Bulletin News
04/01/2010
Fulbright Scholar Yomee Lee, associate professor of kinesiology at SUNY Cortland, will explore the intricacies of the sporting culture among Korean women on Wednesday, April 7, at the College.
Lee will present her lecture at 4:30 p.m. in Moffett Center, Room 2127. A speaker reception will begin at 4 p.m. in the Brooks Museum, Moffett Center, Room 2126.
Her talk, “Beyond the Physical Competition: Korean Women and the Culture of Sport,” is free and open to the public. Her presentation is part of the Rozanne M. Brooks Lecture Series at SUNY Cortland and encompasses the 2009-10 theme “Women’s Worlds.”
Lee’s lecture is based on her fieldwork experiences in Korea.
“As the title reflects, the purpose of the presentation is to explain and analyze Korean culture using sport as a medium,” said Lee. “Many sport studies scholars agree that the reason why we study sport is because it is an important part of social phenomenon, rich with sources to help us understand and explain society better.
“One part of the lecture focuses on elite athletes such as Yuna Kim and Seri Park. According to a number of scholars, sport celebrities offer a unique cultural site in which complex meanings and ideologies are being produced, reproduced and reaffirmed along diverse social relations. In light of the recent success of Olympic figure skater Yuna Kim, it seems quite timely to examine and observe the cultural meanings surrounding this particular sport celebrity. The lecture will include issues related to promotion of nationalism, national identity, reinforcement of the traditional notion of femininity, body image and Confucius ideals and values by focusing on sport celebrity as an important cultural site in Korea.”
Lee’s lecture also will highlight Korean youth’s physical culture in Korea. She will examine how, ultimately, sport becomes an activity that perpetuates the dominant notions of femininity and masculinity and reinforces a gender hierarchy ingrained in Korean society.
Lee, who joined the College in 2000, took a one-year sabbatical from her teaching responsibilities in 2007-08 to participate in the Fulbright Program. As a Fulbright Scholar, Lee taught in residence at Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea. In 2006, Yonsei named Lee, an alumna, among its “100 Female Leaders of the Future.”
Lee, whose family moved to Korea from the U.S. when she was five, spent most of the next 20 years living in Korea. Returning to America in 1994 for her graduate studies, Lee received a Master of Arts in Sport, Leisure and Somatics Studies, with a specialization in the socio-cultural aspects of sports, from The Ohio State University. In 2000, she received her doctorate from the same institution in cultural studies. Her dissertation was on “Korean American Women’s Attitude Towards Sports.”
At SUNY Cortland, Lee teaches Social Psychological Aspects of Physical Activity, Sport and Society, Women and Sport, and Africana Dance. She designed the Women and Sport undergraduate syllabus and course material. She has written several refereed journal articles and given numerous refereed presentations in her field.
The lecture series honors the late Rozanne Marie Brooks, a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor and SUNY Cortland professor emerita of sociology and anthropology. A SUNY Cortland faculty member for 36 years, Brooks died in 1997.
The 2009-10 Brooks Lecture Series is sponsored by a grant from Auxiliary Services Corporation (ASC). For more information, contact organizer Sharon R. Steadman, Sociology/Anthropology Department, and coordinator of the International Studies Program, at (607) 753-2308.