Seongyeon Ko

Seongyeon Ko

Associate Professor of Korean Language and Linguistics

PhD, Cornell University
MA, Cornell University
MA, Seoul National University
BA, Seoul National University

Professor Seongyeon Ko joined Queens College in 2012 as the sole full-time faculty member in the Korean Program. He also serves as the advisor for the East Asian Studies major (Area Track) and the Korean minor. Since his appointment, he has directed the Korean Program, developed and taught all levels of Korean language and culture courses, and played a central role in the program’s significant expansion. He has also successfully secured major grants from the Korea Foundation and the Academy of Korean Studies.

Professor Ko’s research spans a wide range of areas including phonetics, phonology, morphosyntax, historical-comparative linguistics, language documentation, and language education. His empirical focus centers on Korean and its neighboring “Altaic” languages. He has published extensively in these fields, including his first monograph, Tongue Root Harmony and Vowel Contrast in Northeast Asian Languages (Harrassowitz, 2018).

Professor Ko is currently serving as the department chair.