Pyong Gap Min
Distinguished Professor

Office: Powdermaker Hall 233H
Phone: 718 997-2810
Fax: 718 997-2820
Email: pyonggap.min@qc.cuny.edu

Pyong Gap Min is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He also serves as Director of  The Research Center for Korean Community at Queens College.  He has taught courses on race and ethnic relations, immigration, ethnic identity,   marriage and the family, new immigrants and their religions, and Asian Americans. The areas of his research focus are immigrant entrepreneurship, ethnic identity, changes in the family and women’s gender role, and immigrants’ religions, with a special focus on Asian Americans.

Min is the author of five books, all focusing on Korean Americans. The books include Caught the Middle: Korean Communities in New York and Los Angeles (University of California Press, 1996), Ethnic Solidarity for Economic Survival: Korean Greengrocers in New York City (Russell Sage Foundation, 2008), and Preserving Ethnicity through Religion in America: Korean Protestants and Indian Hindus across Generations (New York University Press, 2010). Caught in the Middle is the winner of two national book awards (The Association for Asian American Studies and the Section on Asia and Asian America of the American Sociological Association). Preserving Ethnicity through Religion in America is the recipient of the 2010 Outstanding Book Award from the Association for the Studies of Koreans Abroad. Commenting on Preserving Ethnicity through Religion in America, Paul Spickard of the University of California, Santa Barbara, has said “Pyong Gap Min here exhibits all the methodological skill and interpretive nuance we have come to expect from the foremost sociologist of Asian American religion. . . . The book is a tour de force, one that will cause us to re-evaluate several things we have long thought we knew about how religion shapes ethnicity and vice-versa. The writing is clear and jargon-free, and the narrative is rich in human detail.” Click here for the table of contents, or read the introduction. (Altamira Press, 2002), Encyclopedia of Racism in the United States, 3 volumes (Greenwood Press, 2005), and Asian Americans: Contemporary Trends and Issues, Second Edition (Pine Forhe Press, 2006). Encyclopedia of Racism in the United States was selected as one of the 23 best books published in the reference category in 2005 by the Booklist.

Min is the editor or co-editor of seven books. They include Mass Migration to the United States: Classical and Contemporary Periods

Using multiple data sources characterizes Min’s research methods. For almost all his works, he has combined quantitative data (results of independent surveys and government documents) and qualitative data (in-depth personal interviews and/or ethnographic research). He has also used newspaper articles extensively in four of his five books.

He is currently involved in three book projects: (1) New York Korean Immigrants’ Korean Cultural Practices and Their Effects on New Yorkers; (2) The History of The Post-1950 Korean Community in New York City, and (3) The Effect of Business Involvement on Ethnic Attachment and Solidarity: Chinese, Indian and Korean Immigrants in New York City.  He is also conducting research on the Relationship between Korean Merchants and Latino Employees in New York City.