Current position: Assistant Professor of Anthropology

Current affiliation: Wayne State University

Research website: Link

Research description: Dr. Kim, a biocultural anthropologist, conducts research both domestically and abroad that broadly focuses on survivor needs, forensic intervention, and health. Theoretical lenses include structural violence, settler colonialism, critical human rights theory, biology of trauma, and evolutionary theory. East African research (Uganda and Tanzania) focuses on forensic anthropology as part of transitional justice processes, sociopolitical impacts of mass graves on survivors, forensic anthropology capacity-building amongst diverse stakeholders, and the role of the spirits of the dead in forensic intervention. This is longitudinal research (circa 2011) that occurs in conjunction with a multi-institutional, multidisciplinary research team. Dr. Dawnie Steadman, Dr. Tricia Hepner, Mr. Hugh Tuller, and Ms. Julia Hanebrink serve as co-PIs. As a forensic anthropologist for the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office in Detroit, MI, Dr. Kim also conducts research interrogating evidence of structural violence or social vulnerability through biomarkers, scene data, material artifacts, and sociocultural context. She also participates in Operation UNITED, a joint FBI-DPD effort to identify cold cases. This work informs her research on the practice of forensic anthropology. Previous research projects also include analysis of human trafficking survivor needs in rural Ohio through the lens of neurological trauma response, post-disaster victim identification and emergency services in Middle Tennessee, and the role of human remains at Indian Residential School cemeteries in Canada's transitional justice process.