Yeong-Hyun Kim
Office Hours
By appointment
Education
Ph.D., Syracuse University, 1998
Research
- Globalization
- Economic geography
- Urban geography
- Asia
My research interest includes globalization, diaspora communities, international labor migration, and Rust Belt cities. I am currently working on a research project examining urban restructuring in the U.S. Rust Belt, as part of the NEH-sponsored Rust Belt Humanities Labs. Particular attention is paid to local economic development efforts in former industrial cities of Ohio to see what attempts are made to reverse the decades-long trend of deindustrialization and why certain needs and interests are prioritized over others.
Another research project I have worked on is to examine the return migration of ethnic Koreans from Northeast China to South Korea. I have been awarded two National Geographic research grants to examine how this return migration has reshaped ethnic Koreans鈥 diaspora identity and relations with both the homeland and the host country. I have also looked into the spatial exclusion and access of Southeast Asian migrant workers to urban public places in Seoul. I have conducted a series of personal interviews with Filipino factory workers to hear about their spatial stories of exclusion and belonging in Seoul, a newly emerging migrant destination in East Asia where the importance of 鈥渁ctually existing鈥 cosmopolitanism is yet to be recognized in urban planning and design.
Courses Taught
- GEOG 1310: Globalization and the Developing World
- GEOG 3260/5260: Urban Geography
- GEOG 3290/5290: World Economic Geography
- GEOG 3380/5380: Geography of Asia
- GEOG 6260: Seminar in Urban Geography 鈥 The Urban Poor
- GEOG 6290: Seminar in Economic Geography 鈥 Global Economic Restructuring
- T3 4400 Seminar in Wealth and Poverty
Representative Publications
2025 鈥淭he Diversity of Rust Belt Cities: Challenging the Single Story of Urban Decline,鈥 Rust Belt Studies, 1
2024 鈥淎frican Immigrant Women's Experiences of Maternity Care in the United States,鈥 MCN, The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing, 49 (6), pp.341-347 (with R. Appiah-Kubi and L.B. Attanasio).
2018 鈥淧romoting and controlling labor migration: South Korean state鈥檚 intervention for control in the temporary migrant worker program and its (un)intended outcomes,鈥 Journal of the Korean Geographical Society, 53 (2), pp.229-246 (with Hyun-Joo Jung).
2017 鈥淭he global city and its discontents,鈥 John Rennie Short, ed., A Research Agenda for Cities, Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, pp.13-25
2008 Cities and Economies, London: Routledge. (with John Rennie Short)
Selected Student Projects
Shamsuddeen Magaji Bello, 2025, 鈥淧romises and Realities of Smart City Projects in Africa: The Abuja Centenary Economic City (ACEC) in Nigeria鈥 (M.A. in Geography)
Sean Pierce, 2025, 鈥淭he Gentrification Effects of Urban Greening in the East Side of Cleveland: The Euclid Beach Neighborhood Plan and Mobile Home Residents鈥 (HTC in Environmental Studies)
Kendra Mckitrick, 2024, 鈥淧olitics and Geography of Rightsizing in Downtown Toledo鈥 (HTC in Geography)
Xander Stultz, 2024, 鈥淭he Troost Divide: New Injustice Arising from Gentrification of Troost Avenue Neighborhoods in Kansas City, Missouri鈥 (Honors in Geography)
Kandavith Nget, 2022, 鈥淩eturn and Reintegration of Cambodian Migrant Workers after Working Abroad鈥 (M.A. in Geography)
Mckenney, Kaia, 2022, 鈥淧riced and Left Out by Green Gentrification: The Over-The-Rhine Neighborhood in Cincinnati鈥 (HTC in Environmental Studies)