NCA KACA panel session

Connecting Two Worlds: Living as a Korean American Scholar

The panelist will address the following issues concerning living as a Korean American scholar:

You are doing Korean studies because…oh, you are Korean!  by Eun Young Lee

As a graduate student who is Korean, it is not rare to get suggestions to pick a research subject that is something about Korea. At the first thought, it does make sense. But, at the second thought, why should I? From my own experiences and struggles to refine as a Korean scholar in the US academia, I would like to propose we need a regular check-up to revisit why we are doing what we are doing. For the revision process, I suggest to consider 1) self-reflexivity, 2) positionality, and 3) reflexivity. Consistently revisiting those three facilitates us to “connect” internally to ourselves and externally to the whole academia.

A new form of academic acculturation among international professors at U.S. universities  by  Wonjun Chung

The increased demand on diversity in today’s society has been significantly reflected in academic institutions worldwide.
As a crucial center of information and advanced technology, for example, the United States (U.S.) has been constantly attracting more students and scholars worldwide than before. As a result, the number of Korean-American professors teaching at college level has been steadily growing in the U.S. Like the international students who often have a difficult time in studying in the U.S., international professors also encounter acculturative issues, for example, due to the demands for academic and cultural adjustments, expectations regarding publications and services as well as teaching in English, etc.
Throughout the panel discussion, I would like to share with current and future Korean-American professors what/how I have dealt with those issues in a productive way.

What MaMa, PhD can’t tell you: Appreciation of “we-ness” in the life of a Korean female doctoral student with a child in the U.S.  by Hyang-Sook Kim

Given the nature of the academic discipline, studies in communications usually attract many female scholars. As in other occupations, in many cases women in communication scholarship can expect to fulfill multiple duties, taking on more parental responsibility than men in the course of their career development. When female scholars who have additional burdens such as mastery of English as a second language come to these expectations, they experience a great deal of physical and psychological stress. This panel discussion will focus on the challenges that Korean female scholars typically face, especially in the early states of their careers – namely, their doctoral programs. The discussion will suggest useful approaches to overcome those challenges based on the presenter’s personal experiences in not only work-related aspects but also life in general, including motherhood. In particular, approaches to the problem solving will center on the importance of networking both offline and online.

Connecting with your students: Teacher immediacy  by Eun-Ho Yeo

This panel discussion will address various ways Korean American scholars have developed their own ways to connect with students in and outside of the classroom. The discussion will be based on “teacher immediacy” which refers to communication behaviors that reduce the perceived distance between teacher and students. In the discussion the panelist will provide several cases which delineate typical challenges many Korean American scholars face developing a good rapport with their students and how they have managed the situation.