Professor Kim joined Yale in 2018 following nearly a decade at Duke University, where he served for nine years as Faculty-in-Residence in a residential quad of approximately 430 students. A scholar of Korean Buddhism and East Asian religious history, Professor Kim’s research reinterprets the history of modern Korean Buddhism through a transnational and interdisciplinary lens.
His award-winning books—Empire of the Dharma: Korean and Japanese Buddhism, 1877–1912 and The Korean Buddhist Empire: A Transnational History, 1910–1945—have garnered international recognition, including honors from the Association for Asian Studies and a book award from the Ministry of Education of South Korea. His work challenges conventional national narratives by illuminating how Korean Buddhism was shaped through dynamic interactions with Japanese, Chinese, and global religious networks. His current project on clerical marriage extends this inquiry, exploring the complex intersections of monastic life, family, and modernity, and offering critical perspectives on the tension between religious ideals and lived experience.
Professor Kim’s intellectual journey has been shaped by formative personal experiences. Born and raised in a poor family in South Korea, he entered a Buddhist monastery at the age of sixteen. During his early college years, he served as a Buddhist chaplain in the South Korean military—an experience that deepened his engagement with matters of leadership and community. His subsequent involvement in reform movements within Korean Buddhism, intertwined with South Korea’s broader democratic movement, led him to reflect more deeply on the relationship between religion, politics, and power. This inquiry took him to Japan and Germany for further study, and eventually to the United States for master’s and doctoral training at Harvard University.
Professor Kim’s courses invite students to connect intellectual inquiry with lived experience and pressing contemporary questions. In his seminar Buddhist Monastic Experience, students explore the history and ideals of Buddhist monasticism while reflecting on their own spiritual development. In his course on North Korea, he encourages students to understand North Korean political ideology as operating in a religious manner and to attend closely to the everyday lives of North Koreans—their aspirations, struggles, and hopes.
Professor Kim has held numerous leadership roles at Yale, including serving as Chair of the Council on East Asian Studies, where he has worked to strengthen Korean Studies while deepening Yale’s global academic networks. His service spans departmental, university-wide, and international contexts, reflecting a sustained commitment to collaborative governance, student support, and cross-disciplinary scholarship. He has also helped students launch an initiative called Baram, which supports young North Korean defectors living in the United States through tutoring and mentorship on educational and career pathways. Attending student theater performances and music recitals is another way he enjoys staying connected to students’ creative work.
Outside of his academic life, Professor Kim is an avid tennis player, a passion he took up during the pandemic. He would be delighted to play with anyone who shares his enthusiasm for the sport.