Rachael Miyung Joo

Visiting Faculty and Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology

In recent years, mainstream media sports in the U.S. have been transformed through the increasing number of international athletes. The Ladies Professional Golf Association, National Basketball Association, and Major League Baseball have all been transformed through the introduction of star international athletes, particularly Asia.

Drawing from my research on the transnational flows of Korean athletes and sports media, this discussion will focus on how ideas of multiculturalism are being reshaped in an era of ansnational capital. The emergence of Korean athletes in U.S. sporting contexts has operated to produce transnational communities of media consumerswho watch due to a shared sense of Koreanness. The emergence of ethnic fan communities around these athletes raises important questions about how to define Asian America in the context of transnational media and migration. The growth of transnational markets also queries the idea the popular idea thatsports exists as one of the few realms of social opportunity and advancement for underprivileged minorities in the U.S.