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Academic Staff

Dr Ming Curran
PolyU Scholars Hub

Dr Nate Ming Curran

Assistant Professor

PolyU Scholars Hub
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Research Overview

Broadly speaking, I’m interested in contemporary processes of globalization. I am particularly interested in intercultural communication as facilitated by information and communication technologies (ICTs). My current research examines the nexus of digital platforms, cosmopolitan striving, and language learning and teaching. I employ both quantitative and qualitative methods in my research and am strongly committed to work that bridges disciplinary boundaries. I am actively seeking to recruit PhD students working at the intersection of media studies and applied linguistics.

Education and Academic Qualifications

  • Master of Arts in Asian Studies, University of California Berkeley
  • Doctor of Philosophy, University of Southern California
  • Bachelor of Arts in International Studies and East Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin Madison

Academic and Professional Experience

  • Instructor, University of Southern California (2020)
  • Consortium on Media Policy Studies Fellow: Korean Economic Institute of America (2017)

Teaching Areas

  • Intercultural Communication
  • New Media and Society
  • Popular Culture
  • Research Design
 

Research Interests

  • Intercultural Communication
  • Gig Economy
  • Cosmopolitanism
  • Motivations for Language Learning

Research Output

  1. Curran, N. M., Istad, F., & Chesnut, M. (2024). Standing out and fitting in: Korean coffee entrepreneurs’ strategies for survival. Food, Culture & Society, 1-20.

  2. Istad, F., Kim, M. J., & Curran, N. M. (2024). Banal Koreanness: National imagery in multicultural-themed television shows.Critical Studies in Television,19(2), 219-237.

  3. Panaligan, J. H., & Curran, N. M. (2023). Adapt, acquire, diffuse, learn: Filipino online English tutors as intercultural bricoleurs. Language & Communication, 91, 21-31.

  4. Curran, N. M. (2023). Banal nationalism and conversational cosmopolitanism: the potential of online language education for intercultural communication. Language and Intercultural Communication, 23(3), 333-346.

  5. Curran, N.M. & Jenks, C. (2023). Gig Economy Teaching: On the Importance and Dangers of Self-Branding in Online Markets. Applied Linguistics

  6. Chesnut, M., Curran, N.M. & Kim. S. (2023). From Garbage to COVID-19: Theorizing Multilingual Commanding Urgency in the Linguistic Landscape. Multilingua: Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication

  7. Curran, N.M. (2023). Discrimination in the Gig Economy: The Experiences of Black Online English Teachers. Language & Education.

  8. Curran, N.M. (2023). "More like a friend than a teacher”: Ideal Teachers and the Gig Economy for Online Language Learning. Computer Assisted Language Learning.

  9. Istad, F., Kim, M.J. & Curran, N.M. (2022). Producing Multiculturalism: Casting and Editing Migrants in Korean Reality Television. Continuum—Journal of Media & Cultural Studies

  10. Panaligan, J. & Curran, N.M (2022). “We are cheaper, so they hire us”: Discounted nativeness in online English teaching.  Journal of Sociolinguistics. [SSCI; IF = 1.340]

  11. Curran, N.M., Zhen, L. & Galperin, H. (2021). Pop cosmopolitanism and online language learning: findings from a discrete choice experiment. Information, Communication & Society. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2021.1934068  

  12. Curran, N.M., & Chesnut, M. (2021). English fever and coffee: Transient cosmopolitanism and the rising cost of distinction. Journal of Consumer Culture, https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540521990869

  13. Curran, N.M. (2020). Neoliberalism from Above and Cosmopolitanism from Below: A Korean English Meetup Group in the United States. Communication, Culture & Critique.

  14. Chesnut, M. & Curran, N.M. (2020). Americano, latte, or English: What do menu languages in Korean coffee shops tell us about the meaning of English today? English Today.

  15. Kim, D.O., Curran, N.M. & Kim, H. (2020). Digital Feminism and Affective Splintering: South Korean Twitter Discourse on 500 Yemeni Refugees. International Journal of Communication, 14, 4117-4135.

  16. Kim, H., Curran, N.M. & Zhen, L. (2020). Welcoming Difference or Reinforcing the Status Quo? The Influence of Multicultural Television Viewing on Multicultural and Gender Attitudes in South Korea. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 49(6), 600-616

  17. Curran, N.M. (2020). “Intersectional English(es) and the Gig Economy: Teaching English Online.” International Journal of Communication, 14, 2667–2686.

  18. Curran, N.M., Sun, J. & Hong, J. (2019). Anthropomorphizing AlphaGo: Content Analysis of the Framing of Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo in the Chinese and American Press. AI & Society.

  19. Hong, J. & Curran. N.M. (2019). Artificial Intelligence, Artists, and Art: Attitudes Toward Artwork Produced by Humans vs. Artificial Intelligence. ACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications and Applications.

  20. Curran, N.M. & Gibson, J. (2019). Conflict and Responsibility: Content Analysis of American News Media Organizations’ Framing of North Korea. Media, War & Conflict.

  21. Curran, N.M. (2019). A reflection on South Korea’s broadband success. Media, Culture & Society, 41(3), 385–396.

  22. Curran, N.M. (2018). English, Gatekeeping, and Mandarin: The Future of Language Learning in South Korea. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism.

  23. Curran, N.M. (2018). Learned Through Labour: The Discursive Production of English Speakers in South Korea. English Today, 34(3), 30-35

  1. Gibson, J. & Curran, N.M. (in press). The Photographs Tell the Story: Visual Representations of North Korea. In Hollihan T.A. (Ed). Engaging the Hermit Kingdom: Diplomatic and Mediated Arguments in the North Korean Crisis. New York: Palgrave McMillan.

  2. Riley, P., Baik, J., Curran, N.M & Kim, H. (in press). North Korean Media Diplomacy: From Rocket Man to the Red Carpet. In Hollihan T.A. (Ed). Engaging the Hermit Kingdom: Diplomatic and Mediated Arguments in the North Korean Crisis. New York: Palgrave McMillan.

Others

 

  • Academy of Korean Studies, “Foreign Languages, Cultures, and the Future of Korean Cosmopolitanism” (AKS-2020-R21)

  • 2023-2026: Hong Kong Research Grants Council (Early Career Scheme) Discrimination and self-branding on online language tutoring platforms: An Applied Linguistics approach

  • 2023-2024: Academy of Korean Studies “From foreign luxury to domestic necessity: Coffee

    culture in Korea today”

  • 2022-2023: Academy of Korean Studies “Foreign Languages, Cultures, and the Future of Korean Cosmopolitanism.”

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