About

Dr. Sonya Lee is a Professor of Art History, East Asian Languages and Cultures, and Religion at the University of Southern California, where she also serves as Department Chair of East Asian Languages and Cultures. Her research specializes in religious art and architecture of China and Central Asia, with a focus on material culture of the ancient Silk Road, art and ecology, Asian art collecting, and heritage conservation. She has published extensively on these topics, including her first book, 'Surviving Nirvana: Death of the Buddha in Chinese Visual Culture,' which examines the iconography of nirvana images in Buddhist art across Asia and how communities of patrons and makers in medieval China reinterpreted the motif to confront the anxiety of the Buddha’s absence. Her recent book, 'Temples in the Cliffside: Buddhist Art of Sichuan,' explores Buddhist sites with monumental cliff-side carvings in southwest China, analyzing their art, heritage, and ecological significance within the context of climate change and sustainability. This work has been recognized with the 2023 Independent Publisher Book Award in the Nonfiction/Religion category. Dr. Lee is also the Editor-in-Chief for Grove Art Online and is involved in the development of the Grove Encyclopedia of Asian Art. She received her Ph.D. in art history from the University of Chicago and has been awarded fellowships and research grants from prestigious institutions such as the National Gallery of Art, Getty Foundation, Japan Foundation, and others.

Research topics

• Business
• Psychology
• Computer Science
• Finance
• Marketing
• Financial system
• Medicine
• Speech recognition
• Biology
• Gerontology
• Physical therapy
• Commerce

Selected publications

• Performance Validation of Equivalent Shear Beam Model Container for Dynamic Centrifuge Tests

  Japanese Geotechnical Society Special Publication · 2024-01-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Dynamic centrifuge experiments using equivalent shear beam (ESB) model containers are widely utilized in geotechnical earthquake engineering to quantitatively assess the responses of soils or soil-structure systems subjected to seismic loads. This study presents the dynamic centrifuge test results on the boundary effect in an ESB model container in the KAIST Geo-Centrifuge Center. Two dynamic centrifuge tests, one with the empty container and the other with the container filled with dry sand, were conducted to identify the natural frequency of the container and to compare the responses at different horizontal locations and depths within the container. The results evaluated that the response at a location 13 cm horizontally distant from the wall still showed a minimal boundary effect. Moreover, the response spectrum results from 1D equivalent linear analysis using DEEPSOIL agreed well with the acquired from the tested container. The presented results validate the use of the ESB container for dynamic centrifuge tests with a minimal boundary effect.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Do DSR Regulations Guarantee Financial Consumer Rights and Interests?- Focusing on Automobile Finance -

  Journal of Financial Consumers · 2024-04-30

  articleSenior author

  DSR 규제는 금융소비자의 합리적인 소비 평활화를 어렵게 할 뿐 아니라 금융소비자의 신규 대출을 직접적으로 제한하고 신규대출을 제때 받지 못하게 만든다. 더구나 DSR이 높을수록 더 좋은 조건의 신규대출을 받기 어렵게 만드는 등 금융소비자의 대출기회 차별을 심화한다. 따라서 DSR 규제는 금융소비자 권익을 저해하지 않도록 당초 목적에 맞게 재설계해야 한다. DSR 규제의 개선 방향을 제시하자면 다음과 같다. 첫째, DSR 규제를 현행대로 유지해야 한다면 동일행위-동일규제 원칙에 입각하여 규제 차이를 해소해야 한다. 둘째, 금융소비자의 권익이 DSR 규제로 저하되거나 금융소비자가 대출 기회를 차별받지 않도록 DSR 규제의 적용 범위를 조정해야 한다. 마지막으로, 해외에서처럼 DSR 규제를 거시건전성 감독수단의 하나로 주택담보대출에 초점을 맞춰 재설계해야 한다.

  PublisherDOI

• Analysis on Robo-Advisor Performance in Korea

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2023-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Relationship between Lower Extremity Function and Balance Ability of Community Care Service Subjects

  Society of Occupational Therapy for the Aged and Dementia · 2020

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Psychology
  • Medicine
  • Physical therapy

  목적: 본 연구는 청양군에 거주하고 있는 커뮤니티 케어 서비스 대상자의 하지 기능과 균형 능력간의 관련성을 알아보고자 실시하였다. 연구방법: 본 연구는 충남 청양에 거주하는 커뮤니티 케어 서비스 대상자 중 60대 이상의 노인 119명을 대상으로 하였다. 자료 분석방법은 SPSS 23.0 프로그램을 이용하여 일반적 특성, 하지 기능과 균형 능력 특성은 빈도분석, 하지 기능과 균형 능력간의 관련성을 알아보기 위해 카이제곱(x2) 검정을 실시하였다. 연구결과: 하지 기능과 균형 능력간의 관련성을 연구한 결과는 하지 기능과 롬베르그 검사간의 관련성은 P< .01, .05 수준, 하지 기능과 일어서서 걷기 검사간의 관련성은 P < .01 수준에서 유의하게 나타났다. 결론: 본 연구 결과에서 하지 기능과 균형 능력간의 관련성이 유의한 것은 의미가 있는 것으로 사료되며, 향후 연구에서는 커뮤니티 케어 서비스 대상자들의 다양한 변인들에 따른 하지 기능과 균형 능력과의 관련성을 검토하여 하지 기능과 균형 능력 향상을 위한 프로그램을 실시하고 그 효과성에 대한 연구가 이루어지길 기대한다.

  PublisherDOI

• Vocal tract shaping of emotional speech

  Computer Speech & Language · 2020 · 29 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Computer Science
  • Speech recognition
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Lessons from the 2020 Hedge Funds Scandal in Korea and Ways for Financial Consumer Protection

  Journal of Financial Consumers · 2020

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Business
  • Financial system
  • Finance
  PublisherDOI

• On Deregulating the Real Estate Brokerage Fee of Korea

  Journal of Real Estate Analysis · 2019-07-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This study examines the current status and characteristics of the real estate brokerage market of Korea and derives the market equilibrium under the assumptions of Bertrand competition and no regulation on brokerage fees, in order to evaluate the current regulation's adequacy and fitness for purpose. The current regulation restricts brokerage fees charged to both real estate trading parties to certain percentages of transaction amounts. Also, the upper limits of brokerage fee rates applied to both parties are the same, and the upper limits of brokerage fee rates for lease transactions are set lower than those for trading transactions. The findings of this study show that the current regulation is not optimal compared to results of the market equilibrium and also that it does not serve its regulatory purpose. First, the current regulation that applies the same upper limits of brokerage fee rates to both trading parties can lower the proportion of brokerage transactions in the real estate trading market, resulting in worsening social welfare. Second, if the current regulation imposing upper limits on brokerage fee rates fails to reflect timely the rise in real estate prices, the burden of brokerage fees on real estate traders can increase. Third, the current regulation imposing lower upper limits of brokerage fee rates for lease transactions than for trading transactions obscurely and broadly defines those to be protected. The study also shows that the abolition of the current real estate brokerage fee regulation improves social welfare. However, in order to maintain the purpose of the current regulation, it seems necessary to devise ways to reduce the burden of brokerage fees on real estate traders who need relative protection.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• P2P 대출중개 플랫폼의 금융중개 역할에 관한 연구 (Study on the Financial Intermediary Role of P2P Lending Platform)

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2018-06-18

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Korean Abstract: 본 연구는 직접금융 방식으로 차입자와 투자자 간의 자금융통의 거래를 중개하는 P2P 대출중개 플랫폼이 전통적인 은행의 금융중개 역할을 대체할 수 있는지 또는 보완할 수 있는지를 이론적으로 살펴보았다. 이를 위해 은행만 존재하는 경제와 P2P 대출중개 플랫폼도 존재하는 경제의 대출시장 균형을 비교하였다. 그 결과, 본 연구는 P2P 대출중개 플랫폼이 차입자에게 대출이자율을 은행보다 높거나 낮게 제시할 유인을 갖지 않는다는 것을 발견하였다. 또한 본 연구의 분석결과는 대출시장에서 P2P 대출중개 플랫폼이 은행의 금융중개 역할을 부분 또는 전부 대체할 수 있을 뿐만 아니라, 은행만 존재하는 경제에서 은행이 신용할당으로 인수하지 않는 차입자의 신용위험을 투자자에게 중개하며 은행의 금융중개 역할을 보완할 수 있다는 것을 보여준다. English Abstract: This study examines whether P2P lending platforms that directly intermediate between borrowers and investors can substitute and/or complement the financial intermediary role of traditional banks by analyzing a theoretical model of the loans market. In particular, the study compares the equilibrium of the loans market in which only banks exist with that of where banks and P2P lending platforms compete against each other. As a result, the study found that P2P lending platforms do not have incentives to offer borrowers higher or lower loan interest rates than banks. It implies that whether P2P lending platforms substitute the financial intermediary role of banks is determined by the investors, not the borrowers. This result is also explained by the structure of fees paid to P2P lending platforms by borrowers and investors respectively. P2P lending platforms maximizing their own profit in equilibrium determine the borrower fee to make it indifferent for borrowers to choose between borrowing from banks and financing from investors through P2P lending platforms, whereas they set the investor fee to make investors at least prefer taking borrowers’ credit risk to depositing in banks. The results of the study show that P2P lending platforms can partially or fully substitute banks in the loans market and that they also can complement banks by providing loans for borrowers whose credit is supposed to be rationed by banks if there are no P2P lending platforms in the loans market. These findings depend on the gap of convenience utilities provided to borrowers and investors by banks and P2P lending platforms respectively. When the total of convenience utilities by banks is greater than the total of convenience utilities by P2P lending platforms, the financial intermediary role of banks in the loans market is partially substituted by P2P lending platforms. However, if otherwise, P2P lending platforms can fully substitute the financial intermediary role of banks. The main reason that P2P lending platforms can substitute banks in the loans market is that unlike banks, P2P lending platforms make profit by intermediating directly between investor and borrowers, not by taking borrowers’ credit risk like banks. It is also because the investors expect higher returns from directly funding borrowers than from depositing in banks. Furthermore, unlike banks, P2P lending platforms do not have incentives of credit rationing so that they can intermediate between investors and even borrowers whose credit is most likely to be rationed by banks. It implies that P2P lending platforms complement the financial intermediary role of banks and also expand the provision of loans to borrowers.

  Publisher

• Fast Phase Synchronization with Clustering and One-Bit Feedback for Distributed Beamforming in a Wireless Sensor Network

  2018-06-01 · 9 citations

  article

  In this paper, we propose a fast phase synchronization method with clustering and one bit feedback for distributed beamforming in a wireless sensor network where multiple single-antenna nodes transfer their sensing data to a data collector. To transmit the data effectively, the distributed nodes should adjust their transmit signals' phase properly so that their signals are constructively added up at the data collector with a same phase, resulting in an increasing received signal strength (RSS). Accordingly, in conventional phase synchronization methods, the data collector broadcasts a common message with a single-bit feedback and, depending the feedback message, each node updates its transmit signal phase. Because, in such conventional methods, the phase are updated based on the random perturbation in a distributed way, the phases are slowly converged and the time required for the synchronization becomes large and it is more serious in a massively distributed sensor network. To overcome the problem, in the proposed method, we separate the distributed sensors into several clusters. Then, in the first stage, the phases in each cluster are synchronized with one-bit feedback and in the second stage, the inter-cluster phases are synchronized based on the grid-search with a one-bit feedback. Through the simulation, we verify that our proposed scheme has a shorter convergence time than the conventional scheme without any feedback overhead.

  PublisherDOI

• Study on the Financial Intermediary Role of P2P Lending Platform

  Journal of Money & Finance · 2018-06-30 · 2 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• RI: Small: Emotional Speech Production: Analysis, Modeling and Synthesis

  NSF · $450k · 2011–2016

Frequent coauthors

• Shrikanth Narayanan

  130 shared

• Dani Byrd

  41 shared

• Jangwon Kim

  37 shared

• Abe Kazemzadeh

  34 shared

• Chi-Chun Lee

  30 shared

• Carlos Busso

  The University of Texas at Dallas

  28 shared

• Shrikanth Narayanan

  University of Southern California

  21 shared

• Louis Goldstein

  18 shared

Awards & honors

• 2023 Independent Publisher Book Award in the Nonfiction/Reli…