Jinwon Kim

Jinwon Kim, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of sociology in the Department of Sociology at Smith College. Prior to this position, she was a tenure-track assistant professor at New York City College of Technology, City University of New York (2019-2024), and a visiting assistant professor of sociology at Hamilton College (2018-2019), Hobart and William Smith Colleges (2017-2018), and Oberlin College (2016-2017). 

Kim’s research and teaching focus on urban sociology, Asian American studies, race and ethnicity, transnational and global sociology, immigration, consumption, and qualitative research methods. 

Her first monograph, Koreatown, NYC: The Consumption of a Transnational Brand (published in 2026, by NYU Press), examines how Korea’s nation-branding strategies—particularly those involving Korean food and pop culture—have shaped Manhattan’s Koreatown into a distinctive type of ethnic enclave. She terms this space a “transclave”: a transnational zone of Seoul-style consumption, marked by intensive flows of people, capital, and consumer culture between the U.S. and Korea. This project is based on 135 in-depth interviews, participant observation, and archival research. You can find the publisher’s page for her book here.

She is currently working on two book-length projects.

The first, New Trends, Old Conflicts: New Black-Korean Relations in an Era of Global Racism and Global Media, examines anti-Blackness and emerging forms of Black-Korean relations and conflicts within the Korean media and entertainment industry. It moves beyond a U.S.-centered analysis of anti-Black racism, colorism, cultural appropriation, and interracial relations, situating these issues within the context of East Asian geopolitics. She conducted preliminary research from 2016 to 2018, followed by two rounds of international fieldwork to Korea in 2022 and 2023, and an additional round of in-depth interviews in 2024, completing 180 in-depth interviews in the U.S. and Korea. She plans to conduct a third and final round of international fieldwork by 2026.  

Her second project, The Asian Times Square: Gentrification, Displacement, and New Ethnic Placemaking in Flushing, NY, examines interethnic and intraethnic relations among Chinese, Koreans, and Joseonjok (Korean Chinese—an ethnic minority group in China of Korean descent) in Flushing, New York City, within the context of transnational investment and gentrification. Drawing on in-depth interviews with residents, workers, business owners, community leaders, and advocates, as well as participant observation and archival research conducted since February 2024, this project investigates how two megaprojects in Flushing and Willets Point (one subway stop from Flushing), both located along the waterfront, and fueled by transnational investment, have driven gentrification and the displacement of working-class immigrant residents and small business owners, reshaping group relations and generating conflict in this diverse, transnational neighborhood. Recent controversial plans for the Metropolitan Park casino and entertainment district at Citi Field in Willets Point have further influenced these transformations. This project particularly examines the multiple waves and diverse forms of ‘displacement,’ ranging from physical displacement to symbolic displacement, such as feeling of loss, experienced by working-class immigrant families and small businesses across four East Asian groups. As a long-term initiative, she plans to continue this project over the next five years, through the end of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s first term. Her initial fieldwork in 2024 was sponsored by CUNY’s Interdisciplinary Research Grant (her previous employer).  

Her work has appeared in City & Community, The International Journal of Cultural Policy, CUNY Forum, A Companion to Korean American Studies, COVID-19 and Global Cities: Comparative Perspectives (in Korean), and World Politics and Economy (in Korean). She also co-edited Koreatowns: Exploring the Economics, Politics, and Identities of Korean Spatial Formations with two other sociologists, and contributed chapters to the volume. This edited volume was published by Lexington Books in 2020 (now Bloomsbury.