Sooyoung KimDissertation Completion Fellow

Sooyoung Kim is a PhD candidate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Emory University.

Her research focuses on trans history in South Korea and the Asia-Pacific region, decolonial trans feminism, and trans of color critiques from a trans-Pacific perspective. Her dissertation project investigates the counter-history of trans and queer communities in East Asia during the Cold War with a focus on the lives of trans entertainers and sex workers in Seoul. During her 18-month fieldwork in Seoul, she participated in a community-based archival project in which trans elders have shared their life stories with others in the community. Resonating with these life stories, her work elaborates on the vernacular practice of trans elders sharing their life stories within their communities as a radical means of producing trans knowledge.