Dr Helen Kim

Profile

I joined the School of Media and Communication as a Lecturer of Media and Communication in September 2018. I hold a Ph.D. in Sociology from the London School of Economics and Political Science and was formerly a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of East London.

My research focuses on diaspora, urban migration and ‘race’ in the UK, US and Germany. My recent book Making Diaspora in a Global City: South Asian Youth Cultures in London (Routledge US) is an ethnographic study of urban music-making and the cultural politics of the ‘desi’ South Asian diaspora in London. I have published in Ethnic and Racial Studies, Identities, European Journal of Cultural Studies and the Journal of Cultural Geography.

My current research project is on the Korean ‘guestworker’ diaspora who have settled in Germany, US, Canada and Korea. It will explore diasporic and postcolonial memory, race-making, the mediated experience of guestworker narratives in Korea and the negotiation of the meaning of representations of guestworkers. The project will use visual methods as well as oral histories.

Responsibilities

• DIrector of Postgraduate Research Studies

Research interests

My research interests span across various areas within media and communication studies. These include:

-Diaspora, memory, and culture

-Race, ethnicity and media

-Food and media

-Cities and urban multiculture

-Ethnographic methods

My most recent project, from 2022-2024, funded by the Academy of Korean Studies, was a cultural study of Korean food, more specifically, on kimchi and its growing popularity in London and the rest of the UK. Adopting the view that food captures a particular moment in culture, time, and place, I use kimchi as a cultural object that tells us something about contemporary issues of diaspora, race and popular culture. Out of this project, I published a journal article in 2024 on kimchi and the performance of authenticity at a New Malden Korean cultural festival, in the British Journal of Korean Studies. Another journal article on artisanal kimchi makers in London and their use of heritage is currently under review.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. Sociology, 2011
• MSc. Research in Sociology, 2006
• Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, 2001

Student education

I teach on both undergraduate and MA modules within the School. These include modules relating to ‘race’ and migration, feminism, globalisation and contempory debates in media and communication. .

Research groups and institutes

• Visual Media and Communication

Current postgraduate researchers

• Tongzhou Ran
• Chi Zhang