Mary
Song
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Areas of expertise
Biography
Mary Hyunhee Song is a Korean independent curator, artist, and researcher currently based in Turku, Finland. She is a doctoral researcher in East Asian Studies at the University of Turku.
Song’s interdisciplinary background bridges art theory, cultural studies, and East Asian studies. She holds an MSc in Asian Studies from the University of Turku and completed coursework toward an MA in Art Theory at the Korea National University of Arts. Her undergraduate studies were in Korean Literature, Korean Studies, and Journalism at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.
Before entering academia, Song was actively engaged in the contemporary art world as an independent curator and performance artist, curating exhibitions in South Korea, Ireland, Finland, Turkey, and Estonia. Her curatorial projects often address themes of cultural distance, migration, identity, and cross-cultural misunderstanding, including exhibitions such as Foreigners? Aliens?? (Seoul, 2007) and Distance Making & Reducing (Finland, 2011).
In addition to her academic and curatorial work, Song has contributed to cultural journalism and media, including work as a radio reporter and DJ for Arirang Radio in Jeju, South Korea. She also publishes reflective writing on art, culture, and society through her long-running platform, Mary Art Project.
Her research and creative practice are united by a sustained interest in transnational cultural exchange, embodied practice, and the everyday politics of art and culture in East Asian and European contexts.
Teaching
Completed Pedagogical Training: Basic University Pedagogies at University of Turku (11 ECTS)
Teaching experiences
▪ Lecturer, Korean Literature Workshop, Centre for East Asian Studies, University of Turku, 2025 ongoing
▪ Lecturer, Media in South Korea, Academic Korean, Business Korean, Master-level online course, Centre for East Asian Studies, University of Turku, 2022–2024.
▪ Lecturer, Project Management, Korean section for team-teaching online course, Centre for East Asian Studies, University of Turku, 2018
▪ Language Teacher, Korean, beginner’s course, Sejong Institute, Centre for Language and Communication Studies, University of Turku, Finland 2018 Autumn
▪ Language Teacher, Elementary Korean, online course at ASIANET (Finnish Network for Asian Studies), Finland, three semesters, 2016–2018.
▪ Language Teacher, Korean language and culture, Turun kesäyliopisto, Finland, 2013–2018.
▪ Guest lecturer, Raumars, Rauma City Library, Rauma, Finland, 2011.
▪ Invited lecturer for Art undergraduate course, Kankaanpää Art School, Kankaanpää, Finland, 2011.
▪ Guest lecturer, Artist’s Talk, Axiom Series, National Sculpture Factory, Cork, Ireland, 2010.
Research
Ongoing PhD dissertation: Politics of Gastronomy: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Foodscapes in Jeonju, South Korea
Pro Gradu: 2016 Cosmetic Surgery and Rites of Passage in Korean Society - A Study on Cosmetic Surgeries after the University Entrance Exam
Academic Presentations
▪ Embodiment of Multicultural Finland: Performing and Experiencing the Spectacle of Korean Popular Culture, EUPOP (the 13th annual international conference of the European Popular Culture Association (EPCA)), Satakunta University of Applied Sciences, Pori, Finland, 1–3 July, 2026.
▪ Peculiar Relations between Food Diversity and Land-Use Policy: An Ethnographic Study on Jeonju’s Foodscape, AACCP 2025 (Architecture Archaeology and Contemporary City Planning), University of Helsinki, Finland, 20–23, May 2025.
▪ A Critical Review on UNESCO Creative Cities Network through Resilience and Sustainability, at the session of Resilience in Critical Tourism Geographies: Sustainability Transformations in the Era of Polycrisis, Annual Meeting of Association of American Geographers, Detroit, USA, 24–28 March 2025.
▪ Towards food diversity? Transition of Urban Foodscape: A case of Jeonju Hanok Village, South Korea at SOKEN (Social Sciences of Korean Studies Network), University of Ca’ Foscari, Venice, Italy, 24–25, October 2024.
▪ From local to national: Making Jeonju food “the Most Korean”, Future Food Symposium, University of Nottingham, UK, 20–21 May 2024.
▪ Gastronomy as a tool for urban cultural policy? – Reconsidering UNESCO Creative Cities of Gastronomy, International Conference on Heritage of China, Suzhou, China, 6–9 September 2018.
▪ ASIANET Korean Elementary Online: Issues encountered while teaching Korean online in Finland, EAKLE (European Association for Korean Language Education), Helsinki, Finland, 12–13 April 2018.
▪ Gastronomy: a By-Product of Reinventing Culinary Tradition- A case study of Tsuruoka city in Japan, The 8th International Symposium on Japanese Studies, Centre for Japanese Studies, University of Bucharest, Romania, 3–5 March 2018.
▪ Suheomsaeng Seonghyeong, Cosmetic Surgery after College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) in Korea, Conference paper proceeding for the11th Korean Studies Graduate Students Convention (KSGSC) in Europe, Saint Petersburg State University, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 24–27 September 2014.
▪ ‘Levies on Beauty: Value Added Tax on Cosmetic Surgery for building the Welfare State in Korea’, Conference paper proceeding for The Making of a Global Economic Player? Korea in comparative perspective, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, 12–14 June 2014.
International Seminars and Workshops
▪ Keynote speaker, European Regions for Innovation in Agriculture, Food and Forestry, Working Group Meeting: WG Health, Nutrition, and Food Innovation & EU Citizen Awareness, 23 October 2025.
▪ Chair for a working group session, The Contours of Finnish Capitalism: Local Conditions, Global Crises, Sosiologipäivät 2025, Turku, Finland, 20–21 March 2025.
▪ PhD research seminar, Asian Studies Day by ASIANET, University of Tampere, Finland, November 2024.
▪ Korean Studies Day, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, 11–15 March 2019.
▪ Co-Curator, Artists and Social Welfare, International Art Project in Finland, Korea, UK, and the Netherlands, 2018
▪ PhD research seminar, Asian Studies Day by ASIANET, Helsinki, Finland, 10 November 2017.
▪ Summer School Asian Food: History, Anthropology, Sociology, Leiden, the Netherlands, 25-29 September 2017.
▪ The 5th workshop of AACCP (Architecture, Archaeology and Contemporary City Planning): Reformation, regeneration and revitalization’ Turku, Finland, 15-18 May 2017.