Shyun J. Ahn

a.k.a. Suhyun J. Ahn, 안수현, 安秀賢

Literary translator and former Ph.D. Candidate
& Aspiring warrior-philosopher
Commissioned in the U.S. Army as 2LT
shyun (dot) j (dot) ahn (at) gmail (dot) com

Here are the descriptions of what I do
(click the titles to read in detail)

Serving the Nation: I commissioned as an Active Duty Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army through Officer Candidate School (OCS) in August 2025. Upon finishing Air Defense Artillery Basic Officer Leader Course (ADABOLC) in May 2025, I joined 1st MDTF in Joint Lewis-McChord.

Academics: I was a Ph.D. student at the East Asian Studies department at Princeton University from 2019 to 2023 (advisor: Dr. Harvey Lederman from the Philosophy department). I explored philosophical topics ranging from metaethics to philosophy of law and politics in the neo-Confucian context. I was also interested in the implication of these discussions for the contemporary East Asian politics. I passed the General Examination in October 2022 and voluntarily left the degree program in June 2023. I am fluent in Korean, Japanese, and Chinese, and I can read Classical Chinese in neo-Confucian context. (Read my paper here!)

Translations: I translate contemporary Korean poetry for fun, and my translations have been published in webzines and established publishers. My most recent published translation is Glory Hole by Kim Hyun, and my translation of Oh Eun’s Being to Being will be published by Black Ocean in 2025. I also I launched and served as editor-in-chief of Nabillera: Contemporary Korean Literature, a literary translation web magazine. I also write a short story for fun. I was very close to publishing a story in my undergraduate years, but I’ve been on hiatus since then. I hope to take up this hobby again.

Blog: Here are some of my thoughts on various topics, usually related to philosophy.

Flickr: As you can see, I love traveling around the world and capturing people’s daily lives. In the past few years, I’ve strived to snap a shot without exposing people’s faces to be less invasive.

Fun fact: Jeong (丁) is indeed my legal middle name. It is also my mother’s last name. By coincidence, the English initial and the hanja character of my middle name look alike.