Research Interests

• ‘Race’/Ethnicity/Nation
• Gender and Women’s Studies
• Relationality/Intersectionality
• Race, (Im)Migration, Citizenship, Transnational
• (Neo)Imperial & Comparative Race Theory
• Environmental Justice, Urban Community Politics
• Body/Embodiment & Emotions
• Asian (Korean) America & Ethnic Studies
• South Korea, Race, Ethnonationality
• Global Culture & Racism

Bio

Nadia Y. Kim is Professor of Sociology at Texas A&M University. Her research focuses on US race and citizenship injustices concerning Korean/Asian Americans, South Koreans, and Latinx immigrants, and on fights against environmental racism/classism (esp. by women) and on comparative racialization of Latinxs and Asian and Black Americans. Throughout her work, Kim’s approach centers (neo)imperialism, transnationality, and intersectionality. Kim is author of two multi-award-winning books with Stanford Press – “Imperial Citizens: Koreans and Race from Seoul to LA” (2008) and “Refusing Death: Immigrant Women and the Fight for Environmental Justice in LA” (2021)–, co-edited “Disciplinary Futures: Sociology in Conversation with American, Ethnic & Indigenous Studies” (NYU, 2023) & wrote award-winning journal articles on race and assimilation and on racial attitudes. Kim has also organized on issues of immigrant rights, affirmative action, and environmental justice and her work has appeared (inter)nationally on National Public Radio, Southern California Public Radio, Red Table Talk, Radio Korea, and in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Korea Times, NYLON Magazine, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Hobbies: Loves to sing, dance, and learn languages & astrology!

Representative Publications

• Disciplinary Futures, https://nyupress.org/9781479819041/disciplinary-futures/
• Refusing Death, https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=24059
• Imperial Citizens, https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=8887
• 2018. “Race-ing the Korean American Experience.” Pp. 267-303 in A Companion in Korean American Studies.
• 2016. “‘Success is Relative’: Comparative Social Class and Ethnic Effects in an Academic Paradox. (with Christine Oh). Sociological Perspectives.
• 2015. “Race-ing towards the Real South Korea: The Cases of Black-Korean Nationals and African Migrants.” Pp. 211-43 in Multiethnic Korea? Multiculturalism, Migration, and Peoplehood Diversity in Contemporary South Korea, John Lie, ed., Berkeley: University of California Berkeley Institute of East Asian Studies Press. For introduction: http://www.academia.edu/11795092/_Multiethnic_Korea_introduction_to_Lie_ed._Multiethnic_Korea_
• 2013. “Relocating Prejudice: A Transnational Approach to Understanding Immigrants’ Racial Attitudes” (with Wendy D. Roth). International Migration Review 47(2):330-73.
• 2013. “Citizenship on the Margins: A Critique of Scholarship on Marginalized Women and Community Activism.” Sociology Compass 7(6):459-70 (June). http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/soc4.12042/abstract
• 2008. “Critical Thoughts on Asian American Assimilation in the Whitening Literature.” Pp. 53-66 in Racism in Post-Racism America: New Theories, New Directions, edited by Charles A. Gallagher. Chapel Hill, NC: Social Forces. *Reprinted in Zhou & Ocampo, Contemporary Asian America 3rd edition.
• 2008. “A Return to More Blatant Class and ‘Race’ Bias in US Immigration Policy?” The Du Bois Review 4(2):469-477.
• 2006. “‘Patriarchy is so Third World’”: Korean Immigrant Women and Migrating White Western Masculinity.” Social Problems 53(4):519-36.

Representative Awards

• 2023 Eduardo Bonilla-Silva Outstanding Book Award, sponsored by the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) (Refusing Death)
• 2023 Distinguished Scholarship Award, The Pacific Sociological Association (Refusing Death)
• 2023 Outstanding Achievement in the Social Sciences Book Award, Association of Asian American Studies (Refusing Death)
• 2023 Honorable Mention, Best Publication Award, sponsored by the American Sociological Association (ASA) – Bodies and Embodiment Section (Refusing Death)
• 2022 Susanne M. Glasscock Humanities Book Prize for Interdisciplinary Scholarship, Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research, Texas A&M University (Refusing Death)
• 2022 Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Book Award, Section on Race, Class, Gender, American Sociological Association (Refusing Death)
• 2022 Outstanding Book Award, Section on Asia and Asian America, American Sociological Association (Refusing Death)
• 2022 Honorable Mention, Outstanding Recent Contribution Book Award, Section on the Sociology of Emotions, American Sociological Association (Refusing Death)
• 2022 Honorable Mention, Distinguished Contribution to Research Book Award, Section on Latina/o/x Sociology, American Sociological Association (Refusing Death)
• 2022 Silver Award, Nautilus Book Awards, “Social Change and Social Justice Category” (Refusing Death)
• 2012 Early Career Award, Section on Asia and Asian America, American Sociological Association
• 2010 Best Research Paper Award, Section on Asia and Asian America, American Sociological Association (“Critical Thoughts…Whitening Literature”)
• 2009 Oliver Cromwell Cox Book Award, Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities, American Sociological Association (Imperial Citizens)
• 2009 Book of the Year Award, Section on Asia and Asian America, American Sociological Association (Imperial Citizens)
• 2009 Early Career Award, Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities, American Sociological Association (Imperial Citizens)
• 2003 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Distinguished Dissertation Award, Honorable Mention (Guest in Someone Else’s House?)
• 2001-02 Sociologists for Women in Society Minority Scholar Award
• 2000 First Place Award – Graduate Student Paper Competition, 30th Annual Association of Black Sociologists Conference, Washington D.C. (with equal author Tyrone Forman)
• 2000 First Place Award – Graduate Student Paper Competition, 10th Annual Students of Color of Rackham Conference, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (with equal author Tyrone Forman)

Representative Media Coverage

• “Community Engagement!” Sociology for Dark Times podcast. June 25, 2023.
• Been interviewed for numerous articles in venues like MSNBC, Huffington Post, and the like. Please see: https://newsroom.lmu.edu/person/nadia-kim/
• Interview guest on “Red Table Talk” with Jada Pinkett Smith (Oct 5, 2022) as an expert on Asian American women’s mental health in response to harassment of actress Constance Wu. http://bit.ly/RTTConstanceWu
• “The Unexpected Alliance Forged After the Rodney King Verdict,” The Washington Post. April 21, 2021.
• “What America Teaches White Men about Asian American Women: The Atlanta Killings Have All the Hallmarks of a Hate Crime,” Public Seminar. March 25, 2021.
• “Minari Portrays Strong Korean Women,” Korea Times. March 16, 2021.
• “Asian Americans Suffer From Trump’s Racist Attacks Too: The Long History of America’s Hostility toward Immigrants from China, Japan, and Korea,” Public Seminar. July 23, 2020.
• Featured interviewee for “Specter of LA Riots Haunts Koreans in the US,” Korea Times. July 9, 2020.
• “Asian Americans are not Affirmative Action’s Victims,” The Chronicle of Higher Education. October 2, 2019. http://nadiakimacademic.net/?attachment_id=493
• “Asian Pacific Representation in Crazy Rich Asians and Always Be My Maybe,” Southpaw Podcast. July 9, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3sxPE9qxWY&t=508s
• “What Americans Need to Know about the Korean War,” Scholars Strategy Network (SSN) Policy Brief. April 1, 2019.
• Interviewed by NYLON Magazine for its March 20, 2018 article, “The Meaning behind The Black Panther’s Massive Success in Asia http://bit.ly/2G8lAzv May
• Interview guest on SoCal Public Radio 89.3 KPCC, “Take Two with A. Martinez.” April 28, 2017 (25th Anniversary of LA “Riots”) 25AnnivLARiot
• Interview with Pacifica Radio 90.7 KPFK for “Beautiful Struggle” program about gender, race and American “greatness,” November 29, 2016.
• Interviewed by “Korea and the World,” a Seoul-based podcast. May 31, 2016. Korea and the World