HeeJin Lee
@heejinlee.bsky.social
Assistant Professor and Marianna Brown Dietrich Breakthrough Scholar Chair of Korean Studies @ Pitt. Usual disclaimers about personal opinions, etc., apply.
TFW you find a place that sells Uzbek kimchi in town!
December 5, 2025 at 3:00 AM
TFW you find a place that sells Uzbek kimchi in town!
Signs of aging for this year:
*Began using MS Word zoomed in at 120 percent, always
*Did not enjoy daylight savings ending for the first time, ever
*Realized that I need to plan for 2026 goals now, breaking up leisurely starting the new year with LNY as deadline
😫😭
*Began using MS Word zoomed in at 120 percent, always
*Did not enjoy daylight savings ending for the first time, ever
*Realized that I need to plan for 2026 goals now, breaking up leisurely starting the new year with LNY as deadline
😫😭
December 4, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Signs of aging for this year:
*Began using MS Word zoomed in at 120 percent, always
*Did not enjoy daylight savings ending for the first time, ever
*Realized that I need to plan for 2026 goals now, breaking up leisurely starting the new year with LNY as deadline
😫😭
*Began using MS Word zoomed in at 120 percent, always
*Did not enjoy daylight savings ending for the first time, ever
*Realized that I need to plan for 2026 goals now, breaking up leisurely starting the new year with LNY as deadline
😫😭
Belatedly grading student responses to Han Kang’s HUMAN ACTS today, one year after martial law was declared in South Korea. I’m all the more grateful to read the incredibly thoughtful submissions, dealing with memory, trauma, and history in truly moving ways.
December 3, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Belatedly grading student responses to Han Kang’s HUMAN ACTS today, one year after martial law was declared in South Korea. I’m all the more grateful to read the incredibly thoughtful submissions, dealing with memory, trauma, and history in truly moving ways.
Potential hot take: In the vein of words being important, I hate the terms “pleather” or “vegan leather.” It’s all plastic, it gets sticky, it flakes off, it’s not a more ethical/sustainable choice, whether for clothes, shoes, or bags. I’d rather secondhand or repurposed actual leather!
December 3, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Potential hot take: In the vein of words being important, I hate the terms “pleather” or “vegan leather.” It’s all plastic, it gets sticky, it flakes off, it’s not a more ethical/sustainable choice, whether for clothes, shoes, or bags. I’d rather secondhand or repurposed actual leather!
How is it that there are so many jokes about bad winter drivers in PA/Pittsburgh—I thought that was a southern thing?!
December 2, 2025 at 5:41 PM
How is it that there are so many jokes about bad winter drivers in PA/Pittsburgh—I thought that was a southern thing?!
ACLA seminar accepted! See you in Montréal!
All, I’m sharing another call for papers, this time for our seminar entitled "Korea, East Asia, and the Cold War Politics of Comparison" for the 2026 Annual Meeting of the American Comparative Literature Association, to be held in Montréal, Canada from 2/26/26 to 3/1/26.
View Seminar | American Comparative Literature Association
www.acla.org
December 2, 2025 at 12:05 PM
ACLA seminar accepted! See you in Montréal!
Biggest case of the Monday blues + feeling out of routine after taking the whole week off last week. This crazy “teach for one more week after Thanksgiving before winter break” needs to end!
December 1, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Biggest case of the Monday blues + feeling out of routine after taking the whole week off last week. This crazy “teach for one more week after Thanksgiving before winter break” needs to end!
Wouldn’t say PIT is “new”—gates and the bulk of the airport remain the same—but rather, renovated. Parking is nice and walk into the airport building proper is new and nice, but ngl not a fan of having to drive around 20+ mins to find the area where I reserved parking.
November 22, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Wouldn’t say PIT is “new”—gates and the bulk of the airport remain the same—but rather, renovated. Parking is nice and walk into the airport building proper is new and nice, but ngl not a fan of having to drive around 20+ mins to find the area where I reserved parking.
Excited to read this, especially since it reminds me so much of the Zoom reading group I had with fellow grad students in our department at the height of the pandemic!
The newest issue of the Journal of Asian Studies features "Emerging Crossroads: The Intersections and Fissures of Black Studies, Asian Studies, and Asian American Studies," a special forum section. Read it online: buff.ly/X5puSiG
Buy this issue: buff.ly/FW8xoFz
Buy this issue: buff.ly/FW8xoFz
November 21, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Excited to read this, especially since it reminds me so much of the Zoom reading group I had with fellow grad students in our department at the height of the pandemic!
Love the fact that I now work in the same town as a friend from grad school and so I could support him at his conference session yesterday (also in town) and that we got to catch up over a proper lunch. And we could even walk home afterwards, through our respective campuses!
November 16, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Love the fact that I now work in the same town as a friend from grad school and so I could support him at his conference session yesterday (also in town) and that we got to catch up over a proper lunch. And we could even walk home afterwards, through our respective campuses!
Woke up in the middle of the night to learn that there’s a temporary water outage in my neighborhood, in 2025 🫠
November 14, 2025 at 7:42 AM
Woke up in the middle of the night to learn that there’s a temporary water outage in my neighborhood, in 2025 🫠
Proud to have made granola at home, for the first time, after a long day on campus! It’s probably routine and super easy for most, but it feels like a real win to make something at home, as part of recalibrating the work-life balance in my life.
November 13, 2025 at 1:15 AM
Proud to have made granola at home, for the first time, after a long day on campus! It’s probably routine and super easy for most, but it feels like a real win to make something at home, as part of recalibrating the work-life balance in my life.
TFW you learn that a dept colleague, not in your field, did extra research on the work of fiction you’re set to present for your colloquium talk next week so that he could find a photo of the cover art to make a poster for the event 🥹 feeling so incredibly lucky to be around caring colleagues!
November 12, 2025 at 5:35 PM
TFW you learn that a dept colleague, not in your field, did extra research on the work of fiction you’re set to present for your colloquium talk next week so that he could find a photo of the cover art to make a poster for the event 🥹 feeling so incredibly lucky to be around caring colleagues!
Winter already in the second week of November!
November 10, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Winter already in the second week of November!
As I have been saying for some time now, there are no emergencies in Korean literature!
I am currently out of the philosophy department on parental leave. if this inquiry is about classes for next semester, please email the chair of the department. if your inquiry is about the nature or existence of the external world, please consult René Descartes' work
Just got the best out-of-office message I've ever seen from a fellow academic:
"I am currently away on leave. If this is an emergency... well, I doubt it. What could possibly be an emergency in my line of work?"
"I am currently away on leave. If this is an emergency... well, I doubt it. What could possibly be an emergency in my line of work?"
November 9, 2025 at 11:26 PM
As I have been saying for some time now, there are no emergencies in Korean literature!
Learning just how difficult it is to recover from working at breakneck speed to center self-care and health first—to be sure, the same amount of work exists as before but your body and your doc tell you in no uncertain terms that this is just not feasible any longer 😭
November 8, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Learning just how difficult it is to recover from working at breakneck speed to center self-care and health first—to be sure, the same amount of work exists as before but your body and your doc tell you in no uncertain terms that this is just not feasible any longer 😭
TFW your departmental colleagues organize an informal social hour to get to know you and other new faculty members who joined this fall 🥹
November 5, 2025 at 7:25 PM
TFW your departmental colleagues organize an informal social hour to get to know you and other new faculty members who joined this fall 🥹
Dedication to self-care is scheduling PT sessions at the gym on a weeknight at the end of working hours when you depend on limited street parking. Lucky to have found a spot when I returned home from the gym today!
November 4, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Dedication to self-care is scheduling PT sessions at the gym on a weeknight at the end of working hours when you depend on limited street parking. Lucky to have found a spot when I returned home from the gym today!
Graded the best set of take-home midterm essays I’ve ever read since I began teaching in my grad student TA days. I don’t know how lucky I got with this bunch, but it IS possible to get students to care and write—and the majority of them wrote about premodern works we read!
November 4, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Graded the best set of take-home midterm essays I’ve ever read since I began teaching in my grad student TA days. I don’t know how lucky I got with this bunch, but it IS possible to get students to care and write—and the majority of them wrote about premodern works we read!
Used to love “gaining” the extra hour with the end of daylight savings, but now dreading it since I’ve realized that my 6AM seminar Wednesday will now begin at 5AM, so I’ll need to be up at 4:30AM to get going! Will be a real challenge as a not-AM person 😭
November 2, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Used to love “gaining” the extra hour with the end of daylight savings, but now dreading it since I’ve realized that my 6AM seminar Wednesday will now begin at 5AM, so I’ll need to be up at 4:30AM to get going! Will be a real challenge as a not-AM person 😭
Potential sign of aging: Finding my AirPods, which I’ve had since around 2018/19, to be supremely uncomfortable! All the more noticeable since I began using headphones in the office. May be giving up on them soon, like I did with heels, which I wear now for certain events only.
November 1, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Potential sign of aging: Finding my AirPods, which I’ve had since around 2018/19, to be supremely uncomfortable! All the more noticeable since I began using headphones in the office. May be giving up on them soon, like I did with heels, which I wear now for certain events only.
Reposted by HeeJin Lee
I’m raising funds for the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank today. You Venmo me any amount, I’ll match it and send over the total to LARFB tomorrow! Any amount puts you in a drawing for a free ebook of The Book Proposal Book (giving away 5 copies so you’ve got a good shot)
venmo.com/u/Laura-Port...
venmo.com/u/Laura-Port...
Venmo | Laura Portwood-Stacer
Venmo is a digital wallet that lets you make and share payments with friends. You can easily split the bill, cab fare, or much more. Download the iOS or Android app or sign up on Venmo.com today.
venmo.com
October 31, 2025 at 6:40 PM
I’m raising funds for the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank today. You Venmo me any amount, I’ll match it and send over the total to LARFB tomorrow! Any amount puts you in a drawing for a free ebook of The Book Proposal Book (giving away 5 copies so you’ve got a good shot)
venmo.com/u/Laura-Port...
venmo.com/u/Laura-Port...
Can’t believe that I have a water leak in my office, almost exactly one year after my apartment flooded. Different areas of the country, but still! Grateful that damage is minimal—I mean, a pair of leather heels are wet but I have an excellent cobble; no books and equipment damage.
October 29, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Can’t believe that I have a water leak in my office, almost exactly one year after my apartment flooded. Different areas of the country, but still! Grateful that damage is minimal—I mean, a pair of leather heels are wet but I have an excellent cobble; no books and equipment damage.
Reposted by HeeJin Lee
Emma Thompson is a queen.
"I DON'T NEED YOU TO FUCKING REWRITE WHAT I'VE JUST WRITTEN!"
October 28, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Emma Thompson is a queen.
Kindness from a senior colleague really made my day today! Still have lots to do but now I feel like I have a bit more breathing room, and take some time to take care of myself on top of chasing those deadlines.
October 27, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Kindness from a senior colleague really made my day today! Still have lots to do but now I feel like I have a bit more breathing room, and take some time to take care of myself on top of chasing those deadlines.