Meredith Jung-En Woo

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Meredith Jung-En Woo is Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her teaching and research interests include international political economy, economic development, East Asian politics, and U.S.-East Asian relations.

She has authored and edited seven books, published mostly under the name Meredith Woo-Cumings. They include Race to the Swift: State and Finance in Korean Industrialization (Columbia University Press, 1991), which was published under the name Jung-en Woo; Past as Prelude: History in the Making of the New World Order (Westview Press, 1991); Capital Ungoverned: Liberalizing Finance in Interventionist States (Cornell University Press, 1996), The Developmental State (Cornell University Press, 1999), as well as the co-authored report of the Presidential Report, Building American Prosperity in the 21st Century: Report of the Presidential Commission on United States-Pacific Trade and Investment Policy (Government Printing Office, 1997). Her latest book, Neoliberalism and Reform in East Asia, published in spring 2004, was the result of a project sponsored by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development and the Rockefeller Foundation.

She is currently finishing two manuscripts. One is entitled Three Worlds of East Asian Capitalism, about historical evolution of capitalism in Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia and China. The other is entitled The Ruins of Modernity, about the economic catastrophe in North Korea.

Professor Woo was born and raised in Seoul, Korea, and attended an international high school in Tokyo, Japan. She came to the United States in 1976, and graduated magna cum laude from Bowdoin College, majoring in English Literature and History (1980). She has received an M.A. in International Affairs (1982), and Latin American Studies (1984), and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University (1988). Her dissertation was awarded the University's highest distinction. She has two children. She is fluent in English, Korean, and Japanese, and has some command of Spanish and Portuguese.

In addition to her duties at the Department of Political Science, she serves as director of the Korean Studies Program at the university's International Institute.

Before joining the University of Michigan in 2001, she taught at Northwestern University (1989-2000), as well as Colgate University and Columbia University. In 1996 she was appointed by President Bill Clinton to serve on the Presidential Commission on U.S.-Pacific Trade and Investment Policy. She has consulted for the World Bank, the United States Trade Representative, Social Science Research Council, Asian Development Bank Institute, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, the Asia Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Japan Policy Research Institute, Santa Monica, CA, and the editorial board of the Journal of East Asian Politics. She additionally serves as an occasional guest expert on Korean politics for such media outlets as PBS, CNN, and The New York Times.

[edit] Books

Race to the Swift: State and Finance in Korean Industrialization Columbia University Press, 1991.
Past as Prelude: History in the Making of the New World Order Westview Press, 1991.
Capital Ungoverned: Liberalizing Finance in Interventionist States Cornell University Press, 1996.
The Developmental State Cornell University Press, 1999.
After the Miracle: Neoliberalism and Institutional Reform in East Asia UNRISD, 2006.