Hagen Koo is emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Born in Korea, he received his BA in Korea and worked as a journalist briefly before coming to America, where he received his Ph.D. at Northwestern University. He published extensively on social transformation in South Korea during the era of rapid industrialization. His major work includes State and Society in Contemporary Korea (1993), and Korean Workers: The Culture and Politics of Class Formation (2001), which received a book award from the American Sociological Association and has been translated into several languages. He has played an active role in promoting Korean studies in the United States and has been a visiting scholar at several international universities, including Harvard University, Australian National University, Yonsei University, Seoul National University, and as a fellow at the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies. At the Institute of Korean Studies (FU), Professor Koo is working to complete his book, The Fractured Middle: The Impact of Neoliberal Globalization on Class Inequality in South Korea.