Ruth Barraclough

Ruth Barraclough is the Korea Foundation Associate Professor of Modern Korean History at Columbia University, affiliated with the Weatherhead East Asian Institute. She holds a BA (Honours) from the University of Queensland and a PhD from the Australian National University. Her research focuses on labor history, gender, and literary history in modern Korea. Notable works include Factory Girl Literature (2012), which examines working-class women’s contributions to Korea’s industrialization and literary aspirations, and the forthcoming Island Ablaze (2025), a co-edited anthology exploring US-Korea relations through short stories. Her upcoming Red Glamour (2025), co-authored with Jiseung Roh, delves into early communist women in Korea using archival research from global institutions.

Barraclough teaches courses on modern Korean history, North Korean history, and research methods. Her work has garnered significant recognition, including placements on South Korea’s history bestseller lists and nominations for presidential and feminist reading lists. Before joining Columbia, she taught at the Australian National University for seventeen years, contributing to academic exchanges and research on Cold War-era political travel.

Her scholarly collaborations span international archives, such as Moscow’s State Archive for Social and Political History and the National Library of Australia. She actively engages with interdisciplinary projects, blending historical analysis with literary and gender studies perspectives.