About HongJin Jo

HongJin Jo is a sociologist who studies international higher education, social class, and social change. He uses in-depth interviews and archival materials to examine the motivations behind individuals' participation in the global educational race and how they acquire and reproduce their class status. His dissertation focuses on the historical transformation of international student mobility to U.S. higher education, using South Korea as a case study. He reveals that locally motivated global strategies drive the pursuit of international education credentials. HongJin earned his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago in 2024, where he was a Dixit-Foged Dissertation Fellow. He received his Master's Degree in Sociology in 2012 and his Bachelor's Degree in Economics in 2010 at Seoul National University.

HongJin currently serves as a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in both the Department of Sociology and the College at the University of Chicago. He also advises B.A. theses for the Committee on Environment, Geography, and Urbanization, and teaches a course on the impact of globalization on education as part of the Education and Society Minor.

HongJin is a member of the American Sociological Association (ASA), the Social Science History Association (SSHA), the Korean Sociological Association (KSA), and the Association of Korean Sociologists in America (AKSA), and serves diverse sociology communities. He conducts peer reviews for academic journals such as the American Journal of Sociology and Socio-Economic Review. 

You can reach HongJin at hongjin@uchicago.edu