Seung Woo studies the history of international finance and offshore markets in the post World War II period with a focus on the way in which the realm of finance had been contested politically and culturally. Also, his research includes the integration of less-developed-countries in Asia (including Singapore, North and South Korea) into global finance from the late 1960s to understand the origins of financialisation in the region.
Seung Woo recently completed his PhD programme in history at University of Cambridge, where he was awarded the Ellen McArthur Research Studentship in Economic History. His dissertation is titled “The Euromarket and the making of the transnational network of finance, 1959-1979”, which examines the history of Eurodollar market, an offshore market for US dollars and argues for the role of economic sovereignty of nation-states in the re-emergence of global finance and making of governance of world economy. He studies the way in which global finance in the late 20th century interacted with contemporary political, social, and cultural context. Currently he is teaching undergraduate courses on different subjects (modern European history, East Asia - EU economic relations and climate finance).