Woohyeok Seo
PhD candidate in International Relations
London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)Violence · Technology · Memory
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
ABOUT
I am a final-year PhD candidate in International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). My research asks how technologies of violence, memories of harm, and political order are mutually constituted, with a regional focus on East Asia and the wider Asia-Pacific.My work brings together nuclear politics, security studies, science and technology studies, memory studies, and historical international relations.
RESEARCH
Doctoral Project: Becoming (Un)nuclear: (De)politicizing Collective Memories of Nuclear Violence in Japan and South Korea, 1945–1975This project examines how discourses of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy shaped, and were shaped by, collective memories of nuclear violence in postwar Japan and South Korea. Drawing on multi-sited archival fieldwork across Hapcheon, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Seoul, and Tokyo, it shows how these memories were politicized and depoliticized through competing practices of moral justification, technocratic silence, justice claims, and foreign policy use.The project argues that these struggles over nuclear memory produce a hierarchy of nuclearity: an ordering through which certain nuclear applications, forms of nuclear harm, and nuclear-harmed communities came to be recognized as “nuclear,” while others were rendered invisible. In doing so, the project shows how nuclear technology and memory politics are co-constituted, and contributes to conversations on the relationship between means of violence, memories of violence, and political order.Publications
Peer-reviewed Articles
"Nuclear Technology and (De)politicising Memories of Nuclear Violence in Postcolonial South Korea (1945–75)." Cooperation and Conflict. Forthcoming."East Asia’s Alliance Dilemma: Public Perceptions of the Competing Risks of Extended Nuclear Deterrence," with Lauren Sukin. Journal of Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, 2024 Link.Edited Special Issue / Introduction
Introduction to Special Issue, "Traversing Memories in Global Politics," Millennium: Journal of International Studies, with Kinti Orellana Matute and Pauline Zerla. 2025 Link.Research Interests
Nuclear politics
Political violence
Weapons and technology
Collective memory
Historical international relations
Asia-Pacific international relations
TEACHING
I have taught international security and supported postgraduate dissertation writing in the Department of International Relations at LSE. My teaching emphasizes active learning, inclusive participation, and structured support for students’ research design, argumentation, and writing.Teaching
LSE IR205 International Security, Graduate Teaching Assistant, 2023–2024
LSE IR205 International Security, Guest Lecturer, “Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Strategic Competition,” 2024Student Engagement
LSE IR485/499 Postgraduate Dissertations, Dissertation Surgeon, 2023–2025
LSE IRD Incoming Undergraduate/Postgraduate Orientation, Welcome Coordinator, 2023–2025
LSE IRD Postgraduate Dissertation Session, PhD Assistant and Panelist, postgraduate academic retreat at Cumberland Lodge, 2023 and 2025
CONTACT
For academic inquiries, teaching-related matters, or other professional correspondence, please contact me at: [email protected]