Yi is a professor at Daegu University Department of Sociology. Her research interest includes division and immigration, minority sociology, and qualitative research methodology. She graduated from Seoul National University and received a master’s and doctoral degree in sociology from Technical University of Berlin and University of Kassel in Germany, respectively. She served as a visiting professor at the Department of Philosophy and Humanities of the Free University of Berlin and an exchange professor at University of Giessen. She is now the chairperson of the Critical Sociological Association, the chief of the Courageous Women Research Center of Magdalena House, and a director of Magdalena House. She also served as a chief editor for Economy and Society, a director of the RC38 Biography and Society of the International Sociological Association, an editor of Society and History, a vice chairperson of the Korean Association for Cultural Sociology, a member at the steering committee of People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, and a visiting research fellow at the Hope Institute.