Dr. Yoon Jung Park

Program Director, Africa-China Initiative and
Adjunct Professor, African Studies, Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University

Yoon Jung Park is a leader in the growing field of China/Africa studies and one of the foremost experts of Chinese people in southern Africa. She is the author of A Matter of Honour: Being Chinese in South Africa (Jacana/Lexington Books) and dozens of articles and book chapters in scholarly publications including the African Studies Review, African Studies, African & Asian Studies, The Journal of Chinese Overseas, Transformation, and the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. She has edited and co-edited several special China-Africa issues of respected journals. She is currently completing her second book, focused on "new" Chinese migrants in Africa. Park has taught at the University of the Witwatersrand (or Wits) and Rhodes University (both in South Africa), University of Johannesburg, Rhodes University, American University, and Howard University. She holds degrees from Wits (PhD, Sociology), the Fletcher School (MA, International Affairs), and Pitzer College (BA, Sociology/Women's Studies). Park was born in Seoul; grew up in Los Angeles; lived much of her adult life in Johannesburg (1994-2000, 2003-2010) and Nairobi (2000-2003); and is currently based in the greater Washington, DC area. She has also lived in Cuernavaca (Mexico), Boston, San Jose (Costa Rica). 

Park's work sits at the intersections of migration studies, Africa and Global China studies, work on the Global South, and identity studies. Her research focuses on ethnic Chinese in southern Africa and perceptions of Chinese people by local communities, centering on issues of transnational migration, race/ethnicity/identity, race/class/power, gender, affirmative action, and xenophobia.