ABOUT

ACADEMIC BACKGROUND
Mimi is a proud alumna of the University of Washington in Seattle. She graduated Magna Cum Laude and with Departmental Honors in both Comparative History of Ideas (CHID) and English Language & Literature. She is also the University's College of Arts & Sciences 2013 Dean’s Medalist in the Humanities.

EDUCATIONAL IMPACT

A first-generation immigrant and first-generation college student in the U.S., Mimi grew up believing in the promise of education not only to empower and liberate, but also to enrich and facilitate a kind of cross-cultural story-sharing that has informed much of her independent work as a McNair, Presidential, MacRae, and Mary Gates Research Scholar.

WHY SOUTH KOREA?

Mimi believes teaching in South Korea will be an important step in broadening her understanding of cultural identity and the effects of globalization. Her time in South Korea will help her further develop the abilities she needs to be an effective educator in what, someday, she hopes will be borderless classrooms. Her desire to teach in South Korea grows out of a fascination with its educational system that is simultaneously extolled and criticized for producing overachieving exceptional students. Mimi wants to understand the reasons behind this ambivalence by placing herself right in the middle of the action.

FUTURE PLANS
Following her Fulbright teaching appointment, Mimi will pursue a Ph.D. in English, and, later, a position as an English professor at a university. She hopes to continue her studies on the cultural and corporeal geographies of transnationalism in literature, to implement her own educational programs addressing diversity and difference, and to research and teach on the intersections between race, gender, sexuality, and national identity in the lives of today’s increasingly mobile global population. 

INVITATION
She invites you to join her on this personal and professional journey, and hopes you will make your company felt by leaving comments, questions, and/or suggestions.