Samara Kim

Hi, I’m Samara (also known as Soo Im 수임 and Ji Yoon 지윤).

I’m a PhD candidate, writer, artist, and community organiser whose work bridges academic scholarship, community-building, and praxis. My doctoral research critically examines transracial–transnational adoption in Australia from a lived experience and critical adoptee standpoint.

Alongside my PhD, I work with Professor Kathomi Gatwiri on ARC DECRA project Beyond Inclusion: Belonging and Racial Dignity for Africans in Australia, which includes the development of the Racial Dignity Framework (racialdignity.com). This work centres racial dignity as a personal, relational, cultural, and structural necessity for Afro-Black being and belonging in everyday Australian life—including at home, in public spaces, and in schools and workplaces.

Broadly, my research interests explore how culturally and racially minoritised Australians navigate, resist, and heal from intersecting forms of structural violence and oppression. In the context of my doctoral research, I draw on Korean concepts such as jeong (정, emotional bond) and han (한, collective sorrow), as well as decolonial feminist theories of love, consciousness and racial dignity, to explore possibilities for liberation and healing justice.

When I'm not in the university, you can find me in community at KADS Connect (kadsconnect.com), the Korean Adoptees in Australia Network (KAIAN), and the Australian Women and Gender Studies Association (AWGSA).