YOUBIN KANG
yk762@cornell.edu
CV
I am currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University.
I am interested in thinking about capitalism as labor, the shifting ideas of deservingness and citizenship, the dramaturgy of city politics, time horizons of solidarity and disenchantment, and the socio-materiality of infrastructure. I try to be true to my roots in my work through respect for community and justice.
My dissertation project completed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Sociology Department investigates subway infrastructure as a site of contestation. I examine the puzzle of perpetual public transit insolvency through a comparative historical analysis of labor relations in New York City and Seoul between 1974 and 2022. Grants from the National Science Foundation and the Social Science Research Council supported this project.
Previously, I have written about regulating garment supply chains in Bangladesh.
Concurrent projects with collaborators include a quantitative study on driverless subways (with Jungmyung Kim), a qualitative study on U.S. immigration policy in the workplace (with Shannon Gleeson and Kate Griffith), and a portrait project of young organizers in New York City (with Guarionex Rodriguez Jr). I am also interested in writing for a broader audience about cities, labor, activism, aesthetics, and subjectivities.
I was born in Busan, South Korea and raised in New Delhi, India; Seoul, South Korea; and Cairo, Egypt. Prior to grad school I worked for a short while at the International Labour Organization. I am geeked about meditation, I can’t drive and I love everything about trains.
yk762@cornell.edu
CV
I am currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University.
I am interested in thinking about capitalism as labor, the shifting ideas of deservingness and citizenship, the dramaturgy of city politics, time horizons of solidarity and disenchantment, and the socio-materiality of infrastructure. I try to be true to my roots in my work through respect for community and justice.
My dissertation project completed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Sociology Department investigates subway infrastructure as a site of contestation. I examine the puzzle of perpetual public transit insolvency through a comparative historical analysis of labor relations in New York City and Seoul between 1974 and 2022. Grants from the National Science Foundation and the Social Science Research Council supported this project.
Previously, I have written about regulating garment supply chains in Bangladesh.
Concurrent projects with collaborators include a quantitative study on driverless subways (with Jungmyung Kim), a qualitative study on U.S. immigration policy in the workplace (with Shannon Gleeson and Kate Griffith), and a portrait project of young organizers in New York City (with Guarionex Rodriguez Jr). I am also interested in writing for a broader audience about cities, labor, activism, aesthetics, and subjectivities.
I was born in Busan, South Korea and raised in New Delhi, India; Seoul, South Korea; and Cairo, Egypt. Prior to grad school I worked for a short while at the International Labour Organization. I am geeked about meditation, I can’t drive and I love everything about trains.
WRITING
“All aboard the moral panic” in n+1 Magazine. 6/20/2024
︎︎︎Featured podcast with John Ferretti on Red Medicine
“Exorcising the haunted desire for legibility in Dictee” (2024) in She Follows No Progression: A Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Reader. New York: Wendy’s Subway.
︎︎︎ Reading at the Poetry Project
"South Korean Truckers Provide a Model for Labor Organizing Among Independent Contractors" in Jacobin Magazine. 2/21/2023
“Infrastructure Aunties” in Truelove Y. & Annavarapu S. (eds.) Roadsides no.009: Gendering Infrastructure. 4/18/2023
"The power of the uncanny in contemporary political art" in The Amp. 10/2/2023
INTERVIEWS
“Red Canary Song on Making Migrant Massage and Sex Workers Visible ” in The Amp 2/15/2024
API LGBTQ+ Multimedia Project: Intergenerational Conversation & Healing, Interview with Clara Lee, with Kiwi (Dabney Park), PFLAG NYC, 2022
“Activism, Photography and Workers’ Collective Leadership: A Conversation with Taslima Akhter” in Asian Labour Review. 4/24/2023
BOOK REVIEWS
(2024). “Book Review: Queer Career by Margot Canaday.” ILR Review.
(2024). “Book Review: Race in the Machine - A Novel Account By Quincy Thomas Stewart.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity.
(2022). “Book Review: Private Regulation of labour standards in GVCs By Sarosh Kuruvilla.” ILR Review 75(1): 342
ACADEMIC WRITING
Underground Labor and the Politics of Circuits in the Subways of New York and Seoul, 1974-2022
︎︎︎ (2024) “ Status threat, meritocracy, and the politics of solidarity in the Seoul Subway” Social Problems (online first)
︎︎︎ “Between the TV and the Barricade: The Dramaturgy of Subway Strikes” (in preparation)
︎︎︎ “The Relational Work Behind Public Transit Insolvency” (in preparation)
Automation
︎︎︎ with Jungmyung Kim. (2023) “The spectacle of automation and status aspirations: adoption of automated metro systems around the world, 2000–2020” Socio-economic review
22(3): 969-991
Regulation of global supply chains
︎︎︎ (2024) “Alternative Strikes in Asia” (in preparation)
︎︎︎ (2021) "The Rise, Demise, and Replacement of the Bangladesh Experiment in Transnational Labour Regulation" International Labour Review 160 (3): 407-430
︎︎︎ (2021) "Access to justice after Rana Plaza: A preliminary assessment of grievance procedures and the legal system in the apparel global supply chain" in Delautre, G.,Echeverria Manrique E., Fenwick, C. (eds). Decent Work in a Globalized World: Lessons from Public and Private Initiatives. ILO: Geneva, 265-300
Labor Law
︎︎︎ (2019) “Freedom of association and collective bargaining in minority trade unions” International Labor Rights Case Law Journal 5(2): 158-163
