Jungah Kim
Associate Professor
English
EMAIL: JUKim@bmcc.cuny.edu
Office: N-751N
Office Hours:
Phone: +1 (212) 776-6509
Jungah Kim received her Ph.D. from Columbia University and joined the faculty of BMCC in 2012. Prior to her appointment at BMCC, Kim taught honors courses at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where she was a postdoctoral research fellow. She studied Asian American and comparative ethnic literary studies, postcolonial, transnational, and global literature and theory, and teaching of literature. Her current research and teaching interests are global histories of economic and racial subjection and the topic of Asian diaspora manifested in literature, film, and pop culture. In 2019, Kim served as chair of the 5th Annual BMCC Women’s Conference. She was appointed a sabbatical visiting scholar at the Center for Gender & Sexuality Law, Columbia Law School in 2019-2022 and has been named a Mellon/ACLS Fellow in 2022.
Expertise
Postcolonial Literature and Theory, Literature of Migration, English Education, Human Rights, Autobiography and Memory, East Asian Diaspora, Asian American Literature, Deconstruction Theory, Psychoanalysis
Degrees
M. Phil. & Ph. D. Columbia University, 2010
Courses Taught
- ENG 100.5 is a co-requisite first-year writing course that offers additional instructional support. The course introduces students to the academic writing process through the study of culturally-diverse nonfiction prose. Emphasis will be placed on developing thesis-driven responses to the writing of others, practicing revision, following the conventions of MLA style, and completing a research project. Since this course is equivalent to ENG 101, by its successful conclusion students will be ready for English 201 and for the writing they will be asked to do in advanced courses across the curriculum.
Prerequisite: English Proficiency Index 64 and lower OR a score of 43-55 on the CAT-W and Exemption from developmental reading OR successful completion of developmental reading. This course is not open to ESL students.
Please note: Tuition for this corequisite course is charged by the equated credit (hours) not per credit. - English Composition is the standard first-year writing course. The course introduces students to the academic writing process through the study of culturally-diverse nonfiction prose. Emphasis will be placed on developing thesis-driven responses to the writing of others, practicing revision,
following the conventions of MLA style, and completing a research project. By its successful conclusion, students will be ready for English 201 and for the writing they will be asked to do in advanced courses across the curriculum.
Prerequisite: Writing PI 65+ - This is a course that builds upon skills introduced in English 101. In this course, literature is the field for the development of critical reading, critical thinking, independent research, and writing skills. Students are introduced to literary criticisms and acquire basic knowledge necessary for the analysis of texts (including literary terms and some literary theory); they gain proficiency in library and internet research; and they hone their skills as readers and writers. Assignments move from close readings of literary texts in a variety of genres to analyses that introduce literary terms and broader contexts, culminating in an independent, documented, thesis-driven research paper. By the conclusion of English 201, students will be prepared for the analytical and research-based writing required in upper-level courses across the curriculum; they will also be prepared for advanced courses in literature. Prerequisite: ENG 101
- Introduction to Literary Studies is an inquiry into what it means to study literature, involving close reading, critical and creative analysis of a wide variety of prose fiction, drama, and poetry, and informed by an introduction to some of theoretical issues currently invigorating literary studies. In addition to works of literature, students will read critical and theoretical works. This course combines a study of literature with continued training in clear and effective expression. It is designed for prospective Writing and Literature majors and other interested students. Prerequisite: ENG 101 or 121 Corequisite: ENG 201
- This course will study and analyze selected novels, short stories, poems and plays of postcolonial writers from Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia, the English speaking Caribbean, New Zealand, Canada and Australia. The course will examine the ways in which postcolonial writers transcend a British imperial legacy of colonialism to redefine their own distinctive social and cultural worlds. Note: This course is crosslisted as: AFL 336.
- Representative works reflective of the collective experiences of Asian American writers are analyzed. American writers are analyzed. Fiction, poetry, drama and non-fiction written from Chinese, Filipino, Asian Indian, Japanese, Korean and South-East Asian cultural perspectives are discussed
- This course focuses on the gradual emergence of the American novel both as a literary form and as a reflection and reinforcement of patterns in the fabric of American life. Representative authors may include Hawthorne, Melville and Stowe from the 19th century; Lewis, Cather, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Hemingway and Steinbeck from the 1920's to the 1950's; and Wright and Mailer of the 1960's and 1970's.
- This course presents a global approach to literature by introducing prose, poetry and drama representative of different cultures and historical periods, from the 17th century to the present. Students engage in close readings of individual texts and contextual/comparative analyses. Written and spoken activities are designed to enhance students? appreciation of literature and their awareness of the ways it arises from, shapes, and reflects the world?s cultures.
Research and Projects
- “The Madness of Forgiveness: Comfort Women, Banality of Evil, and Chang-rae Lee’s A Gesture Life” (Manuscript in Progress)
- The Absent Empire of Postcolonial Grammatology (Book Project in Progress)
- The Search for Humanity After Atrocity (Special Issue Project in Progress with Violence: An International Journal)
Publications
- “Teaching Asian American Literature in the Urban Multicultural Classroom: Reflexive Practice, Cultural Politics, and the Problem of Identity within a Transnational Framework.” 2019, Teaching with Tension: Race, Resistance, and Reality in the Classroom. Eds. Lee Bebout, Philathia Bolton, and Cassander Smith.
- “The Sound of Silence.” 2017, Transdisciplinary Higher Education: A Theoretical Basis Revealed in Practice. Ed. Paul Gibbs.
- “Crossing the Disciplinary Boundary: Pedagogical Conjunction in the Humanities and the Sciences.” International Journal of Science in Society 8.3 (September 2016): 1-20. Print. Co-authored with Kenneth L. Campbell and Neal Bruss.
- “Mother Tongue.” Hidden: Absences and Presences. The Center for Art and Thought (2014). Web.
- “Rooted and Rootless, Exiled and Belonging: Aporetic Moments of Justice as Law in Camus’s The Guest.” Law and Literature 25.2 (July 2013): 244-267. Print.
- “Ethical Complexities in Reading and Writing Autobiography: Thinking the Humanity of Others in Maurice Blanchot’s The Instant of My Death.” Life Writing 9.1 (February 2012): 97-110. Print.
- “(Un)Binding the States of Location, Be(long)ing, Representation: Getting Lost in the East Asian Library.” Postcolonial Text 4.2 (2008): 1-4. Web.
Honors, Awards and Affiliations
- Mellon/ACLS Fellowship, 2022-2023
- PSC-CUNY Cycle 52 Enhanced Research Award, 2021-2022
- NEH-Funded Seminar “The Search for Humanity After Atrocity” Summer Scholar, Kean University, 2021
- Sabbatical Visiting Scholar at the Center for Gender & Sexuality Law, Columbia Law School, 2019-2020
- CUNY Academy Stefan Bernard Baumrin Award, 2019-2020
- CUNY Office of Research Book Completion Award, 2017-2018
- PSC-CUNY Cycle 48 Traditional B Research Award, 2017-2018
- NeMLA Annual Convention CAITY Caucus Grant, 2017
- NEH-Funded CUNY Faculty Development Program “Building Asian American Studies” Fellow, 2016-2017
- BMCC Faculty Development Grant, 2016-2017
- CUNY Faculty Publication Program Fellowship, 2014-2015
Additional Information
Mirror, Memory, Mother: The Absent Madness in Writing Schizophrenia (Ph. D. Dissertation, Columbia University, 2010)
