PhD Position in Korean Studies

The PhD project will be part of the research project Sensing Korea: Reframing Korean Studies in the Nordic Countries, funded by the Academy of Korean Studies. Sensing Korea aims to develop sensory and narrative approaches to Korean Studies in order to explore the diversity of Korean experiences beyond essentializing representations.

The PhD scholarship is funded through the Core University Program for Korean Studies of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the Korean Studies Promotion Service at the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS-2026-OLU-2250001). Sensing Korea is led by Barbara Wall and hosted by Korean Studies at the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen. The project runs for five years, from June 2026 to May 2031.

The PhD candidate will be supervised by project leader Barbara Wall and will work closely with a project team comprising scholars based at the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies as well as researchers from Korean Studies programs at other Nordic universities. The candidate is also expected to have an interest in communicating academic knowledge about Korea to a broader public.

About the department

The project is based at the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, which is part of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Copenhagen. The department has approximately 800 students and 150 employees. At the department, we research and teach in language, culture, religion and society, primarily with a focus on regions outside Western Europe and the USA. The work is rooted in language-based area studies and cross-cultural perspectives that provide insight into global contexts and cultural complexity.

Introduction to the PhD programme

PhD studies consist of research programmes that qualify students for independent and wide-ranging research, development and teaching at international level. The main emphasis is on PhD students organising and conducting their own research project (under supervision). The programme culminates in the submission of a PhD thesis, which the student must defend in public. The programme is prescribed to 180 ECTS points, corresponding to three years of full-time study. The PhD will have to teach and carry out other tasks at the department as part of the PhD position corresponding to 840 working hours (6 months).

A PhD opens up a range of career opportunities in academia and elsewhere. As well as writing a thesis, PhD students work in active research environments in Denmark and abroad. They contribute to the academic environment, take research training courses and convey the results of their research in teaching, at academic conferences and to the general public.

Qualification requirements

Applicants must have qualifications corresponding to a master’s degree in Korean Studies or a related field in the humanities. Particularly relevant disciplinary backgrounds and research interests include Literary Studies and Sensory Studies, as well as Musicology, Media Studies, Religious Studies, Cultural Studies, History, Art History/Visual Culture, Performance Studies, and East Asian Studies. If you have completed your education in Denmark, you must have a master’s degree covered by the collective agreement for academics in the state sector.

The ideal candidate will have a strong background in Korean Studies or a related humanities discipline, with research interests in Literary Studies and/or Sensory Studies, or in another relevant field with a clear connection to sensory and narrative approaches to Korea. Excellent proficiency in Korean and English is essential. Proficiency in a Scandinavian language and/or Literary Sinitic (Hanmun) is considered an advantage.

If you have completed your education outside of Denmark, you must either have a master’s degree equivalent to a Danish master’s degree (two years) or as minimum a bachelor’s degree equivalent to a Danish bachelor’s degree (three years) and be assessed as having professional qualifications at master's level.

If you have completed your education outside of Denmark, we will obtain an assessment of your education from the Danish Research Agency. Applicants must possess skills in written and spoken academic English at a high level. Additional language skills and knowledge of related regions is an advantage. If deemed necessary, the department may request that applicants document their English or other language skills.

Application

All applications must be submitted online, in PDF or Microsoft Word format, via the link “Apply for the position” at the bottom of the page.

The application must include:

Personal statement (max. one page)
In their personal statements, applicants are encouraged to:

• outline how the PhD project relates to other research activities at the department, particularly the Sensing Korea project.
• describe as clearly as possible their competencies and personal qualifications relevant to the PhD programme and the Sensing Korea project.

CV

Applications must be accompanied by a CV (max.one page) and a list of publications, where relevant.

Documentation (diplomas and transcripts)

Applicants must upload the following:

• A copy of their Master’s degree diploma or similar (if this is not available by the application deadline, applicants must document pre-approval of their Master’s thesis)
• A copy of their Master’s degree transcript
• A copy of their Bachelor’s degree diploma
• A copy of their Bachelor’s degree transcript.

Applicants with a degree from a university where the working language is not English or one of the Scandinavian languages must submit a translation of their Master’s diploma and/or diploma transcripts approved by the issuing university of by another local authority. These documents must be translated into English, Danish, Norwegian or Swedish. An official description of the grading scale (and a diploma supplement where relevant) must also be attached.

Chinese applicants must attach a China Credentials Verification (CHSI) certificate. Read more about CHSI here: https://www.chsi.com.cn/xlcx/en/index.jsp.

Project description

Applications must include a preliminary project description covering the problem formulation, overall objectives, methodology, design and timetable (max. five pages/12,000 characters, incl. spaces, excl. bibliography). The project description should also give a preliminary indication of what research literature the candidate would expect to engage with.

On the website of the PhD School, you can find more information about the attachments your need to include with your application: PhD at the Faculty of Humanities – University of Copenhagen / https://phd.humanities.ku.dk/how-to-obtain-a-phd-scholarship/admission-requirements/ .

Please do not upload or submit recommendations, publications, theses, etc.

Assessment criteria

The following criteria are applied when assessing PhD applications:

• The quality, originality and feasibility of the PhD project and its relevance to the Sensing Korea project
• Research qualifications, as reflected in the attached CV and project description
• Competencies and knowledge of relevant fields of academic research
• Level (grades obtained) of Bachelor and Master’s studies.

Please note that only one position is available and competition is intense.

The recruitment process

After the deadline for applications, the Head of Department considers advice from the Appointment Committee and then selects applicants for assessment. All applicants will be notified whether or not they have been shortlisted. After this, the Head of Department sets up an expert Assessment Committee to assess the shortlisted applications. The selected applicants will be informed who is serving on the committee. Individual applicants will be offered the opportunity to comment on the committee’s assessment of their application before the appointment is announced.

Enrolment

It is a prerequisite for employment that successful applicants enrol at the PhD School of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Copenhagen.
For further information about the structure of the PhD programme, please refer to: Structure of the PhD programme – University of Copenhagen
For further information about the guidelines for PhD studies at UCPH, please refer to: https://phd.ku.dk/english/

Salary and Terms of Employment

Terms of appointment and salary will be in accordance with an agreement between the Ministry of Finance and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (AC).
The salary range starts at approximately DKK 30,200 (EUR 4.040) + an 18.07 % pension contribution. According to the agreement, the PhD student is required to carry out tasks at the relevant department to an extent corresponding to 840 working hours (6 months). These tasks are primarily expected to consist of teaching in the department’s study programmes.

You can read more about employment as a PhD Fellow here: Employment as a PhD student – University of Copenhagen.

International Applicant?

The University of Copenhagen offers a broad variety of services for international researchers and accompanying families, including support before and during your relocation and career counselling to expat partners. Please find more information about our services at: For international researchers at the University of Copenhagen – University of Copenhagen (ku.dk).

An Equal Opportunity Workplace

The University of Copenhagen is committed in its pursuit of academic excellence to equality of opportunity and to creating an inclusive working environment and therefore encourages all qualified candidates to apply, regardless of personal background, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, ethnicity etc. To learn more about our diverse workplace and our participation in the HRS4R HR Excellence in research, please visit: HR Excellence in Research – University of Copenhagen.

For further information about the application procedure, please refer to the University of Copenhagen website: https://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/

Contact Information

Information about the recruitment process is available from HR South at: hr-soendre@adm.ku.dk. Please refer to ID number: 211-2541/26-2H.

If you have any questions about the academic content of the PhD programme, please e-mail the PhD coordinator at the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, Simon Stjernholm, stjernholm@hum.ku.dk.
If you have questions related to the Sensing Korea project, please email PI Barbara Wall, barbara.wall@hum.ku.dk

The deadline for applications is 1 November 2026 at 23:59 (CET).

Any applications or additional material submitted after the deadline will not be considered. However, changes may be made to the submitted application right up until the deadline.

Info

Application deadline: 01-11-2026

Employment start: 01-02-2027

Department/Location: Department for Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies