Dr. Hikyoung Lee has been a professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Korea University (KU) since 2002. Before joining KU, she was an assistant professor in the Department of English at Mississippi State University, USA. She holds a B.A. in English and a M.A. in English Linguistics from Korea University and an M.S.Ed. in TESOL and a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania, USA.
Dr. Lee’s main research interests are in sociolinguistics, language policy, and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). She has published widely in these areas and recently co-edited a book on Asian perspectives on global English published by Routledge.She is involved in government work including projects for the Korea Institute of Curriculum and Evaluation and has co-authored government-reviewed middle school English textbooks. She has been continuously involved in academic service and current vice president of variousacademic associations.
Dr. Lee has held several administrative positions at Korea University. She has served as the undergraduate chair and the chair of the graduate program in the Department of English Language and Literature twice, and the director for the Center for Teaching and Learning, among others. Prior to becoming Vice President for International Affairs, she served as the director of the Institute of Foreign Language Studies which is comprised of the Foreign Language Center, which oversees foreign language education and the Korean Language Center, which provides Korean as a foreign language education.