2026
2026.05.04
— Infrastructure

BAR LAB website launches

New site at barlab.xyz goes live with member profiles, score calculator, and live publication leaderboard.

Stack: Cloudflare Pages · D1 · TypeScript Functions
2026.04
— Personnel

Prof. Kim begins Visiting Scholar position at Ole Miss

Visiting Scholar appointment at Department of Nutrition & Hospitality Management, University of Mississippi (Spring–Fall 2026).

Host institution: University of Mississippi
2026.02
— Defense

Ho Hung-Dat defends

"Revenue management efficiency through price sensitivity in the hotel industry" — accepted with minor revisions. Now Asst. Prof. at Eastern International University, Vietnam.

2026.03
— Admissions

New cohort joins · 2026.1

Two new doctoral students from the Korean food-service track (조리경영, 2026312501-502): 손혜연 and 한지원. International student Sulav Shrivastav (Nepal) joins for financial well-being research.

2025
2025.08
— Defense

Laleesha Chamberlain defends

"Entity-Referent Correspondence framework of authenticity in cruise tourism" defended successfully. Now Asst. Prof. at Kyungsung Global Hospitality.

Jamaica's first BAR LAB graduate. Re-lab placement.
2025.09
— Admissions

Sonam Sherpa joins · Push-pull research

Doctoral student from Nepal begins research on South Asian student mobility decisions to study in South Korea.

2025.05
— Publication

HALALQUAL paper accepted at IJCHM

Nararya Dita Handani's halal-friendly hotel service quality measurement scale published in International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.

SSCI · Q1 hospitality journal
2025.03
— Admissions

Indian doctoral cohort arrives

Shiny Simon (K-Culture, K-Pop research) and Sadaf Akhtar (Korea country image, brand equity) begin doctoral programs.

2024
2024.08
— Defense × 4

Four PhD defenses in one season

Kim Hye-In (KNHANES analysis), Cho Yeon-Joo (educational service quality), Jin Lili (cafeteria IPA), and Yahaira Moreno Brito (green hotels) all defend successfully.

All four placed in academic positions.
2024.02
— Defense × 2

Handani & Shin defend

Nararya Dita Handani (HALALQUAL) and Shin Ji-Hae (UTAUT2 mobile grocery) defend doctoral dissertations. Both take faculty positions in Korean universities.

2024.09
— Milestone

Prof. Kim founds Global College

Kyungsung University's new Global College launches. Several BAR LAB PhD graduates take faculty positions to build the Hospitality and Business curricula.

2024.03
— Admissions

The 2024 cohort: a defining year

Aura Riswanto, Seieun Kim, Angellie Williady, Yinai Zhong (continuing), Neila Aisha, Ummi Aliyah all start PhDs. Many of them are now ABD and lead the lab's most active research.

Earlier years: see the lab timeline.