About Hyemin

I am a Postdoctoral Associate in East Asian Studies at the MacMillan Center for International & Area Studies and Lecturer in Anthropology at Yale University. I received my Ph.D. in Anthropology from New York University in 2025. Before that, I graduated with a B.A. and M.A. in Anthropology from Seoul National University in South Korea.

I study the ideologies and practices of translation in South Korea’s technoscientific projects, particularly where traditional Korean medicine (han-ǔi-hak) intersects with scientific evidence-based policy frameworks. Through these sites, I trace how claims over life forms illuminate shifting geopolitical imaginaries, environmental change, and the imperatives of a science-driven economy. I explore my questions through Korean ginseng (Panax ginseng, insam in Korean), a traditional medicinal plant with deep historical, ecological, and geopolitical significance in South Korea and across East Asia.

My research draws on scholarship in medical and linguistic anthropology, semiotics, STS, and Korean studies. It has been generously supported by the National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation of Anthropological Research, the NYU Dean's Dissertation Fellowship, and the Yale InterAsia Initiative.

My other research projects explore themes at the intersection of language and medicine, including the communication and semiotics of pain, illness/medical narratives, doctor-patient interactions, and medical discourse.

I can be reached at hyemin [dot] lee [at] yale [dot] edu