JESSICA KIM
Associate Professor
Department of History
California State University, Northridge
18111 Nordhoff Street
Northridge, CA 91330-8250
(818) 677-4330
jessica.kim@csun.edu
www.jessicamichellekim.com
EDUCATION
Ph.D. University of Southern California, History, 2012
M.A. University of Southern California, History, 2009
B. A. La Sierra University, History, 2000, Magna cum laude
PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
Associate Professor, California State University, Northridge, 2018-present
Assistant Professor, California State University, Northridge, 2013-2018
Postdoctoral Fellow, Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, 2012-2013
PUBLIC HISTORY POSITIONS
Digital Media Coordinator, Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, 2018-present
Visiting Associate Director, Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, 2015-2016
PUBLICATIONS
Books
Imperial Metropolis: Los Angeles, Mexico, and the Borderlands of American Empire, 1865-1941
David J. Weber Series in New Borderlands History, University of North Carolina Press, August 2019.
Refereed Journal Articles
“Destiny of the West: The International Pacific Highway and the Pacific Borderlands,
1929-1957,” Western Historical Quarterly, Fall 2015.
“The Contested Nexus of Los Angeles Koreatown: Capital Restructuring, Gentrification,
and Displacement,” with Kyeyoung Park, Amerasia Journal, February 2009.
Articles
“Teaching California History Roundtable,” California History, forthcoming.
“Map Room: The Contours of Los Angeles and the 1932 Olympics,” California History,
Summer 2015.
Book Reviews
Review, Making Black Los Angeles: Class, Gender, and Community, 1850-1917, by Marne L.
Campbell, in Pacific Historical Review, Summer 2018.
Review, Where Texas Meets the Sea: Corpus Christi and Its History by Alan Lessoff, in
Pacific Historical Review, October, 2016.
Review, Before L.A.: Race, Space and Municipal Power in Los Angeles, 1781-1894 by
David Samuel Torres-Rouff and Freedom’s Frontier: California and the Struggle over Unfree Labor, Emancipation, and Reconstruction by Stacey L. Smith, in Reviews in American History, September 2015.
Manuscripts in Preparation
“Mexican Utopias: The Topolobampo Bay Colony and the Politics of Escape.”
GRANTS, AWARDS, AND FELLOWSHIPS
Research Grant, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, CSUN, 2017
Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Award, CSUN, 2015-2016
Summer Research Fellowship, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, CSUN, 2014-2018
NEH Fellowship, “Bridging National Borders in North America,” at the Newberry Library, 2014
Summer Research Fellowship, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, CSUN, 2014
New Faculty Research Award, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, CSUN, 2013-2014
Dissertation Research Award, USC-Huntington Institute on California and the West, 2011
Dissertation Research Award, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, 2011
Haynes Foundation Research Fellow, Huntington Library, 2010
Dissertation Research Award, Historical Society of Southern California, 2010
Kelterborn Merit Award, University of Southern California, 2009-2010
Roberta Foulke Research Fellowship, University of Southern California, 2008, 2010, 2011
College Graduate Merit Award, University of Southern California, 2006-2012
INVITED TALKS
“Borderlands,” Lost LA television series, KCET, October 2017.
“California and the Nation,” UCLA History and Geography Project, July and October 2017.
“Los Angeles: 1848-1920,” UCLA History and Geography Project, July 2015.
“The U.S. West and Mexico,” Huntington Library, August 2015.
“The Visual Legacy of the Mexican Revolution,” Museum of Latin American Art, June 2015.
“In Conversation with Jessica Kim,” Huntington Library, November 2014.
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
Conferences/Symposia Organized
“One Hundred Years Since Columbus,” one day conference, Huntington Library, June 2016.
Panels Organized
“Californio Dreams: A Century of Exporting Fantasies and Utopias,” American Historical
Association, Pacific Coast Branch, August 2016.
“Teaching Sustainability through Digital Los Angeles,” National Council on Public History,
March 2014.
“From Spanish Past to Pacific Future: Region, Identity, and Tourism along the California and
Mexico Pacific Coast, 1920-1957,” Western History Association, October 2013.
“The Walrus, the Fox, and the Desert: City, Region, and Empire in Los Angeles and Mexico,
1898-1944,” Western History Association, October 2011.
Papers Presented
“‘A Hard and Desperate Fight’: Race, Masculinity, and Private Property in the Los Angeles-
Mexico Borderlands,” paper and panel accepted, Western Association of Women Historians, April 2017.
“New Mexico, 1916: Villa and the Impact of the Mexican Revolution on US History and
Historiography,” Organization of American Historians, April 2016.
“‘A Place of Great Importance’: American Expansionism, Mexican Investments, and Los
Angeles, 1829-1885,” Western History Association, October 2015.
“Is There a Los Angeles School of Western History?” Roundtable with Virginia Scharff, Stephen
Aron, William Deverell, John Mack Faragher, and Kelly Lytle Hernandez, Western History Association, October 2014.
“The City of Los Angeles vs. the Government of Mexico,” American Historical Association,
Pacific Coast Branch, August 2014.
“Good Feelings and Commercial Ties: Forging Angeleno-Mexican Partnerships, 1874-1910,”
Newberry Library Borderlands and Latino Studies Seminar, September 2013.
“Destiny of the West: Tourism, Leisure, and Reconnecting the Western Hemisphere,” Latin
American Studies Association, May 2012.
“Fortune and Misfortune in the Los Angeles-Mexico Borderlands, 1902-1920,” Society for
Historians of American Foreign Relations Annual Conference, June 2010.
“Imperial Los Angeles: Exploring the City’s Global Past, 1890-1930,” Tepoztlán Institute for
Transnational History of the Americas Annual Conference, July 2009.
“Culture of Conquest: Panama, U.S. Travel Narratives, and Imagining a White Colonial Utopia,
1904-1914,” Huntington-USC Institute for California and the West, May 2008.
“The Contested Nexus of Los Angeles Koreatown: Bohemianization as a Step to Capital
Restructuring,” with Kyeyoung Park, PhD, Association of Asian American Studies Annual Conference, 2005.
Discussant
“Water on the Border: Transnational and Environmental Perspectives on the History of the U.S.-
Mexico Borderlands,” panel commentator, Western History Association, October 2016.
PUBLIC SCHOLARSHIP
Faculty Advisor, “Black Pobladores: The Founding of Los Angeles and its African Roots,” an
exhibit produced in partnership with CSUN students and El Pueblo Historical
Monument, City of Los Angeles, 2015-2016.
Project Manager and Curator, “Form and Landscape: Southern California Edison and the Los
Angeles Basin, 1940-1990,” a digital exhibit produced in partnership with the Huntington Library and the Getty Foundation, 2012-2013.
Contributor, “Los Angeles and Water: In Commemoration of the Los Angeles Aqueduct,”
primary source collection, 2012-2013.
Postdoctoral Associate, AHA-NEH Atlantic and Pacific Worlds Community College Seminar,
2012-2013.
Historical Advisor, Education Department, Museum of Latin American Art,
“An Introduction to Latin American History,” art and history installation, 2012-2013,
“MoLAA in the Classroom,” curriculum development, 2010-present.
Coordinator, “Things I’d Like to Know about Los Angeles,” day-long public forum on future
trends in the study of Los Angeles, 2012.
Professional Development Instructor, Pasadena Unified School District, 2012
Topic: Teaching U.S. History (part of a NEH Teaching American History grant).
Archival Assistant, Western Manuscripts Collection, Huntington Library, 2009-2010.
Archival Assistant, Regional Special Collections, University of Southern California, 2007.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
California State University, Northridge
History 271 United States since 1865
History 396 Digital History
History 433 Public History
History 486A History of Los Angeles
History 488 California
History 488A The American West
History 494 Internship Program
History 497 Tourism and the American Past
History 498 Narrating the Past for the Present
History 508 Practicum in Archival Administration (Internship)
History 594 Graduate Internship Program
History 596 Graduate Introduction to Public History
California State University, Los Angeles
History 459 Sexuality in the Americas
History 488 California History
History 489 History of Los Angeles
Pepperdine University
History 304 History of the American Peoples
History 326 California History
La Sierra University
History 430J California History
SERVICE TO THE PROFESSION
Council, Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association, 2018-present
Editorial Board, Pacific Historical Review, 2015-present
Campus Liaison, Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association, Annual
Conference, 2017
Requested Reviewer, University of Arizona Press, 2017
Reviewer, California History, 2016
Reviewer, Southern California Quarterly, 2016
Reviewer, Bedford/St. Martin’s Press, 2016
Reviewer, Journal of Latin American Studies, 2015
DEPARTMENTAL/UNIVERSITY SERVICE
Mentor, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, CSUN
Chair, Public History Program, CSUN
Member, Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, CSUN
Member, California Studies Committee, CSUN
Member, Center for Southern California Studies, CSUN
Associate Professor
Department of History
California State University, Northridge
18111 Nordhoff Street
Northridge, CA 91330-8250
(818) 677-4330
jessica.kim@csun.edu
www.jessicamichellekim.com
EDUCATION
Ph.D. University of Southern California, History, 2012
M.A. University of Southern California, History, 2009
B. A. La Sierra University, History, 2000, Magna cum laude
PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
Associate Professor, California State University, Northridge, 2018-present
Assistant Professor, California State University, Northridge, 2013-2018
Postdoctoral Fellow, Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, 2012-2013
PUBLIC HISTORY POSITIONS
Digital Media Coordinator, Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, 2018-present
Visiting Associate Director, Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, 2015-2016
PUBLICATIONS
Books
Imperial Metropolis: Los Angeles, Mexico, and the Borderlands of American Empire, 1865-1941
David J. Weber Series in New Borderlands History, University of North Carolina Press, August 2019.
Refereed Journal Articles
“Destiny of the West: The International Pacific Highway and the Pacific Borderlands,
1929-1957,” Western Historical Quarterly, Fall 2015.
“The Contested Nexus of Los Angeles Koreatown: Capital Restructuring, Gentrification,
and Displacement,” with Kyeyoung Park, Amerasia Journal, February 2009.
Articles
“Teaching California History Roundtable,” California History, forthcoming.
“Map Room: The Contours of Los Angeles and the 1932 Olympics,” California History,
Summer 2015.
Book Reviews
Review, Making Black Los Angeles: Class, Gender, and Community, 1850-1917, by Marne L.
Campbell, in Pacific Historical Review, Summer 2018.
Review, Where Texas Meets the Sea: Corpus Christi and Its History by Alan Lessoff, in
Pacific Historical Review, October, 2016.
Review, Before L.A.: Race, Space and Municipal Power in Los Angeles, 1781-1894 by
David Samuel Torres-Rouff and Freedom’s Frontier: California and the Struggle over Unfree Labor, Emancipation, and Reconstruction by Stacey L. Smith, in Reviews in American History, September 2015.
Manuscripts in Preparation
“Mexican Utopias: The Topolobampo Bay Colony and the Politics of Escape.”
GRANTS, AWARDS, AND FELLOWSHIPS
Research Grant, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, CSUN, 2017
Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Award, CSUN, 2015-2016
Summer Research Fellowship, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, CSUN, 2014-2018
NEH Fellowship, “Bridging National Borders in North America,” at the Newberry Library, 2014
Summer Research Fellowship, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, CSUN, 2014
New Faculty Research Award, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, CSUN, 2013-2014
Dissertation Research Award, USC-Huntington Institute on California and the West, 2011
Dissertation Research Award, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, 2011
Haynes Foundation Research Fellow, Huntington Library, 2010
Dissertation Research Award, Historical Society of Southern California, 2010
Kelterborn Merit Award, University of Southern California, 2009-2010
Roberta Foulke Research Fellowship, University of Southern California, 2008, 2010, 2011
College Graduate Merit Award, University of Southern California, 2006-2012
INVITED TALKS
“Borderlands,” Lost LA television series, KCET, October 2017.
“California and the Nation,” UCLA History and Geography Project, July and October 2017.
“Los Angeles: 1848-1920,” UCLA History and Geography Project, July 2015.
“The U.S. West and Mexico,” Huntington Library, August 2015.
“The Visual Legacy of the Mexican Revolution,” Museum of Latin American Art, June 2015.
“In Conversation with Jessica Kim,” Huntington Library, November 2014.
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
Conferences/Symposia Organized
“One Hundred Years Since Columbus,” one day conference, Huntington Library, June 2016.
Panels Organized
“Californio Dreams: A Century of Exporting Fantasies and Utopias,” American Historical
Association, Pacific Coast Branch, August 2016.
“Teaching Sustainability through Digital Los Angeles,” National Council on Public History,
March 2014.
“From Spanish Past to Pacific Future: Region, Identity, and Tourism along the California and
Mexico Pacific Coast, 1920-1957,” Western History Association, October 2013.
“The Walrus, the Fox, and the Desert: City, Region, and Empire in Los Angeles and Mexico,
1898-1944,” Western History Association, October 2011.
Papers Presented
“‘A Hard and Desperate Fight’: Race, Masculinity, and Private Property in the Los Angeles-
Mexico Borderlands,” paper and panel accepted, Western Association of Women Historians, April 2017.
“New Mexico, 1916: Villa and the Impact of the Mexican Revolution on US History and
Historiography,” Organization of American Historians, April 2016.
“‘A Place of Great Importance’: American Expansionism, Mexican Investments, and Los
Angeles, 1829-1885,” Western History Association, October 2015.
“Is There a Los Angeles School of Western History?” Roundtable with Virginia Scharff, Stephen
Aron, William Deverell, John Mack Faragher, and Kelly Lytle Hernandez, Western History Association, October 2014.
“The City of Los Angeles vs. the Government of Mexico,” American Historical Association,
Pacific Coast Branch, August 2014.
“Good Feelings and Commercial Ties: Forging Angeleno-Mexican Partnerships, 1874-1910,”
Newberry Library Borderlands and Latino Studies Seminar, September 2013.
“Destiny of the West: Tourism, Leisure, and Reconnecting the Western Hemisphere,” Latin
American Studies Association, May 2012.
“Fortune and Misfortune in the Los Angeles-Mexico Borderlands, 1902-1920,” Society for
Historians of American Foreign Relations Annual Conference, June 2010.
“Imperial Los Angeles: Exploring the City’s Global Past, 1890-1930,” Tepoztlán Institute for
Transnational History of the Americas Annual Conference, July 2009.
“Culture of Conquest: Panama, U.S. Travel Narratives, and Imagining a White Colonial Utopia,
1904-1914,” Huntington-USC Institute for California and the West, May 2008.
“The Contested Nexus of Los Angeles Koreatown: Bohemianization as a Step to Capital
Restructuring,” with Kyeyoung Park, PhD, Association of Asian American Studies Annual Conference, 2005.
Discussant
“Water on the Border: Transnational and Environmental Perspectives on the History of the U.S.-
Mexico Borderlands,” panel commentator, Western History Association, October 2016.
PUBLIC SCHOLARSHIP
Faculty Advisor, “Black Pobladores: The Founding of Los Angeles and its African Roots,” an
exhibit produced in partnership with CSUN students and El Pueblo Historical
Monument, City of Los Angeles, 2015-2016.
Project Manager and Curator, “Form and Landscape: Southern California Edison and the Los
Angeles Basin, 1940-1990,” a digital exhibit produced in partnership with the Huntington Library and the Getty Foundation, 2012-2013.
Contributor, “Los Angeles and Water: In Commemoration of the Los Angeles Aqueduct,”
primary source collection, 2012-2013.
Postdoctoral Associate, AHA-NEH Atlantic and Pacific Worlds Community College Seminar,
2012-2013.
Historical Advisor, Education Department, Museum of Latin American Art,
“An Introduction to Latin American History,” art and history installation, 2012-2013,
“MoLAA in the Classroom,” curriculum development, 2010-present.
Coordinator, “Things I’d Like to Know about Los Angeles,” day-long public forum on future
trends in the study of Los Angeles, 2012.
Professional Development Instructor, Pasadena Unified School District, 2012
Topic: Teaching U.S. History (part of a NEH Teaching American History grant).
Archival Assistant, Western Manuscripts Collection, Huntington Library, 2009-2010.
Archival Assistant, Regional Special Collections, University of Southern California, 2007.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
California State University, Northridge
History 271 United States since 1865
History 396 Digital History
History 433 Public History
History 486A History of Los Angeles
History 488 California
History 488A The American West
History 494 Internship Program
History 497 Tourism and the American Past
History 498 Narrating the Past for the Present
History 508 Practicum in Archival Administration (Internship)
History 594 Graduate Internship Program
History 596 Graduate Introduction to Public History
California State University, Los Angeles
History 459 Sexuality in the Americas
History 488 California History
History 489 History of Los Angeles
Pepperdine University
History 304 History of the American Peoples
History 326 California History
La Sierra University
History 430J California History
SERVICE TO THE PROFESSION
Council, Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association, 2018-present
Editorial Board, Pacific Historical Review, 2015-present
Campus Liaison, Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association, Annual
Conference, 2017
Requested Reviewer, University of Arizona Press, 2017
Reviewer, California History, 2016
Reviewer, Southern California Quarterly, 2016
Reviewer, Bedford/St. Martin’s Press, 2016
Reviewer, Journal of Latin American Studies, 2015
DEPARTMENTAL/UNIVERSITY SERVICE
Mentor, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, CSUN
Chair, Public History Program, CSUN
Member, Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, CSUN
Member, California Studies Committee, CSUN
Member, Center for Southern California Studies, CSUN
