co-edited by Kyunghee Pyun and Jung-Ah Woo (New York and London: Routledge, 2021; paperback in 2023)

“Hybrid Dandyism and Construction of Masculinity in Modern Korea: Ko Hui-dong (1885-1965) and Lee Quede (1913–1965).” (chapter 31) Masculinities and Fashion: A Handbook of Men’s Fashion, edited by Ben Barry et als. (London: Intellect Books, 2026), 480–495.

“Decolonizing Appropriation: Heritage, Cultural Tourism, and Curatorial Practices in the Global South.” Pedagogical Reckoning: Decolonizing and Degendering the Art Historical Canon in the Classroom, edited by Sooran Choi and Gillian Greenhill Hannum (Malaga: Vernon Press, 2025), 199–232.

“Women for Cotton and Men for Wool: Consuming Gendered Textiles in Colonized Korea.” Threads of Globalization: Fashion, Textiles, d Gender in 20th-Century Asia, edited by Melia Belli Bose (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2024), 47–71.

“Ethnonational Identity and Mannequins in History Museums in Korea and Japan.” Histories of Exhibition Design in the Museum: Makers, Process and Practice, edited by Kate Guy, Hajra Williams and Claire Wintle; Routledge’s new series in Museum Making (London: Routledge, 2023), 169–85.

“Religiosity and Spirituality in Linda Mary Montano’s Anorexia Nervosa.” Journal of Religion and the Arts 27:1-2 [Special Issue: Keeping the Faith: Contemporary Women Artists and Religion] (2023): 179–203.

“Girls in Sailor Suits: Constructing Soft Power in Japanese Cultural Diplomacy.” Global Perspectives on Japan 5 (June 2022): 21–45.

“Asian Physiques of Mannequins in American Art Museums.” Mannequins and Museums: Power and Resistance on Display, edited by Bridget R. Cooks and Jennifer Wagelie (London: Routledge, 2021), 79–91.

“Transformation of Monastic Habits: Student Uniforms for Christian Schools in East Asia.” Journal of Religion and the Arts 24:5 [Special Issue: Faith/Fashion/Forward: Dress and the Sacred] (2020): 604–640. 

Fashion, Identity, Power in Modern Asia, edited by Kyunghee Pyun and Aida Yuen Wong (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)  

Fashion, Geundae-reul Manada 패션, 근대를 만나다 [Fashion, Encountering Modern Eras]. Korean Translation of Fashion, Identity, and Power in Modern Asia (Seoul: Sapyung Academy, 2022)

Jean Pucelle: Innovation and Collaboration in Manuscript Painting, edited by Kyunghee Pyun and Anna Russakoff (Turnhout: Brepols, 2013)

Selected Public Lectures

“Korean Costume in the Era of Globalization: Historical Memory, Cultural Reception, and Contemporary Interpretation.” Keynote Speaker for the 2026 Spring Conference for the 50th Anniversary of The Korean Society of Costume, Ewha Womans University, 9 May 2026

“Impact of ‘American Style’ on East Asian Visual Culture: Beyond Abstract Painting.” 2026 Art History Visiting Scholar Lecture (annual), Department of Art and Art History, University of Alabama, Birmingham, 2 April 2026

“Designing City of Lights: Neon Crosses and Religiosity in South Korea.” Center for Critical Korean Studies, School of Humanities, University of California, Irvine, 8 October 2025

“Koreanness in Contemporary Art: A Historiography of Art History Surveys.” 2024 Contemporary Korean Art Conference in Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Nichols Board of Trustees Suite, 2 November 2024

“Globalizing Korean Fashion: Runway, Street Fashion, and Popular Culture.” Hahn Moo-Sook Colloquium, GW Institute of Korean Studies for Korean Fashion: From Royal Court to Runway, a special exhibition at the Textile Museum, George Washington University, Washington DC, 5 November 2022. 

“Addressing Identity Politics in Modern Asia: Hybrid Fashion and Cultural Cross-dressing.” Keynote Lecture, Fashioning Identities in Asia, 2018 Symposium at the Center for Asia Pacific Studies, University of San Francisco, 4 April 2018

“Fashion, Identity, and Power in Modern Asia: The Modernization and Dresses of Cultural Cross-dressing.” Asian/ Asian American Research Institute (AAARI) Evening Lecture Series in New York City, 1 December 2017

“Predicament of Contemporary Artists: Represent or Subdue Ethnicity?” AHL Foundation Public Lecture Series 2012 in Collaboration with Korean Cultural Center NY in New York City, 30 November 2016

Aesthetics of Asian Art Collectors at the Turn of the 20th Century. Exploring Aesthetics of Traditional Korean Art. AHL Foundation Public Lecture Series 2012 in Collaboration with Korean Cultural Service NY in New York City, 14 November 2012

“The Decorative Program of the V&A Missal of Saint-Denis and the Liturgy at the Royal Abbey in the Fourteenth Century.” New York Medieval Liturgy Group Lectures at MOBIA (Museum of Biblical Art) in New York City, 15 September 2005

Courses

• HA 111 History of Western Art and Civilization: Ancient to Medieval
• HA 112 History of Western Art and Civilization: Renaissance to Modern Era
• HA 204 History of East Asian Dress 
• HA 211 Asian American Art and Design
• HA 214 Art in New York
• HA 117 East Asian Art and Civilization 
• HA 225 Art and Civilization of India
• HA 229 Korean Art and Civilization
• HA 240 Modern and Contemporary Korean Art
• HA 247 Medieval Art
• HA 271 Japanese Art and Civilization
• HA 303 Tradition and Innovation in Asian Art and Design 
• HA 309 History of Business in the Visual Arts: 1800-2000 (Honors)
• HA 324 Art and Technology since 1960
• HA 327 South Korean Cinema: From Cold War to the Present
• HA 383 Art of the Silk Road: Cross-Cultural Encounters (Honors)
• MP 362 Museum Professions and Administration