# Nancy Abelmann

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**Nancy Abelmann** (April 24, 1959 – January, 6, 2016) was an American anthropologist and Harry E. Preble Professor of anthropology, [Asian American studies](/source/Asian_American_studies), and East Asian languages and cultures at the [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign](/source/University_of_Illinois_at_Urbana-Champaign).[1] where she'd also served as Associate Vice Chancellor for Research from 2009 to 2016, and as Director of the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies from 2005 to 2008.

## Education and research

Nancy earned a bachelor's degree in [East Asian Studies](/source/East_Asian_studies) at [Harvard University](/source/Harvard_University), and an M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology from [University of California, Berkeley](/source/University_of_California,_Berkeley).[2] An anthropologist of [Korea](/source/Korea) and of [Korean Americans](/source/Korean_Americans), she studied transnational and urban studies, film studies, Asian studies, Asian American studies, education, and gender studies. Her work, along with [John Lie](/source/John_Lie_(professor)), Kathleen McHugh, Jung-ah Choi and So Jin Park, helped energize and shape Korean studies and Asian American studies over the past two decades.[3]

Nancy was instrumental in the development of the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, as well as creating the Ethnography of the University Initiative with [Peter Mortensen](/source/Peder_Mortensen) and Bill Kelleher. Unusually for an adult language-learner, she achieved near-native fluency in both Japanese and Korean.

From 2012 to 2014, she served as the President of the Society for Urban, National, and Transnational Anthropology.

## Awards

- Helen Corley Petit Professorship 1998-99
- 2005 Leeds Prize from the Society of Urban and Transnational Anthropology for *The Melodrama of Mobility: Women, Class, and Talk in Contemporary South Korea*, [American Anthropological Association](/source/American_Anthropological_Association).[4][5]
- 2014 Im Seok-chae Award from the Korean Society for Cultural Anthropology (for best translated book in Korean) for her 2003 monograph, T*he Melodrama of Mobility: Women, Class, and Talk in Contemporary South Korea* from [University of Hawaii Press](/source/University_of_Hawai%CA%BBi_Press).[6]
- Harry E. Preble Professorship 2007-2016

## Works

- *Making Family Work: How Korean American Teens and Parents Navigate Immigrant America* (with Sumie Okazaki). NYU Press, 2018.
- *South Korea’s Education Exodus: The Life and Times of Early Study Abroad* (second editor, with Adrienne Lo, Soo Ah Kwon, and Sumie Okazaki). University of Washington Press, 2017.
- *No Alternative?: Experiments in South Korean Education* (co-edited with Jung-ah Choi and So Jin Park). Berkeley: Global, Area, and International Archive. University of California Press, 2012.
- *The Intimate University: Korean American Students and the Problems of Segregation*. Duke University Press, 2009.
- *South Korean Golden Age Melodrama: Gender, Genre, and National Cinema* (co-edited with Kathleen McHugh). Wayne State University Press, 2005.
- *The Melodrama of Mobility: Women, Class, and Talk in Contemporary South Korea*. University of Hawaii Press, 2003. Korean translation published in 2014.
- *Echoes of the Past, Epics of Dissent: A South Korean Social Movement*. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996.
- *Blue Dreams: Korean Americans and the Los Angeles Riots* (with John Lie). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995.

## References

1. ["Remembering Nancy Abelmann"](https://anthropology.berkeley.edu/news/remembering-nancy-abelmann). *Berkeley Anthropology*. Retrieved 6 December 2019.

1. ["Remembering Nancy Abelmann"](https://anthropology.berkeley.edu/news/remembering-nancy-abelmann). Retrieved 6 December 2019.

1. ["Nancy Abelmann"](https://www.news-gazette.com/obituaries/nancy-abelmann/article_44268e9a-6f8a-588c-aa8c-f2fabf073ba2.html). *The News Gazette*. Retrieved 6 December 2019.

1. ["Recipients of the Leeds Award, 1995-2017"](http://sunta.org/leeds-award-winners/). *Society for Urban, National, and Transnational/Global Anthropology*. Retrieved 6 December 2019.

1. Kim, Eleana & Song, Jesook (2018). "Introduction: Reflections on Nancy Abelmann's Legacy". *The Journal of Asian Studies*. **77** (4): 945–952. [doi:10.1017/S0021911818000967](https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021911818000967)

1. ["Congratulations to Nancy Abelmann (The Im Seok Chae Award for 2014)"](https://blogs.illinois.edu/view/8308/760789). *Center for East Asian & Pacific Studies*. Retrieved 6 December 2019.

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