Eilin Pérez

Visiting Assistant Professor of History

Eilin Rafael Perez is a historian of modern Korea specializing in diplomacy and decolonization in the Cold War. His current book project examines histories of cultural production that emerged out of engagement between North Korea and solidarity movements of the global South. The project reconsiders traditional Area Studies boundaries by highlighting the networks of information exchange and dissemination developed among anti-imperialist actors across the globe. Eilin’s research has been generously supported by the CLIR/Mellon Fellowship for Dissertation Research in Original Sources; by several Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships; and by the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship.

Raised in Queens, New York, he is now Visiting Assistant Professor of History in the Faculty of the Humanities and Social Sciences. Eilin previously served as Postdoctoral Associate in History and Public Humanities at Yale University. He completed a PhD in History at the University of Chicago after receiving a BA in Asian Studies and History with honors from Williams College.

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.