Sung-Ae Lee's major research focus is on fiction, film and television drama of East Asia, with particular attention to Korea. Her research centres on relationships between cultural ideologies in Asian societies and representational strategies. She is interested in cognitive and imagological approaches to adaptation studies, Asian popular culture, Asian cinema, the impact of colonisation in Asia, Trauma Studies, fiction and film produced in the aftermath of the Korean War, and the literature and popular media of the Korean diaspora.

She has two doctoral degrees: a PhD in English Literature (Macquarie University) and a PhD in Asian Studies (Macquarie University). The first of her theses examines representations of utopia/dystopia, nation states, and abjection in society in George Eliot's major fictions. The second thesis (by publication) is a study of Korean narrative fictions which depict how liminal subjectivities are displaced to the social periphery. Her other academic qualifications include an MA in English ([with Merit], University of Sydney), an MA in Linguistics (CSU, Fresno) and a BA in English (Ewha Women's University).

Her teaching mainly involves INTS101 Asia in the Global Context, INTS205 Screening Asia, and INTS307 Global Circulation of Asian Popular Culture.