Tae-woo Ko

Tae-woo Ko (고태우, 高泰雨) is an assistant professor in the Department of Korean History at Seoul National University in South Korea, and is studying modern Korean history and environmental history of the 20th century. In his doctoral dissertation, he revealed how Japanese-centered civil engineering contractors formed relationships with the Japanese Government-General of Korea in colonial Joseon and pursued profits, and the limitations of colonial development in the process. In 2019 after receiving his Ph.D., he became an HK research professor at Chosun University in South Korea, and was appointed the Department of Korean History at Seoul National University in 2020. Along with research on the colonial development of the Japanese Empire, he is currently conducting research on the environmental history of East Asia, focusing on Korea in the 20th century. He historically examines environmental pollution, human responses to disasters, and the destruction and restoration of ecosystems in Korea under a critical perspective on capitalism. He is also interested in the Anthropocene/Capitalocene and post-humanism.