Faculty Project: Stories of Ecological Devastation, Mental Illness, and Inequality
Faculty Director: Prof. Karen Thornber
Over the summer, I researched Korean-language narratives exploring the intersections of environment, justice, and mental health to identify potential sources for Professor Thornber’s upcoming book. Through this experience, I had the chance to work with diverse sources across many genres and time periods, from Korean premodern literature to environmental campaigns in K-pop. As a neuroscience concentrator, this position was the first time I conducted research outside of a laboratory environment. Thanks to the guidance and support of my faculty director and the Korea Institue, I was able to immerse myself in a completely different area of research and gain exposure to important topics that I otherwise would not have had the opportunity to explore. I was excited to learn new methods of research while applying my Korean language skills to examine several of the most pressing topics of our age.
My work started out by looking at the current state of eco-anxiety in Korean society and ecological ideas in Korean traditional literature. I then expanded my search to modern sources, including cli-fi and eco-poetry genres that emerged in the 1970s in response to Korea’s rapid industrialization. An aspect of the project I found striking was that it included not only humans but plants and nonhuman animals in the discussion of moral and health consequences of the climate crisis. A large part of my research focused on how literary imagination can be used as a vehicle for empathy for nonhuman characters and frame climate crisis as a suffering shared across all species. In particular, I appreciated the chance to interpret and translate Korean poems with creative commentary on environmental ethics regarding plants and nonhuman animals.
The research experience presented the perfect opportunity to apply and extend my Korean language skills to while exploring critical themes of ecological devastation, health and socioeconomic inequalities, and biodiversity. Some highlights from the summer include discovering beautiful works of sijo, strolling through libraries, and combing Netflix lists for relevant cli-fi movies. Along the way, I gained a renewed appreciation for Korean literature and media which I now consume more intentionally and carefully, listening for social commentaries or implications that I may have missed before. My experience this summer has tremendously expanded my perspective on research and made me more passionate about pursuing interdisciplinary projects in the future.