Faculty

Hye Jin Lee is Clinical Associate Professor of Communication at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Her research examines popular culture, particularly K-pop, and the relationships between media industries and audiences. It focuses on global media, fandom and technology. Lee’s work explores how cultural meaning is produced and transformed across media systems and borders.

She is the founder and former editor of Books Aren’t Dead, a podcast series for Fembot that reviews and discusses recent publications by feminist scholars in media, communication, science and technology. Lee’s research includes the K-pop industry and global fandom, the transformation of cultural meaning as media crosses borders and the convergence of social media and television.

Lee served as managing editor of the Journal of Communication Inquiry, a peer-reviewed journal focused on interdisciplinary scholarship in communication and cultural studies.