Jin Hee Lim

Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) in Geography and the Environment

Supervisors: Dr Ian Klinke and Professor Fiona McConnell

Infrastructural intersection and everyday experiences of state and status in Northern Thailand

Academic Profile

Jin Hee began her DPhil in October 2021. As a political geographer, she is keen to understand how people experience the state in their day-to-day lives via infrastructure. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in northern Thailand, she will examine the interplay between the stateless ‘hill tribe’ population and the Greater Mekong Subregion development initiative. Jin Hee holds a Master’s degree in International Cooperation from Seoul National University, where she graduated as Valedictorian with the Highest Honor Award. In her dissertation, entitled ‘Bringing Drugs into Light: Embedded Governance and Opium Production in Shan State, Myanmar from 1990 to Present’, Jin Hee examined the interdependence between informal power relationships and formal political arrangements. Her work was published by Oxford Development Studies.

Her Bachelor’s education in Geography was based at University College London. She earned a First Class Honours with her dissertation on nationalism amongst Southeast Asian youth. Jin Hee has years of working experience in relation to human development in Southeast Asia, including protection of Rohingya refugees, women’s vocational training in Laos and sustainable urban development in ASEAN countries. Jin Hee is a recipient of the British Council IELTS East Asia Prize and scholarship and is enthusiastic about musical theater.