Hwangsun Kim(Thomas) is from South Korea and holds a B.A. from the College of Liberal Studies at Seoul National University, where he focused on economics and Western history. Before turning more fully to history, he received training in economics and worked in economic and financial research.
His research interests lie at the intersection of global economic history, financial history, and the history of political economy. He is particularly interested in the interaction between sovereignty and finance: how states and financial institutions construct, negotiate, and contest claims over resources, credit, and monetary authority. His current interests center on the interwar period and the Pacific world, particularly the financial and political-economic connections among the United States, Japan, and East Asia.
More broadly, he is interested in how the disintegration and reconstruction of global financial orders shaped state formation and the transformation of capitalism during the twentieth century. He hopes to use the experience of the interwar period as a historical lens through which to understand the trajectories of the twentieth century, the structures of the present, and the possibilities of the future.
