Education

  • Ph.D. Binghamton University
  • M.A. Yonsei University
  • B.A. Yonsei University

Areas of Expertise

  • Ethnic/Nationalist Conflict and Violence
  • Race and Ethnicity
  • Social Inequality
  • Global Criminology
  • Urban Activism

Background

My longstanding research idea is to reveal structural inequalities of the capitalist world-economy by exploring the structure and dynamics of social exclusion from the world-historical perspective.

As a historical sociologist, critical criminologist, and urban ethnographer, I have endeavored to bring my research strands together in a variety of ways, best captured under the following three distinct, yet interrelated, themes: First, ethnic/racial mobilizations and violence in the global South; Second, institutionalization of social exclusion: justice disinvestment, hate crimes and violence, and Anti-Asian racism; and third, political activism and justice in the cities.

My most recent works can be found in “Revisiting Antisystemic Movements in the Global South: Struggles against Exclusion and Struggles against Exploitation” in Third World Quarterly 44(10) and “From Place of Speculation To Space of Resistance: Transforming Urban Politics on Urban Redevelopment in Seoul” in Reclaiming Democracy in Cities (Routledge). My ongoing book project, The Age of Protest: World-Historical Structure and Dynamics of Protest Waves in the Global South in the Long Twentieth Century, explores the world-historical patterns of protest waves in the global South during the period of U.S. hegemony.

My new project delves into how Korean individuals and communities redefine their national/ethnic identities as Koreans in the racial/ethnic structure of hierarchy by exploring the experiences and responses of Korean communities against discrimination and victimization in the process of anti-Asian violence and racism during the pandemic.