Nadia Y. Kim

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Nadia Y. Kim
File:KimWikiProfilePic.jpgKimWikiProfilePic.jpg KimWikiProfilePic.jpg
Born	(1974-09-01) September 1, 1974 New York, New York
🎓 Alma mater	*University of Michigan-Ann Arbor University of California-Santa Barbara
💼 Occupation

Nadia Y. Kim is a sociologist who has conducted extensive research regarding U.S. race and citizenship hierarchies (specifically concerning Korean/Asian Americans and South Koreans), race and nativist racism in L.A., environmental (in)justice, race theory, and much more. She is currently the George Sumey Jr. Professor and the Claudius M. Easley Jr. Faculty Fellow at Texas A&M University, in the College of Arts and Sciences—Department of Sociology.

History

Before her move to Texas A&M University, Kim previously taught at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. She was a full-time professor at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) from 2007-2021. Following 2021, she held an affiliate position at LMU until 2023. In addition to her role at LMU, she was a Thomas Tam visiting professor (from 2018-2019) at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center and Asian American/Asian Research Institute]. Before her roles at LMU and CUNY, she was a professor at Brandeis University from 2004-2007. Finally, while working towards her Ph.D., Kim held a visiting faculty role at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA).

Early life

Kim was born in New York, New York in September 1974. For most of her childhood and adolescence, she was raised in St. John's, Newfoundland and Los Angeles, California. For a brief time as a child, she lived in Seoul, Korea and attended school there for one year. She attended Canyon Country High School and Oak Park High School, both located in Southern California.

Kim's parents both immigrated to the U.S. before she was born, her mother in the 1960s and her father in the early 1950s. Kim's mother is Korean Brazilian and her father is South Korean. She is one of five children to her parents.

Education

Kim completed her undergraduate education at the University of California-Santa Barbara in 1996 with a Bachelor's of Arts in english and sociology. She then moved to Michigan, where she earned her Master's (2000) and Ph.D. (2003) in sociology from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Shortly after her graduation from the University of Michigan, she worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California-San Diego.

Her research focuses on race and racism, gender and women's studies, (im)migration and transnationality (particularly across the transpacific context), and the intersections of racialized citizenship, environmental justice, and embodiment. She engages with Asian American and Ethnic Studies, comparative race theory, and urban politics, examining how imperialism, emotion, and social psychology shape global cultures of racism and belonging.

Works

Books

• Kim, Nadia Y.; Pawan, Dhingra (2023). Disciplinary Futures: Sociology in Conversation with American, Ethnic, and Indigenous Studies. New York, NY: New York University Press. ISBN 9781479819041. Search this book on
• Kim, Nadia Y. (2021). Refusing Death: Immigrant Women and the Fight for Environmental Justice in LA. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 9781503628175. Search this book on
• Kim, Nadia Y. (2008). Imperial Citizens: Koreans and Race from Seoul to LA. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804758871. Search this book on

Select peer reviewed articles and chapters

• Kim, Nadia Y.; Pawan, Dhingra (2023). Disciplinary Futures: Sociology in Conversation with American, Ethnic, and Indigenous Studies. New York, NY: New York University Press. ISBN 9781479819041. Search this book on
• Kim, Nadia Y.; Pawan, Dhingra (2023). Disciplinary Futures: Sociology in Conversation with American, Ethnic, and Indigenous Studies. New York, NY: New York University Press. ISBN 9781479819041. Search this book on
• Kim, Nadia Y. (2023). "Environmental Activism and Immigrant Women of Color.". In Romero, Mary; Chapple, R. Research Handbook on Intersectionality. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN 9781800378049. Search this book on
• Chong, K.; Kim, Nadia Y. (2022). "'The Model Man:' Shifting Perceptions of Asian American Masculinity and the Re-negotiation of a Racial Hierarchy of Desire". Men and Masculinities. 25 (5): 674–697. doi:10.1177/1097184X211043563. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
• Kim, Nadia Y. (2022). "Globalizing Racial Triangulation: Including the People and Nations of Color on which White Supremacy Depends". Politics, Groups, and Identities. 10 (3): 468–474. doi:10.1080/21565503.2021.1997767. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
• Kim, Nadia Y. (2020). "Los Angeles's Asian and Latinx Immigrant Activists on Embodiment, Race, Class, and Morality". CUNY Forum. 7 (1): 49–66. doi:10.19119/cf.2020.12.37.49. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
• Kim, Nadia Y. (2018). "Race-ing the Korean American Experience.". In Lee, S.; Joo, R. A Companion in Korean American Studies. Boston, MA, and Leidan, the Netherlands: Brill. ISBN 9789004334533. Search this book on
• Oh, C.; Kim, Nadia Y. (2016). "Success is Relative': Comparative Social Class and Ethnic Effects in an Academic Paradox". Sociological Perspectives. 59 (2): 270–295. doi:10.1177/0731121415587115. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
• Kim, Nadia (2015). "Race-ing towards the Real South Korea: The Cases of Black-Korean Nationals and African Migrants". In Lie, John. Multiethnic Korea? Multiculturalism, Migration, and Peoplehood Diversity in Contemporary South Korea. Berkeley: University of California Berkeley. doi:10.2307/jj.7762621. Retrieved October 21, 2025. Search this book on
• Kim, Nadia Y. (2015). "The United States Arrives: Racialization and Racism in Post-1945 South Korea.". In Kowner, R.; Demel, W. Race and Racism in Modern East Asia (vol. II): Interactions, Nationalism, Gender and Lineage. Boston/the Netherlands: Brill. ISBN 9789004292925. Search this book on
• Kim, Nadia Y.; Oh, C. (2014). "On Being a Successful Failure: Korean American Students and the Structural Cultural Paradox". In Min, P.G.; Noh, S. Second-Generation Korean Experiences in the United States and Canada. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. ISBN 9781498503532. Search this book on
• Roth, W.; Kim, Nadia Y. (2013). "Relocating Prejudice: A Transnational Approach to Understanding Immigrants' Racial Attitudes". International Migration Review. 47 (2): 330–373. doi:10.1111/imre.12028. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
• Kim, Nadia Y. (2013). "Citizenship on the Margins: A Critique of Scholarship on Marginalized Women and Community Activism". Sociology Compass. 7 (6): 459–470. doi:10.1111/soc4.12042. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
• Kim, Nadia Y. (17 December 2010). "Campaigning for Obama and the Politics of Race: The Case of California, Texas, and Beyond.". In Cunnigen, D.; Bruce, M. Race in the Age of Obama," Research in Race and Ethnic Relations. Emerald Publishers. ISBN 9780857241689. Search this book on
• Kim, Nadia Y. (22 July 2009). "Finding Our Way Home: Korean Americans, Homelands Trips, and Cultural Foreignness". In Tsuda, T.G. Diasporic Homecomings: Ethnic Return Migrants in Comparative Perspective. Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804762762. Search this book on
• Kim, Nadia Y. (2008). "Critical Thoughts on Asian American Assimilation in the Whitening Literature". In Gallagher, C.A. Racism in Post-Racism America: New Theories, New Directions. Social Forces. ISBN 9780615223803. Search this book on
• Kim, Nadia Y. (2008). "A Return to More Blatant Class and 'Race' Bias in US Immigration Policy?". The du Bois Review. 4 (2): 469–477. doi:10.1017/S1742058X07070269. Retrieved November 10, 2025.
• Kim, Nadia Y. (13 August 2007). "Asian Americans' Experiences of 'Race' and Racism". In Feagin, Joe; Vera, H. Handbook of Racial and Ethnic Relations. Springer. ISBN 9780387708447. Search this book on
• Kim, Nadia Y. (2006). "Patriarchy is so Third World'": Korean Immigrant Women and Migrating White Western Masculinity". Social Problems. 53 (4): 519–536. doi:10.1525/sp.2006.53.4.519. Retrieved November 10, 2025.
• Kim, Nadia Y. (2006). "Seoul-America' on America's 'Soul': South Koreans and Korean Immigrants Navigate Global White Racial Ideology". Critical Sociology. 32 (2–3): 381–402. doi:10.1163/156916306777835231. Retrieved November 10, 2025.
• Kim, Nadia K. (2004). "A View from Below: An Analysis of Korean Americans' Racial Attitudes". Amerasia Journal. 30 (1): 1–24. doi:10.17953/amer.30.1.3252678pr626848u. Retrieved November 10, 2025.

Professional experience

Previous positions

• Currently at Texas A&M University, Department of Sociology
• Professor at Loyola Marymount University, Department of Asian and Asian American Studies, Department of Sociology, affiliate of Women's and Gender Studies
• Visiting professor at City University of New York Graduate Center & Asian American/Asian Research Institute
• Affiliate at University of California-Los Angeles, California Center or Population Research
• Assistant Professor at Brandeis University, Department of Sociology and Women's and Gender Studies
• Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of California-San Diego, Center for Comparative Immigration Studies
• Visiting faculty member at University of California-Los Angeles, Asian American Studies Center

Affiliations

• American Sociological Association
• American Studies Association
• Association for Asian American Studies
• Pacific Sociological Association
• Sociologists for Women in Society
• Occasionally, Association for Asian Studies

Honors, fellowships, and awards

Honors:

• Invited as Keynote Speaker, “California as the Epicenter of Social Sciences” at University of Chicago Center, Paris, France, 2025
• Endowed Professorship, George Sumey Professor of Liberal Arts at Texas A&M University, 2024
• Elected member, Council, Section on the Body & Embodiment, American Sociological Association (ASA), 2024
• University of California-Irvine (UCI) Law School symposium on her book "Refusing Death." UCI Law, co-sponsored by UCI Law Students Associations and Environmental Law Society, March 2024
• Claudius M. Easley Jr. Faculty Fellow Professor Distinction at Texas A&M University, 2023
• Nominated for and won election to the 'Committee on Nominations' for ASA, April 2023
• Book Forum (formerly, Author Meets Critics), ASA annual meeting in Los Angeles, California for her book "Refusing Death" (critics: Aldon Morris, Rhacel Salazar Parrenas, Jyoti Puri, Veronica Terriquez), 2022
• Elected member, 'Committee on Committees' for ASA, 2021-2022
• Invited Member, Task Force on the State of the Art in Sociological Scholarship on Race for ASA, 2021
• Invited Member, Local Program Committee of annual ASA meeting in Los Angeles, California, 2021-2022
• Chair of the 'Social Science Section' of the Association of Asian American Studies, 2021-2022
• Selected as the ‘Honorary Coach’ by Loyola Marymount University Women’s Basketball team for teaching excellence (second consecutive year by different students), 2017
• Selected as the ‘Honorary Coach’ by Loyola Marymount University Women’s Basketball team for teaching excellence, 2016
• Selected Faculty Member, “LMYOU” campaign to recognize outstanding faculty at Loyola Marymount University, 2016
• Nominee for the Daum Professorship, Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts at Loyola Marymount University, 2014
• Elected Member for the Committee on Nominations for ASA, 2012-2013
• Visiting Scholar at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), California Center for Population Research, 20122-2012
• Elected as the 'Secretary-Treasurer' for the Section on International Migration, ASA, 2010-2013
• Elected as the 'Secretary-Treasurer' for the Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities, ASA, 2010-2013
• Elected as a 'Council member' for the Asia and Asian America Section, ASA, 2005-2008
• Selected participant at the International Migration Summer Institute, Social Science Research Council at the University of California-Irvine, 2005
• Undergraduate Student Representative on the Chancellor's Advisory Task Force (students were selected by University Chancellor), University of California-Santa Barbara (UCSB), 1995-1996
• Magna cum laude and multiple Dean's List, Honors, Sociology & English at UCSB, 1992-1996

Fellowships:

• Thomas Tam Visiting Professor, at the City University of New York Graduate Center & Asian American/Asian Research Institute, 2018-2019
• College Fellowship, at Loyola Marymount University Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts (2 given college-wide), 2012
• Postdoctoral Visiting Research Fellow – Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, at the University of California-San Diego, 2003-2004
• Predoctoral Fellow – Northeast Consortium Dissertation-in-Residence Fellowship Program, 2003-2005
• Fellow – ASA Minority Fellowship Program, 2003-2006
• Society for the Study of Social Problems Minority Fellowship – Honorable Mention, 1999

Book Awards for "Refusing Death: Immigrant Women and the Fight for Environmental Justice in LA"

• Eduardo Bonilla-Silva Outstanding Book Award, Racial and Ethnic Minorities Division, Society for the Study of Social Problems, 2023
• Distinguished Scholarship Award, The Pacific Sociological Association, 2023
• Outstanding Achievement in the Social Sciences Book Award, Association for Asian American Studies, 2023
• Susanne M. Glasscock Humanities Book Prize for Interdisciplinary Scholarship, Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research, Texas A&M University, 2022
• Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Book Award, Section on Race, Class, Gender, ASA, 2022
• Outstanding Book Award, Section on Asia and Asian America, ASA, 2022
• Honorable Mention, Outstanding Recent Contribution Book Award, Section on the Sociology of Emotions, ASA, 2022
• Honorable Mention, Distinguished Contribution to Research Book Award, Section on Latina/o/x Sociology, ASA, 2022
• Silver Award, Nautilus Book Awards, “Social Change and Social Justice Category”, 2022

Book Awards for "Imperial Citizens: Koreans and Race from Seoul to LA."

• Oliver Cromwell Cox Book Award, Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities, ASA, 2009
• Book of the Year Award, Section on Asia and Asian America, ASA, 2009
• Early Career Award, Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities, ASA, 2009

Other mentionable awards:

• Early Career Award, Section on Asia and Asian America, ASA, 2012
• Best Research Paper Award, Section on Asia and Asian America, ASA (“Critical Thoughts…Whitening Literature”), 2010
• University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Distinguished Dissertation Award, Honorable Mention (Guest in Someone Else’s House?), 2003
• Sociologists for Women in Society Minority Scholar Award, 2001-2002
• 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), 2000

Editorial & Advisory Positions/Memberships

• Contemporary Sociology, 2025—present
• Environmental Communication, Power & Culture University of CA Press Book Series, 2024—present
• City University of New York (CUNY) Forum, 2020—present
• Racism by Context Project, Oxford University Press, 2023—present
• Race, Gender, and Class, rotated off 2016
• Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, Founding Editorial Board Member of Journal, rotated off 2017

Occasional Reviewer

• American Journal of Cultural Sociology
• Annals of the American Academy of Political and *Social Science
• Amerasia Journal
• American Journal of Sociology
• American Sociological Review
• Asia Pacific Perspectives
• Contexts
• Du Bois Review
• Ethnic & Racial Studies
• Gender & Society
• International Migration Review
• Journal of Asian American Studies
• Korea Journal
• Modern Asian Studies
• Qualitative Sociology
• Social Problems
• Social Psychology Quarterly
• Sociological Quarterly
• Symbolic Interaction

External links

• Nadia Y. Kim publications indexed by Google Scholar

This article "Nadia Y. Kim" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Nadia Y. Kim. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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