Jiyeon Lee

(she/her)

Japan and Korea: Jiyeon Lee studies sociology using mixed methods, with a focus on immigration, gender, the state, and social change. Her intellectual passion revolves around the legal and substantive dimensions of citizenship—how one's access to rights and resources is determined by law and beyond. Her recent work delves into this question in the welfare state context. Focusing on the interactive negotiation processes between South Korea's frontline workers and their welfare clients, she investigates how gendered, racialized, and classed ideals of citizenship are at play in these contexts, and how differing burdens and capacities to perform as deserving subjects reinforce social inequality.

University of Tokyo, M.A. International Relations, 2019; B.A. Area Studies (East Asia), 2016