Systematized Hierarchy of the Korean Studies Space: Examining “Profstudents” in Southeast Asia

Abstract This article explores the systematized hierarchy of the global Korean studies space through a socio-spatial perspective and focuses on the phenomenon of the profstudent (an amalgamation of the words professor and student) in Southeast Asia. Specifically, it examines how profstudents shape the Korean studies space in Southeast Asia and whether this contributes to the creation of a hierarchy within global Korean studies. This research is based on long-term participatory observations and in-depth interviews accumulated since 2013. The result reveals that the Korean studies space in Southeast Asia is being shaped into a form in which individual researchers are confined within Korean studies and are simultaneously geographically stratified in parallel with the widespread stratification of the global higher education system.