ABOUT
Hi! Welcome to my personal webpage. I'm an Associate Professor of Sociology and faculty member at the Centre for the Study of the United States, which is housed in the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. I am a Senior Fellow in the Yale University Urban Ethnography Project and an International Scholar at the Penn Injury Science Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
I research and write about gun violence, health inequality, and crime. I also wrote Blowin' Up: Rap Dreams in South Central, which was awarded the Charles Horton Cooley Award for Best Book from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction. My new book, The Walking Wounded: Festering and Ricocheting Trauma after Gun Violence, is out in April 2026. In my free time, I teach and train jiu jitsu and enjoy time with my family.
AS FEATURED IN
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PUBLICATIONS
Blowin' Up:
Rap Dreams in South Central
Dr. Dre. Snoop Dogg. Ice Cube. Some of the biggest stars in hip hop made their careers in Los Angeles. And today there is a new generation of young, mostly black, men busting out rhymes and hoping to one day find themselves “blowin’ up”—getting signed to a record label and becoming famous. Many of these aspiring rappers get their start in Leimart Park, home to the legendary hip hop open-mic workshop Project Blowed. In Blowin’ Up, Jooyoung Lee takes us deep inside Project Blowed and the surrounding music industry, offering an unparalleled look at hip hop in the making.
In The Walking Wounded, Jooyoung Lee invites readers into the hospitals, courtrooms, and homes where gunshot victims struggle to rebuild their lives. Drawing from years of fieldwork in Philadelphia, Lee shows how victims’ injuries fester into new problems over time in the absence of meaningful follow-up care. Attempting routine tasks with a wounded body reminds survivors that they are no longer who they used to be—both physically and socially. Lee shows how trauma ricochets through victims’ worlds as their injuries also affect their family and friends. To make matters worse, Lee argues, existing government safety nets place victims into ever more precarious circumstances that compound their suffering.
SPEAKING
I am also an active public facing scholar who regularly appeared on CBC News Network's "The Conversation" and also on CP24, CTV, Al Jazeera, and other news outlets as a crime and current events commentator. My TEDx talk, "What Happens to the People We Save?", highlights my innovative work on gun violence, trauma, and disability.
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As Appeared On...
TEACHING
I am an award-winning educator who uses interactive learning and video games to teach students about hip hop, homicide investigation, gun violence, martial arts, and other related topics.
I pivoted to teaching on Twitch during the pandemic and have developed new ways to make remote learning fun, engaging, and impactful.
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Teaching Highlights
Here are some memorable moments during the pivot to remote learning during the pandemic. This experience has been eye-opening and it's broadened my horizons as an educator.
I wrote about how video games and interactive learning have become cornerstones in my pedgagogy here.
Teaching Highlights
Teaching Highlights
SOC 485: Lecture 2: Confrontational Tension and Fear part2
Talking about the importance of base and balance
