Dae Young Kim

Director of MA Program in Sociology

Associate Professor

Sociology: Immigration, ethnicity, race, second-generation immigrants, immigrant entrepreneurship, Asian American studies, K-pop reception, and globalization

Dae Young Kim is an Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. He serves as the director for the MA program and directs the Immigration Studies minor. He received his B.A. in Sociology and Spanish from SUNY Binghamton and his Ph.D. in Sociology from CUNY Graduate Center. His research areas include the integration of second-generation immigrants, the transnational connections and activities of immigrants, the reception of K-pop and Korean popular culture in the United States, and the post-college transition of second-generation college students.

In his book, Transnational Communities in the Smartphone Age: The Korean Community in the Nation’s Capital (2018, Lexington Books), he examines the cross-border connections immigrants maintain with the home country, focusing particularly on the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) and transnational media in sustaining cultural and social ties to the homeland.

Dr. Kim is currently working on a new project titled "The Reception of Korean Popular Culture in the United States," which examines the growing popularity of K-pop and Korean popular culture in America. Based on an online survey (N = 1,700) and interviews with over 100 fans from diverse racial backgrounds, the study contributes to the growing literature on the Korean Wave, especially research on K-pop and Korean pop culture in North America.

Current Research

Selected Publications

Kim, Dae Young. 2022. “The Transnational Activities of Korean Immigrant Women in the USA: A Content Analysis of Missy USA Q&A Webpage.” Journal of International Migration and Integration.

Kim, Dae Young. 2018. Transnational Communities in the Smartphone Age: The Korean Community in the Nation’s Capital. Lexington Books.

Kim, Dae Young. 2014. “Coping with Racialization: Second-Generation Korean-American Responses to Racial Othering,” in Pyong Gap Min (Ed), Younger-Generation Korean Experiences in the U.S. and Canada. Lexington Books.

Kim, Dae Young. 2013. Second-Generation Korean Americans: Their Struggle for Full Inclusion. LFB Scholarly Publishing.

Kim, Dae Young. 2011. “The Pursuit of Elite High Schools and Colleges among Second-Generation Korean Americans.” Development and Society 40(2): 225-259.

Courses Taught

SOCI 120 Globalization and Society

SOCI 303 Sociological Research Methodology

SOCI 308 Racial and Ethnic Relations

SOCI 330 U.S. Immigrants and Immigration

Dissertations Supervised

Kounian Ding, Asian Americans’ Earning Parity in the U.S. Labor Market (2025)

Aleezay Khaliq, Searching for Identity, Belonging, and Community: Second-Generation Muslim American Participation in Muslim Spaces (2024)

Yukiko Furuya , The Role of Schools in Occupational Attainment in Japan: School Mediated Job-search Systems and High School Vocational Education (2020)

Felicia Garland-Jackson, Missing Voices: Participants' Narratives of the National Park Service's Summer in the Parks Program [1968-1976] (2018)

Ann Johnson, A Right-to-Work Model, the Unionization of Fairfax County Government Workers (2017)

Abigail Reiter , Racialized Microaggressions, Internalized and Intersecting Oppressions, and Identity Negotiation among Students of Color at a Predominately White University in the US Southeast (2016)