Hesu Yoon

I bring in insights from cultural sociology to understand the role of preferences, reputations, and institutions in the uneven production and consumption of places as commodities. Particularly, by interrogating high-status consumers and place entrepreneurs – such as business owners, landlords, and travel writers – who have the power to mold physical, economic, and symbolic urban landscapes, I illuminate racialized perceptions and actions that (re)produce and shift spatial inequalities at the upper end of the social hierarchy. Moreover, in theorizing and designing my research, I pay close attention to structural forces that shape contemporary urban experiences, such as diversifying ethnoracial demographics, the consumer economy, and the rise of location-based digital technology. My research has been generously supported by the Stanford Institute for Research in the Social Sciences and the Korean Foundation of Advanced Studies, among others.

At Stanford, I am a member of the Changing Cities Research Lab (led by Jackelyn Hwang) and the Stanford Ethnography Lab (led by Forrest Stuart). I have also served as a Ph.D. fellow at the Center for Poverty and Inequality, the Center for Philanthropy and Civil Society, and the Haas Center for Public Service, and I will be serving as a teaching fellow at the Center for Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity in 2023-2024. Before coming to Stanford, I earned my MA in Sociology from Seoul National University and a BA in History and Political Science from Yonsei University.