Staff Profile
Dr Kyoungmi Kim
Senior Lecturer in Korean and Applied Linguistics
I am a Senior Lecturer in Korean and Applied Linguistics. I teach modules such asLanguage and Society, Forensic Linguistics, Korean Language and Society, and theKorean Language Project, as well as Research Methods (MRes). I also supervise PhD and MRes students working on multilingualism, intersectionality, multimodality, and digital communication.
My research centres on institutional and professional discourses within multilingual and multinational contexts, including computer-mediated communication. Drawing upon discourse analysis, I examine workplace discourse and institutional discourse, exploring how professional identities and power relations are constructed and negotiated through language. My work also addresses issues of multilingualism and language ideologies in various settings.
I currently hold research funding from the Korean Studies Grant 2024 (The Academy of Korean Studies) for a project entitled 'Demystifying Discourses on Non-Honorific Speech Styles on a South Korean Online Community Platform’. I am also working on a forthcoming book, KoreanScapes: A Sociolinguistic Guide to Korean Language and Society (Routledge), which explores Korean language, society, and discourse from a sociolinguistic perspective.
Prior to joining my current institution, I worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Loughborough University London, contributing to the ESRC-funded projectGlobalising Actors in Multinational Companies.
I hold a PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Warwick, where my doctoral research investigated the discursive construction of problems in multinational corporate workplaces. I also hold an MSc in Language Teaching from the University of Edinburgh.
- School – School of Education, Language and Psychology
- Email – k.kim@yorksj.ac.uk
- Phone – 01904 876 023
- Research - View my work in RaY
- Postgraduate Research Supervisor
Further information
Teaching
I direct and teach the following modules:
- Language and Society
- Forensic Linguistics
- Korean Language and Society 2
Research
My research revolves around institutional and professional discourses in multinational/multilingual contexts and computer-mediated discourse. I draw on interactional sociolinguistics and narrative analysis to explore how we construct social meanings, identities, and social relationships.
I have published papers in international, peer-reviewed journals, such as Discourse & Communication, Journal of International Business Studies and Critical Perspectives on International Business. I also contributed a chapter to 'Institutionality: Studies of Discursive and Material (Re-)Ordering'. My publications include empirical studies on participants’ discourse about language, culture and norms in multinational workplaces, as well as studies on the discursive construction of power and identity in multinational contexts.
I collaborate with researchers in and outside of linguistics to investigate language-related real-life problems and to examine social and ideological processes at the workplace.
Publications
Journal
Kim, K. and Angouri, J. (2022) ‘It’s hard for them to even understand what we are saying’(.) Language and power in the multinational workplace. Critical Perspectives on the Management of Multilingualism in International Business, special issue of Critical perspectives on international business. doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/cpoib-06-2020-0084.
Edwards, T., Svystunova, L., Almond, P., Kern, P., Kim, K. and Tregaskis, O. (2022) Whither National Subsidiaries? The need to refocus International Management research on structures and processes that matter. Journal of International Business Studies, 53 (1), pp.203-210.
Almond, P., Edwards, T., Kern, P., Kim, K. and Tregaskis, O. (2021) Global norm-making processes in contemporary multinationals. Human Resource Management Journal. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12350.
Kim, K., and Angouri, J. (2019) ‘We don’t need to abide by that!’ Negotiating professional roles in problem-solving talk at work. Discourse & Communication, 13 (2), pp. 172-191.
PAD Research Group*. (2016) Not so ‘innocent’ after all? Exploring corporate identity construction online. Discourse & Communication, 10 (3), pp. 291-313.
*Professional and Academic Discourse (PAD) Research Group at University of Warwick: Stephanie Schnurr & Sue Wharton (co-ordinators), Suha Alansari, Jo Angouri, Rachel Chimbwete Phiri, Teresa Chiriatti, Carolin Debray, Christina Efthymiadou, Sixian Hah, Tilly Harrison, Ana Kedves, Attapol Khamkien, Kyoungmi Kim, Nor Azikin Mohd Omar, Thi Hong Nhung Nguyen and
Sophie Reissner-Roubicek.
Book Chapter
Kim, K. (2022) ‘we are in the hands of the head office’ Managing a multinational institution
in decision-making meeting talk in Y. Porsché, R. Scholz, and J. N. Singh (ed.). Institutionality: Studies of Discursive and Material (Re-)Ordering. Palgrave Macmillan: London.
Conferences
Conference paper
Managing inequalities with WhatsApp: A sociolinguistic approach to emergence-based institutionalisation of a financial inclusion programme, 38th EGOS Colloquium 2022, Vienna, Austria, July 7–9, 2022.
Translation and narrative temporality: Translating the ‘one-firm’ in a global professional services firm.
The 12th International Process Symposium. Rhodes, Greece, September 01-04, 2021.
Bridging Institutional Interfaces in Developing Countries: The sociolinguistics of WhatsApp as a management tool. Journal of Management Studies Idea Development Workshop, February 26, 2021.
Professional dynamics in the transnational process: a case study of a strategizing episode in a global
professional services firm. EGOS & Organization Studies, Kyoto University, Japan. December 13-15, 2019.
Members’ accounts of practices of institutions in interaction. The 35th European Group for Organizational Studies. Edinburgh, UK, July 4-6, 2019.
Diffusing the global service standards and initiatives in a transnational professional services firm: a
practice view. The 11th International Process Symposium. Crete, Greece, June 19-22, 2019.
Redirecting ‘big stories’ to ‘small stories’ in context of a problem-solving meeting in a Korean multinational company. The 10th Discourse, Communication and the Enterprise Conference, KU Leuven - Faculty of Arts. Leuven, Belgium, June 3-5, 2019.
Enacting the global service standards ‘in practice’ in a transnational professional services firm. Globalizing Actors: creating, diffusing and contesting the norms of international management, Loughborough University London, UK, 4-5th April 2019.
'We don't speak proper English ourselves’. Language problems in a multinational company. Groupe
d'Études Management & Language, Copenhagen Business School, Demark, 4–5 July 2017. (Best PhD paper award)
How (socio-)linguistics works in workplace research: Working towards ‘transdisciplinarity’. The 9th Discourse, Communication and the Enterprise Conference, Aston University, Birmingham, 28–30 June 2017.
‘All we do is meetings around here’ reaching agreement in problem solving meeting talk. The Gothenburg meeting science symposium, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, 23–24 May 2017.
Role enactment in problem-solving interaction. The 5th iMean, University of West Bristol, Bristol, 6–8 April 2017.
When sociolinguistics is drawn upon in workplace research: Working towards multidisciplinarity. The 5th iMean, University of West Bristol, UWE, Bristol, 6–8 April 2017.
'It's our decision'. Problem solving as a co-orientation activity: A sociolinguistic view. The 8th International Process Symposium: Dualities, dialectics and paradoxes in organizational life, Corfu, Greece, 16–18 June 2016.
Understanding power relationships in a multinational company: An ethnographic case study of a British subsidiary of a Korean MNC. International Association of Cross-Cultural Competence and Management, Vienna University of Economics and Business, 1–3 October 2015. (funded by IACCM).
Professional activities
I am a member of:
- International Association for Discourse Studies (DiscourseNet)
- European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS)
- Groupe d'Études Management & Language (GEM&L)
