Consumption in Koreatown, NYC with Author Jinwon Kim

Talk Highlights:

• Uncover the forces behind the rise of Korean food in NYC, from Korea’s nation branding strategy to New York’s own tourism and urban policies
• Rethink what makes an ethnic enclave, and find out why Kim calls Koreatown a "transclave"
• Gain insights from Jinwon Kim's 135 interviews and 16 years of fieldwork in Korea and New York
• Trace how K-culture traveled from Seoul to Manhattan, and what it changed along the way

About this Virtual Talk:

Drawing on in-depth interviews with 135 individuals and participant observation conducted between 2008 and 2024 in both Korea and New York City, Jinwon Kim investigates how Korea’s nation branding strategy and socioeconomic changes, together with new patterns in Korean migration and shifts in tourism and urban policies in New York City, shape Manhattan’s Koreatown into a unique kind of ethnic enclave that the author calls a “transclave.”

In, Koreatown, NYC: The Consumption of a Transnational Brand, Kim conceptualizes the transclave as a transnational space of Seoul-style consumption through intensive flows of people, capital, and consumer culture. She challenges the traditional sociological understanding of ethnic enclaves as steppingstones to assimilation and offers a new framework for understanding a new type of ethnic enclave in consumer-oriented cities.

In this talk, Kim will explore the recent popularity of Korean food in New York City by focusing on both transnational and domestic factors that have led to a new trend of commercialization of ethnic food, one with an emphasis on authenticity, the rise of the omnivore society, and the voices of ordinary people. While Koreatown’s authenticity has been largely defined by commercialized ethnic cuisine by local entrepreneurs, the Korean government, and franchises, Kim argues that Koreatown’s authenticity has represented the collective imaginations and narratives of various consumer groups—Korean nationals, Korean Americans, and non-Koreans.

About Jinwon Kim, Ph.D.:

Jinwon Kim, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of sociology in the Department of Sociology at Smith College. Prior to this position, she was a tenure-track assistant professor at New York City College of Technology, City University of New York (2019-2024). Kim’s research and teaching focus on urban sociology, Asian American studies, race and ethnicity, transnational and global sociology, immigration, consumption, and qualitative research methods. Her research brings together themes of race and ethnicity, urban studies, Asian/Asian American studies, transnational studies, immigration, and consumption. Based on those broad academic interests, her research explores how racial and ethnic communities in the U.S. are shaped and reinforced by transnational flows of people, money, ideas, and culture between the U.S. and Asia, and how such transnational flows have reinforced interethnic and interracial relations and conflicts, with a particular focus on the historical and contemporary dynamics between Black and Korean communities across the Pacific, as well as relationships between Koreans and other Asian ethnic groups in New York City.

Her first monograph, Koreatown, NYC: The Consumption of a Transnational Brand was published in 2026 by NYU Press, and examines how Korea’s nation-branding strategies—particularly those involving Korean food and pop culture—have shaped Manhattan’s Koreatown into a distinctive type of ethnic enclave. Her work has appeared in City & Community, The International Journal of Cultural Policy, CUNY Forum, A Companion to Korean American Studies, COVID-19 and Global Cities: Comparative Perspectives (in Korean), and World Politics and Economy (in Korean). She also co-edited Koreatowns: Exploring the Economics, Politics, and Identities of Korean Spatial Formations with two other sociologists, and contributed chapters to the volume. This edited volume was published by Lexington Books in 2020 (now Bloomsbury).

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