Hyun-Joo Lim

After teaching at the University of Bath for four years whilst doing my PhD, I joined the Sociology team at Bournemouth in 2012. Since then I have been teaching a range of undergraduate courses, as well as developing my research, exploring issues around identity, ethnicity/’race’, culture, and gender, focusing on East Asians in the UK.

I have conducted a number of research projects inspired by my personal experiences of migration to Britain from South Korea in 2000. Thanks to my cross-cultural experience, I have become fascinated by the considerable cultural differences between Korea and Britain and how these impact on individuals’ lives within these countries as well as on those who cross cultural boundaries.

My PhD, titled: ‘The Intersection of Motherhood Identity with Culture and Class: a Qualitative Study of East Asian Mothers in England’, explored the accounts of first generation East Asian mothers living in England by using life history interviews. It aimed to examine how these women perceived their national and/or cultural heritage to have affected their experiences and identity formation, focusing on the gendered division of household labour within the family and discourse around motherhood and employment.

In my teaching, I have delivered units on Theoretical Issues: Identities and Subjectivities; The Principles and Uses of Social Sciences; Social Policy, Welfare and the State; and more recently Sociology of Health and Illness; Families and Kinship in Contemporary Society; Politics and Ideology; and Social Exclusion and Discrimination. I am currently Programme Leader for BA (Hons) Sociology/BA (Hons) Sociology and Social Policy at BU.

I have been involved in research projects on North Korean defectors in the UK. I am in the process of writing journal articles on Transnational Family Justice, drawing on North Korean defectors' lived experiences, and Human rights activism among defectors based in the UK.