The College of Humanities and Social Sciences is proud to honor Young Jung, PhD Cultural Studies '14, with the 2026 Distinguished Faculty Alumni Award.
Jung is an associate professor of Korean studies in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at George Mason University. As an interdisciplinary scholar, her research and teaching focus on critical cultural studies, media and reception studies, and popular narrative studies.
A key theme throughout her work is that contact zones of people and cultural products illuminate the crossroads of migration, mediation, and reception. She published an ethnography, Korean Kirogi Families: Placemaking, Belonging, Mothering (Bloomsbury, 2024), and started two concurrent projects, Squid Games: Korean Television Drama and Transcultural Fan Parodies and Mother Talks: Representations of Mothering in Korean Literature and Media, 1980s-2020s.
Jung established the first Korean BA and MA programs in the Southeastern U.S. academic system and helped make George Mason’s Korean studies program one of the top four programs in the United States.
The College of Humanities and Social Sciences honors distinguished alumni each fall at Community and Catalysts: Achievements, Awards, and Innovations. This signature event is a celebration of alumni, faculty, and students whose leadership, research, and service have made outstanding contributions to their fields, communities, and to the university.