Raymond Kyooyung Ra

Pronouns: he/him

Email: kyooyung@usc.edu
Advisor: Kara Keeling, Tara McPherson

Raymond Kyooyung Ra is a 5th year Ph.D. candidate at the Division of Cinema and Media Studies, University of Southern California. His research interests are centered on media studies, performance studies, feminist and queer theory, Korean cultural studies, and global Blackness studies. Ray’s doctoral dissertation studies the dance performance genre ‘waacking’ that originated from the 1970s Los Angeles underground gay disco scene and made transpacific crossings to South Korea in the context of post-WWII geopolitics and media infrastructures. Ray’s work has been published in Communication, Culture & Critique; International Journal of Korean History; and Performance Art Museum. Since 2012, Ray has accumulated experience as a media professional in the South Korean television and digital media industry, and this includes his time with companies such as the Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) and The Korea Herald. He is also a dance and performance practitioner, having hosted international workshops in Asia and Europe as well as worked with local institutions and communities based in Los Angeles, such as CultureHub, One Institute, and Whacking Los Angeles.