Sonja Häussler

About me

Biographical data

As a foreign exchange student from Germany, I have studied Asian Philology with a focus on Korean Philology at Leningrad State University since 1979. During my study, I spent a year as a language student at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang (1982-1983).

After graduating at Leningrad State University in 1985, I was employed as an assistant professor at the Korean Studies section of Humboldt University Berlin and worked there continuously for over fifteen years teaching Korean language, literature, culture and history. In the last three semesters until the closing of the Korean Studies section at Humboldt University in 2001 I acted as deputy of the retired Professor in Korean Studies.

I earned my Ph.D. in Korean Philology at Sankt Petersburg State University in 1993. In my thesis I studied the "Biography of Six Loyal Subjects (Yuksin-jŏn)", a work of 15th century Korean literature written in Classical Chinese. Visiting professorships included Free University in Berlin, Eötvös Loránd University Budapest and Ruhr University Bochum. I also taught at the University of Vienna and at Hamburg University.

In 2012 I was appointed Professor of Korean language and culture at Stockholm University. I am also an affiliated researcher at the chair of East Asian Economy and Society at the University of Vienna. I am a council member of the Association for Korean Studies in Europe (AKSE) and board member of the Nordic Association of Japanese and Korean Studies (NAJAKS). Since 2011, I am member of the editorial board of the Sankt Petersburg Annual of Asian and African Studies (Würzburg: Ergon Verlag).