
Education
Ph.D., Harvard University, 2023, Anthropology
M.A., Seoul National University, 2015, Anthropology
B.A., Yonsei University, 2011, Sociology
Research Interests
Political and legal anthropology
language and semiosis
gender and sexuality
social movements in contemporary South Korea
international human rights law
Bio
Yookyeong Im is an anthropologist specializing in legal subjectivity, language, gender and sexuality, and social movements in the context of contemporary Korea. Her research examines the ways in which the law engages with social discrimination and political aspirations. Her current book project explores how the law emerged as one of the most potent means of queer politics in South Korea. With ethnographic and historical approaches to the increasing judicialization of social movements, she revisits the question of law’s potential in emancipatory politics and focuses on the dilemmatic function of law in shaping queer political imaginations.