Kim is an Assistant English Professor at the University of Toledo and a poet. She researches global Anglophone literature, Asian American literature, and poetry, and created the first ever course on Asian American Literature. She has received two research awards from UT’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. She has won university awards including the “Edith Rathbun Outreach and Engagement” award which recognizes faculty for exceptional community outreach and excellence in community engagement, and the University’s “Influential Women” award.

A poet as well as a literary critic, Kim’s first book of poems, “Body Facts,” won a contest with a cash award and was released by Diode Editions in 2021. It was also a finalist for the “Ohioana Book’’ award which ranks among the most prestigious state literary prizes in the nation. Her most recent book, “Romanticism and the Poetics of Orientation” (Edinburgh UP 2023) highlights the racial and ethnic formation of the poetic subject in terms of Orientalism. She won first place in the Arts Commission’s “Merit” award in 2021 and subsequently served as a judge in the Ode to the Zip Code Poetry Contest.

Kim’s work in the community includes the Advisory Board of the Circle for Asian American Literary Studies and member of the Diversity Scholars Network. She has given public lectures at UT’s Eberly Women’ Center, Asian Studies program, and the Toledo Lucas County Public Library. She has worked with Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz’s office, the Arts Commission and Toledo’s Fair Housing Center to bring poetry to the community. During COVID, she spoke with local news media regarding Asian American representation and anti-Asian racism.

Kim is a graduate of John Carroll University and The Ohio State University.