Stephanie Choi graduated from Seoul National University with a degree in Korean Music. She holds an M.A. in Ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University and a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on cultural globalization, gender and labor politics, and the affective economy of Korean popular culture. Her dissertation, "Gender, Labor, and the Commodification of Intimacy in K-pop," is an ethnography of how intimacy is transacted as a global commodity in the political economy of K-pop. She is currently working on her first book project that interrogates how global K-pop fans proclaim cultural diversity, postcolonial feminism, and anti-racism through digital surveillance, media tribalism, and gendered feitshization of K-pop idol bodies.