About
Nicholas Harkness is the Modern Korean Economy and Society Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Korea Institute at Harvard University. His research examines language, communication, and semiotic processes in social group formation, with long-term ethnographic work in South Korea focusing on Protestant Christianity's influence on vocal expressions. He teaches courses in linguistic anthropology and Korean society.
Harkness's research explores three key areas: theorizing 'voice' through speech and song, analyzing glossolalia ('speaking in tongues') as cultural semiosis, and developing anthropological approaches to 'qualia' (sensuous aspects of social life). His fieldwork spans megachurches to historical Pentecostal centers like Yoido Full Gospel Church.
His publications include award-winning books: 'Songs of Seoul: An Ethnography of Voice and Voicing in Christian South Korea' (2014) and 'Glossolalia and the Problem of Language' (2021). Research has been supported by grants from the Social Science Research Council, National Humanities Center, and Mellon Foundation.
Harkness has received multiple honors including the Yale Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship and serves on academic boards including the Graduate School of Social Sciences at Wageningen University.
