Veda Hyunjin Kim

PhD

Affiliations

Assistant Professor

Faculty of Arts, Department of Sociology

Contact information

veda.kim@ucalgary.ca

Background

Educational Background

PhD University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2023

MA University of Chicago, 2016

Research

Areas of Research

Many thanks for visiting my profile,

I consider teaching historical criminology and anti-/de-/and postcolonial theories is a praxis of collective emancipation. I aspire to remain in conversation with global and local communities that cultivate colonially conscious ways of living and knowing.

My first book project concerns the division of the Korean peninsula, examining how US imperialism abetted the state crimes that founded "South" Korean peoplehood and the subsequent racial and gender relations within the US-led world order. My other strand of scholarship on anti-/de-/postcolonial thought can be found in various academic outlets (see the list of publications below). I am currently developing the ideas for my second book, which I expect will broadly concern the alternative futures of our universities.

Before joining UCalgary Sociology, I served as Assistant Professor at Ohio Wesleyan University (2023–2026).

(Updated in July 2026)

Publications

Review of "Insecurity Politics: How Unstable Lives Lead to Populist Support". Social Forces. (2026)
Raceless East Asians? Self-Racialization of Japanese and South Korean Peoples. (with Yen-Yu Lin). Handbook on Anticolonial, Decolonial, and Postcolonial Sociologies. (2026)
Yes, the Subaltern Speaks: US Imperialism, Genocidal ‘South’ Korea, and In/visible Womanism in Jeju. Diasporic Womanist Sociology: Introducing Hope and Solidarity through Non-Western and Global South Communities and Diasporas. (2026)
The Crisis of the Emancipation? The 1900 Paris Exposition and Du Bois’s Negotiation with Imperial Episteme. (with Yasemin Bavbek). Social Science History. (2026)
The Scholar Imprisoned: Young-Bok Shin, an East Asian Decolonial Thinker. Sociological Forum. (2026)
Decolonizing Monopoly: Intersectionality, Abolition, and Fun. (with Faith Deschamps, Caroline Mullins, Elizabeth Sumoza, and Vanessa Hildebrand). Feminist Pedagogy. (2025)
An Invitation to Reflexive De-/Postcolonial Sociology on South Korea. Korean Journal of Sociology. (2025)
The 2024 Martial Law Declaration and Necropolitical Living under South Korean Subimperialism. Critical Asian Studies. (2025)
The ‘South’ Korean Race as an Agenda for New Historical Sociology. Society and History. (2025)
Sovereignty of the Dead: Mourning Practices in Jeju as Decolonial Politics against South Korean Subimperialism. Critical Sociology. (2025)
Ida B. Wells-Barnett as an Anticolonial Theorist of Crime and Punishment. (with AunRika Tucker-Shabazz). British Journal of Sociology. (2025)
Consciousness Torn Asunder? Racial Elevation of ‘South’ Koreans, US Camptown Prostitution, and K-Pop Girl Groups in the 1950s–60s. Humanity & Society. (2025)
Learning to Unlearn, Teaching to Unlearn: A Coming-of-Age Story with Aníbal Quijano. Journal of Race and Ethnicity. (2024)
An Advocacy for Theorized History. Society and History. (2024)
Subimperialism and Perpetual Necropower: Foundational Violence and Mnemonic Self-killing on Jeju Island, 1947–present. Journal of Genocide Research. (2023)
Review of "Webbed Connectivities: The Imperial Sociology of Sex, Gender, and Sexuality by Vrushali Patil". Social Forces. (2023)
A Historical-Institutionalist Analysis of the MV Sewol and MS Estonia Tragedies: Policy Lessons from Sweden for South Korea. (with Jörg Michael Dostal and Albin Ringstad). Korean Journal of Policy Studies. (2015)

ResearchGate