I’m H. H. Kang, historian of East Asian science and technology.
Welcome! I’m Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages & Cultures at Washington University in St. Louis.
![](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f2ae0448425b14b4989adb7/1603743870399-PWYXA12MCKEFYOYX4QXS/Screen+Shot+2020-10-26+at+3.23.47+PM.png)
My current book project, Artisanal Heart: Craft, Engineering, and the Culture of Knowledge in Early Modern Korea, investigates the technological knowledge of Chosŏn Korean (1392–1910) artisans and military practitioners in a global context. It emphasizes the rise of “engineers” amongst these artisans and practitioners and their system of material design and production in comparison to other early modern cultures of making and knowing. I argue that the Korean engineers developed a “technological literacy” that proved innovative across various fields, that they won recognition for doing so, and that they creatively remade global material culture, from guns and water pumps to steam engines.
Latest News
Cooking Niter in Korea
Across the 17th-century world, new methods of investigating nature evolved in dialogue with saltpeter (potassium nitrate). Check out my new research on Korean saltpeter and its implications for the history of early modern science.
Crafting Knowledge
My dissertation, “Crafting Knowledge: Artisan, Officer, and the Culture of Making in Chosŏn Korea, 1392–1910,” won two prizes—the ICAS Book Prize (Best Dissertation in the Humanities) and the Turriano ICOHTEC Prize.
Joan Cahalin Robinson Prize
I was awarded the Joan Cahalin Robinson Prize for the best-presented paper at the Society for History of Technology, Milan, Italy, October 2019.