Dr. Derek Kramer
School of Languages, Arts and Societies
Lecturer in Korean Studies
Full contact details
School of Languages, Arts and Societies
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
Sheffield
S3 7RA
- Profile
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Dr. Derek J. Kramer is a historian of modern Korea whose research and teaching focus on the history of science, technology, and infrastructure in twentieth-century East Asia. Taking a comparative and transnational approach, his work situates the Korean peninsula and the wider region within the global dynamics of the Cold War and postcolonial world. His research has been supported by the British Academy-Leverhulme Trust, the Academy of Korean Studies, the Pony Chung Foundation, and the Korea Foundation, among others.
Currently he is working on a book manuscript that examines cultural and intellectual responses to the atomic age in early Cold War North and South Korea. By tracing how science and technology became central to postcolonial aspirations and Cold War rivalries, the project reveals the ways in which atomic energy shaped divided visions of Korea’s future.
Before joining the University of Sheffield, Dr. Kramer held research positions at Korea University, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his PhD in East Asian Studies from the University of Toronto in 2021. His work has appeared in publications including the Journal of Asian Studies, International Review of Social History, Gender & History, and positions: asia critique.
- Qualifications
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BA (Calvin College)
MA (University of Toronto)
PhD (University of Toronto)
- Research interests
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Dr. Kramer’s present research explores what happens when ideas about political liberation and scientific revolution intersect. His ongoing book project, entitled “A New Kind of Energy: the Atomic Age in the Cold War Koreas,” is a comparative examination of post-1945 North and South Korean encounters with the promises and perils of a new atomic age. The study traces the conceptual foundations of a postcolonial politics that emerged across the Cold War divide. “A New Kind of Energy” examines early encounters with the atomic age across colonial, socialist, and liberal renditions of the Korean nation.
Rather than reduce the question of nuclear proliferation to the contemporary whims of political leadership or the contours of international exchange, the project focuses on the social and ideological dimensions of science in the nation building process. With implications for the broader history of global nuclear proliferation, this is the first study to comparatively explore the sociopolitical character of atomic science in two mirroring postcolonial states
- Teaching interests
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Dr. Kramer has teaching experience across modern Korean history, East Asian history, and the history of science and technology. He has designed and taught courses such as History of Infrastructure, Industry & Innovation in East Asia, The Japanese Modern Empire, The Cold War in East Asia, and Modern Korean History. He also had experience with modules on historiography, critical approaches to area studies, and survey courses on modern and premodern East Asia. Dr. Kramer’s teaching combines historical, transnational, and interdisciplinary perspectives, drawing on approaches from global history, science and technology studies, and Cold War studies.
- Teaching activities
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Dr Kramer has experience in teaching courses like the “History of Infrastructure, Industry, and Innovation in East Asia,” “The Japanese Modern Empire, “The Cold War in East Asia, and “Modern Korean History.”
- Publications
Kramer, D. & Michielsen, (forthcoming) M. “Esperanto on the Radio: Broadcasting Infrastructure and Politics of Universal Speech in the Japanese Empire.” positions: asia critique.
Ko, S & Kramer, D, (forthcoming) “‘Let’s Turn the Grass into Meat:’ Animal Husbandry as Women’s Work in Cold War North Korea.” Gender & History.
Kramer, D. (2025) “Waiting for the End: An Annotated Translation of ‘Hiroshima’s Last Day.’” Seoul Journal of Korean Studies 38(1): 69-88.
Kramer, D (2023) “An Atomic Age Unleashed: Emancipation and Erasure in Early Korean Accounts of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombings.” Journal of Asian Studies 82(2): 144–162.
Kramer, D (2022) “‘We Go on Our Own Boats!’: Korean Migrants and the Politics of Transportation Infrastructure in the Japanese Empire.” The International Review of Social History 67(2): 295-316.
Kramer, D (2021) “‘He Rests from His Labors’: Racialized Recreation and Missionary Science in Colonial Korea.” positions: asia critique 29(2): 347-372.