Hi, I'm Kevin Kester. Associate Professor of Comparative International Education and Peace/Development Studies at Seoul National University (서울대학교) and director of the Education, Conflict and Peace Lab. I research educational responses to conflict, peace and development in local and global contexts. My most recent books/special issues are International Handbook on Peace Education (Routledge, 2026), Conflict, Peace and Teaching in Higher Education: Postcritical Praxis in a World of Conflict (Routledge, 2026), A Modern Guide to Education in East Asia: Globalization and Local Intersections (Edward Elgar, 2026), Common Curriculum Guide for Peace Education in Northeast Asia (UNESCO-APCEIU, 2023), Revisiting 'Asia as Method' in Education Research: Toward Ontologies and Epistemologies of Difference (Springer, 2023), and The United Nations and Higher Education: Peacebuilding, Social Justice and Global Cooperation for the 21st Century (Emerald, 2020). I completed my PhD and postdoc at the University of Cambridge. 

Prior to moving to Seoul National University, I was Director of Studies for Education at Queens' College and Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.  I currently serve as Editor of the Asia Pacific Education Review, Executive Editor of Teaching in Higher Education,  and Associate Editor of Journal of International Cooperation in Education, as well as panel member of the Humanities and Social Sciences Panel of the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, and as expert reviewer for the Korean National Research Foundation. I also serve in various leadership capacities with the Comparative and International Education Society, Korean Comparative Education Society, and Korean Educational Research Association.

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My current research focuses on higher education peacebuilding in conflict-affected contexts, funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea and the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies. A recent talk related to this work is online here: Healing the Scars of War: Teaching for Peace through Higher Education in Divided and Conflict-Affected Contexts. I am also currently completing a book on Postcritical Peace Education and Global Citizenship Education under contract with Palgrave. I am recipient of the 2026 Asian Universities Alliance Scholar Award, 2026 BK21 Outstanding Researcher Award, 2024 Noam Chomsky Shining Star Research Award, 2024 Emerald Literati Award, 2022 Unju Prize for Research Excellence, and was commissioned as a Kentucky Colonel – the highest civilian honor bestowed by the Governor of Kentucky – in 2020. ​