BUSTH PhD Student Jeehyun Baek Awarded Louisville Institute Dissertation Fellowship
Boston University School of Theology PhD student in Theology, Ethics, and Philosophy Jeehyun Baek has been awarded The Dissertation Fellowship by the Louisville Institute.
Titled “Mourning Across Generations: Theological Witness to Intergenerational Trauma in the Korean Diaspora,” Ms. Baek’s dissertation examines a theology of resilience for Korean diaspora communities who inherit the past trauma, experience ongoing hate crimes against Asians in the present, and may have difficulty envisioning life in the US. To address the phenomenon of intergenerational trauma in Korean Americans’ lives, she engages with three contemporary Korean American literary works written by second generation Korean American writers. By using trauma framework and a more aesthetic approach to theology, she explores how these literary works hold unspoken suffering, its mysterious transmission to subsequent generations, and the subtle but dynamic relationship between unclaimed past traumatic wounds and lives of the current generation.
“I’m very honored to have been selected as one of the Louisville Institute dissertation fellows! It means a lot to have this overwhelming amount of support from the LI during this process of writing my dissertation. I would like to give a special shout out to my advisor Dr. Shelly Rambo for her constant support and encouragement. I am able to really put my heart out into this project, and for that I’m endlessly grateful..” — Jeehyun Baek
To read more about Ms. Baek’s project, please visit the Louisville Institute website.