Bridget Martin



martb244@berkeley.edu

I hold a PhD in Geography at UC-Berkeley. I am currently a Visiting Scholar at the University of Southern California Korean Studies Institute and I will be joining the Harvard University campus in August 2021 as the Korea Institute SBS Korean Studies Postdoctoral Fellow in the Social Sciences.

Education

PhD, Geography with Designated Emphasis in Global Metropolitan Studies, University of California Berkeley
MA, Politics, The New School for Social Research
BA, Geology with Political Science minor, Vassar College

Research Focus

Dissertation: "Land Power: Real Estate and the US Military in South Korea"

In observing shifts in South Korea’s domestic development system, I conceive of US military “land power” not only as the ability to project force from a point on the ground, but as the ability to leverage land as a commodity and as an asset to pay for a sustained US military presence in South Korea. My research shows that the US military base system in South Korea was established mainly through mass dispossessoin during the Korean War. More recently, the US military real estate system has become enmeshed in South Korea's urban development system and deregulatory politics in ways that generate new forms of urban and military dispossession.

I do archival research, ethnographic research, and interviews with local-level city planners and bureaucrats. I am also undertaking a collaboration to map and quantitatively assess the extent to which land functions as an asset for the US military in South Korea through the alliance burden-sharing system. My future research will address the question of whether South Korea's increased burden in hosting the US military has ever led to a decrease in American spending.


Publications

Martin, Bridget and Geglia, Beth (2019) "Korean Tigers in Honduras: Urban Economic Zones as Spatial Ideology in Policy in International Policy Transfer Networks", Political Geography 74. (equal authorship)

Martin, Bridget (2018) "From Camp Town to International City: US Military Base Expansion and Local Development in Pyeongtaek, South Korea", International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 42(6), pp. 967-985.

Martin, Bridget (2018) “Field Notes from South Korea: Local Development in the Land of Securitized Peace”, The California Geographer 57, pp. 1 – 17.

Martin, Bridget (2017) “Moon Jae-In’s THAAD Conundrum: South Korea’s ‘Candlelight President’ Faces Strong Citizen Opposition on Missile Defense”, Asia Pacific Journal: Japan Focus 15(18).

Martin, Bridget (2017) Book Review: Schober, Elisabeth (2016) Base Encounters: The U.S. Armed Forces in South Korea, in Social Anthropology 25.2, 265-266.

Martin, Bridget (2017) “Sunshine Land: Where War is Actually a Game”, Korea Exposé (online).

Martin, Bridget (2015) “Selectively Connected: New Songdo and the Production of Global Space”, in Bracken, Gregory (ed.), Asian Cities: Colonial to Global, Amsterdam University Press.


Selected Awards and Fellowships

2021 Harvard University Korea Institute SBS Korean Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Social Sciences
2020 US-Asia Grand Strategy Predoctoral Fellowship, Korean Studies Institute, University of Southern California
2020 UC-Berkleey Center for Korean Studies Graduate Student Fellowship
2019 UC-Berkeley Global Metropolitan Studies Research Fellowship
2018 Fulbright U.S. Student Award
2017 Korea Foundation Fellowship
2016 Kathryn Davis Peace Fellowship (advanced Korean)
2015 Social Sciences Research Council Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship
2015 UC-Berkeley Institute of International Studies Summer Fellowship
2015 FLAS Award (advanced Korean)

Courses Taught as a Graduate Student Instructor

Spring 2021: Globalization, Dept. of Geography, UC-Berkeley (Dr. Sharad Chari)
Spring 2020: Globalization, Dept. of Geography, UC-Berkeley (Dr. Sharad Chari)
Spring 2017: Globalization, Dept. of Geography, UC-Berkeley (Dr. John Stehlin)
Spring 2016: Development in Theory and History, Dept. of Geography, UC-Berkeley (Dr. Gillian Hart)
Spring 2015: Development in Theory and History, Dept. of Geography, UC-Berkeley (Dr. Gillian Hart)
Spring 2012: U.S. Government and Politics, City University of New York (Dr. Dan DiSalvo)


Graduate Student Reader Positions

Summer 2020: Globalization, Dept. of Geography, UC-Berkeley (Dr. Sharad Chari)
Fall 2019: Cultures and Capitalism, Program in Global Studies, UC-Berkeley (Dr. Clare Talwalker)