Han Sang Kim

I am an associate professor of sociology at Ajou University, Suwon, South Korea. My teaching interests include visual sociology, qualitative methods, and sociology of film and media. I have conducted research and written on the themes of film archives, ethics of photographic representation, post/colonial visual culture, and mobilities. My most recent book is Cine-Mobility: Twentieth-Century Transformations in Korea’s Film and Transportation (Harvard University Asia Center, 2022).
My current major research interests are heading in two directions. One is how the positionality of audiovisual archives affects the knowledge and representation of excavated photographic/filmic documents, especially in the context of colonial and postcolonial experiences. The other concern is over the media representation of racial identities in a once monoethnic society that grapples with its unpreparedness for multicultural realities.
Since visual sociologists in Asia are extremely marginalized, I believe IVSA can function as an effective hub for scholars scattered and isolated in the discipline of sociology in this region. I am encouraging some of my colleagues in the sociological fields of South Korea who are interested in visual methods, leading an informal study group to prepare a possible IVSA branch or partner association based in Asia. I believe IVSA’s geographical expansion will also contribute to the association’s diversity and sensibilities regarding non-Western visuality.