معرفی
Hun Kim is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban Planning and Public Policy at the University of California, Irvine, specializing in the political economy of Asian cities, particularly Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam. His work bridges urban studies with ethnographic analysis of late-socialist systems.
- Education: Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning with a focus on Global Metropolitan Studies from the University of California, Berkeley (2015).
Kim’s research interrogates urban transformation under Vietnam’s Đổi Mới reforms (1986), analyzing how transparency (master plans, property laws) and opacity (power networks, regulatory loopholes) coexist to shape speculative real estate markets and illiberal urbanism. His ethnographic work (2010–2024) highlights contradictions in capitalist development under one-party states.
Key Themes: World-class city imaginaries, property speculation, late-socialist governance, and the interplay between historical erasure and infrastructural legibility. His publications engage with urban theory, critical geography, and Southeast Asian studies.
- Scientific Awards: SSHRC Insight Development Grant (2018-2019).
Kim is affiliated with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, Association of American Geographers, American Anthropological Association, and Association of Asian Studies.
