First things first: Since you may have parachuted into this page via google, I should clarify that I'm the David Kim who is a philosophy prof at the U. of San Francisco, not the CEO of Baja Fresh, pastor from Los Angeles, concert violinist, cosmetic surgeon, etc., etc. There's a film,
Grace Lee, portraying the lives of several semi-randomly chosen women named "Grace Lee." With the sheer number of David Kims, just think of the possibilities! Well, so much for individuation.
I arrived at USF as a James Irvine Dissertation Scholar and received my Ph.D. in philosophy from Syracuse University. After joining the faculty at USF in 1999, I co-founded and directed the Asian American Studies Program and later chaired the Philosophy Department. Currently, I am Associate Professor of Philosophy. I also serve as Chair of the American Philosophical Association's Committee on the Status of Asian and Asian American Philosophers and Philosophies.
By standard categories, my work falls under the broadly-conceived headings of political philosophy, Asian/comparative philosophy, and philosophical psychology/phenomenology. I take a critical, pluralist, and, lately, an integrationist approach to these subjects. For my work in political philosophy and Asian/comparative philosophy, I have received a National Endowment for the Humanities Chair at USF and a Resident Fellowship at Harvard University's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute.
I currently have three, maybe four, concrete research agendas. Below, I elaborate a bit and list some relevant work of mine.
1. Polity, Race, and Empire
I have a strong interest in how race and empire offer illuminating critical lenses through which to examine the structure of modern polities and their struggles with articulating and realizing democracy. My concern is not just with accommodation of multicultural pluralism, which tends to be the focus of liberal political philosophy, but with systems and legacies of oppression and disempowerment. An understanding of the latter seems to me as central to political philosophy as an understanding of democratic ideals. My work here focuses primarily on understanding and critiquing U.S. imperialism. Correlatively, it is concerned with the racial and imperial conditions faced by Asians, Pacific Islanders, and Latin Americans in their homelands, and by Asian Pacific Americans and other minorities in the U.S.
- Patriotism
(co-edited with Rob Elias), a special edition of Peace Review, vol. 15, no. 4, 2003.
<Table of Contents>
- Asian Pacific American Philosophy: Other Borders and Other Bodies in the Philosophy of Race
(co-edited with Craig Ihara), a special edition of The American Philosophical Association Newsletter on the Status of Asian/Asian American Philosophers and Philosophies, vol.2, no.2, Summer 2003.
<Table of Contents>
- "Asian American Philosophers: Absence, Politics, and Identity"
Vrinda Dalmiya and Xinyan Jiang, eds., American Philosophical Association Newsletter on the Status of Asian/Asian American Philosophers and Philosophies, vol.1, no.2, Summer 2002
<Abstract>. <Paper>
- "Orientalism and America Enlarged"
in Craig K. Ihara and David H. Kim, eds., American Philosophical Association Newsletter on the Status of Asian/American Philosophers and Philosophies, vol.2, no.2, Summer 2003
[Reprinted in Paul Taylor, ed., The Philosophy of Race (New York: Routledge Press, 2011), ch.67.]
<Abstract>. <Paper>
- "The Place of American Empire: Amerasian Territories and Late American Modernity" Philosophy and Geography, vol.7, no.1, February 2004
<Abstract>. <Pre-publication Paper>
- "An Unruly Theory of Race"
Hypatia, vol.27, no.4, Nov. 2012
<Abstract>. <Pre-Print>
- "Xenophobia and Racism"
(co-authored with Ronald Sundstrom), forthcoming in Critical Philosophy of Race.
<Abstract>. <Pre-Publication Paper>
Works in Progress
- Asian American Philosophy (co-edited with Ronald Sundstrom), a collection of essays for a special journal edition, under review.
- "Antinomies of the Black Pacific: From David Fagen's Rebellion to Huey Newton's Fifth Column," ms.
2. Comparative/Integrative Philosophy and Anti-Colonial Thought
Above, the main focus is on critically examining social structures or problems. Here, greater concern is placed on ideas. Several centuries of global Western imperialism has deeply entrenched Eurocentrism in our epistemic and educational practices. This condition has obscured the tremendous value of classical and modern-hybrid forms of Asian and other non-Western philosophies. Relatedly, a diverse array of anticolonial and other related forms of critical thought has been largely ignored. This latter phenomenon adds another layer of complexity to the task of reclaiming, disseminating, assessing, and ultimately integrating Western and
many kinds of non-Western philosophies. In trying to do philosophy in a critical integrationist fashion, I address or draw from classical Asian, modern-hybrid Asian, and still other sources – e.g. José Martí, José Rizal, W.E.B. Du Bois, John Dewey, Liang Qichao, José Mariátegui, the early Confucian trinity (Kongzi, Mengzi, and Xunzi), and some contemporary authors in Africana and (Latin American) Decolonial thought. More recently, I have turned to the work of Gandhi and Tagore, and elements of syncretic Korean thought (Chondogyo, Donghak, and Minjung thought).
- "Empire's Entrails and the Imperial Geography of ‘Amerasia'"
City: Analysis of Urban Trends, Policy, Culture, Action, vol.8, no.1, April 2004
<abstract>. <paper>
- "Modern Order and the Promise of Anarchy: From the ‘Writhing Age' of Souls to World Reconstruction"
Hamline Review, (special edition on the 100th Anniversary of Du Bois' Souls, vol.28, 2004)
<abstract>. <pre-publication paper>
- "The Unexamined Frontier: Dewey, Pragmatism, and America Enlarged"
Eduardo Mendieta and Chad Kautzer, eds., Pragmatism, Community, and Empire (Indiana University Press, 2009)
<abstract>. <pre-publication paper>
- "What is Asian American Philosophy?"
George Yancey, ed., Philosophy in Multiple Voices (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007)
<abstract>. <pre-publication paper>
Works in Progress
- "Amerasian Decolonial Thought" ms
- "The Meaning of Her Majesty's Madness: Dark Princess and Afro-Asian Anarchy" ms
- "Rights as Rites" ms
- "Confucianism, Hegemony, and Imperialism" ms
3. Philosophy of Emotion: Phenomenology and Moral/Political Psychology
Much of my graduate work focused on philosophy of mind, philosophy of emotion, philosophy of psychiatry, moral psychology, and phenomenology. Out of this context, I completed a dissertation on the nature of disgust and how an understanding of disgust might shed light on how moral agency is embodied. Since then, I've focused on the politics of emotion. And more recently, I've been thinking about the nature of affectivity and emotion more generally, phenomenologically, and cross-culturally.
- Mortal Feelings: A Theory of Revulsion and the Intimacy of Agency, Ph.D. thesis.
- "Contempt and Ordinary Inequality"
Susan Babbitt and Sue Campbell, eds., Racism and Philosophy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999), ch. 6.
- "Shame and Self-Contempt in The Accidental Asian"
E. Ann Kaplan and Susan Scheckel, eds., Boundaries of Affect: Ethnicity and Emotion (Occasional Papers of the Humanities Institute, SUNY Stonybrook, 2007)
- "Shame and Self-Revision in Asian American Assimilation," in Emily S. Lee, ed., Phenomenology, Embodiment, and Race (SUNY Press, forthcoming)
Works in Progress
- Passions of the Colorline
Edited volume, under review.
- "Confucian Shame: Heteronomy, Hierarchy, and Hegemony" ms
- "Rethinking Phenomenological Critiques of Prinz's Theory of Emotion" ms
- Enlivenment: Emotion as Living Intentionality
Book manuscript on the nature of affectivity, emotion, and the lived life.
