Dr Jieun Kim is a socio-cultural anthropologist focusing on the study of social marginalisation in the context of contemporary Japan and South Korea. Her research examines the daily power dynamics that define certain groups as “others” or lesser members and outcasts of society. She is particularly interested in the ways in which social inequalities are naturalised and contested based on perceptions of social and bodily differences.
Beth Lavery was the Project Support Assistant (2021 – 2022) on the Hematopolitics project, supporting research activities and events. Her personal research interests focused on gentrification, including the urban impact of the marketisation of higher education, as well as the different meanings of food in urban space, its commodification, role within neoliberal discourses of health, and its role as a driver of poverty.