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Faculty

Annette M. Kim

Associate Professor

Director, Spatial Analysis Lab (SLAB)

Education

Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning, University of California, Berkeley

Expertise

Housing and Land Use
International Development Planning
Art and Culture Placemaking
Urban Spatial Data and Visualization

Biography

Annette M. Kim, Ph.D., is Associate Professor at the Sol Price School of Public Policy. She is also the Director of SLAB, the spatial analysis laboratory at USC Price that advances the visualization of the social sciences for public service through teaching, research, and public engagement. She also holds a courtesy appointment at the USC Roski School of Art and Design.

Her research experiments with ways to recover data of overlooked peoples and phenomenon by incorporating fieldwork and humanities knowledge into spatial analysis. She utilizes critical cartography and spatial ethnography to re-conceptualize contemporary urbanism and find more inclusive and humane ways to design and govern the 21st century city. She has also researched the development of real estate markets and the reformation of property rights in transition countries in Eastern Europe and Asia. Her books include Sidewalk City: Re-Mapping Public Space in Ho Chi Minh City (University of Chicago Press, 2015) and Learning to be Capitalists: Entrepreneurs in Vietnam’s Transition Economy (Oxford University Press, 2008), translated into Vietnamese in 2022 by Nha Nam Press.

Previously, Dr. Kim was Associate Professor at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. She received her Ph.D. in city and regional planning and masters of visual studies from the University of California, Berkeley. She received her masters in public policy and urban planning from Harvard University and her B.A. in architecture and studio art from Wellesley College.

Selected Media

Affiliated Research Centers

Lusk Center for Real Estate

Advancing real estate knowledge, informing business practice, and addressing timely issues that affect the real estate industry, the urban economy, and public policy.

Sol Price Center for Social Innovation

The Sol Price Center for Social Innovation was established with the recent gift to name the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. This new center aims to advance ideas, strategies, and practices that enhance the quality of life for people in urban communities.