My Korea Studies: Gender, Race and Language in South Korea

Yoon Soo Lee, Professor
Department of Design
College of Visual & Performing Arts
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Founding Faculty
Vermont College of Fine Arts

In October of 2012, I started my research into South Korea: the long lost memories, the Korean sentiment, how I am Korean, and how I am not Korean. I started a journal where I wrote exclusively in Korean. New connections were made, and what I thought was going to happen did not happen. Deep seeded experiences of gender and race floated to the top. And the content was negotiated through the study of the Korean language and Korean typography. I would like to share the process of my research and how I ended up on the idea of creating picture books for biracial children of South Korea and the United States.

This research was presented at the Design Incubation Colloquium 1.5: Rhode Island School of Design on Saturday, March 7, 2015.