JAE-IN KIM, PH.D.
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
Professors are catalysts for change
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I have had the opportunity to teach and mentor hundreds of students – from undergraduates in their first years of college to graduate students preparing to defend their theses. I have taught first year experiences and writing-intensive courses, classes in Psychology and Asian American Studies, and classes that focus on diversity and culture. I strive to use each of these experiences as opportunities to support the growth and development of my students as individuals and as the next wave of socially-engaged community members. As a critical adoption studies and critical race scholar, I empower my students to fight for societal change and develop skills that will set them up to succeed beyond the classroom.
OVERVIEW OF RECENT COURSES
COR 1100: The Global Experience
Complicating the “Forever Family”: An interdisciplinary perspective on adoption
Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Fall 2025
This first-year seminar examines personal and social responsibility in domestic and global contexts. In developing your own view of the world and its many peoples, societies, and environments, you will evaluate the complex relationships that may both promote and obstruct positive human interaction. The course emphasizes critical thinking, creativity, and ethical decision-making focused on contemporary and salient issues as informed by their historical contexts. The seminar is inquiry-based, writing intensive, and utilizes a variety of perspectives.
Dr. Kim's sections of COR 1100 use interdisciplinary scholarship from across the social sciences and humanities to examine adoption. We will draw on critical scholarship that highlights systems of power and questions the established "truths" of adoption (e.g., adoption as a win-win). Further, we will examine the ways in which belonging to a minoritized group impacts the ways in which adoption is experienced. Example topics include birth family, identity, and the economics of adoption.
PSY 2200: Social Psychology
Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025
Topics in social psychology explore how people think about, influence and relate to one another. Specific topics may include the self, interpersonal relationships, intergroup relations, aggression, altruism, attitude formation and persuasion, compliance, and conformity. The course also includes discussion of how social behavior is influenced by factors such as gender and culture.
In line with the Elon University Department of Psychology’s commitment to Diversity, Inclusion, and Racial Equity (DIRE initiative), this course will approach psychological research from a diversity science perspective.
PSY 3510: Psychology in the Cultural Context
Spring 2023, Spring 2024
Issues in the related fields of cultural and cross-cultural psychology are considered in depth as students investigate basic psychological processes (e.g., motivation, cognition and emotion) in the context of how cultural world views and implicit value assumptions influence the development and functioning of human behavior and social interaction.
In line with the Elon University Department of Psychology’s commitment to Diversity, Inclusion, and Racial Equity (DIRE initiative), this course will approach psychological research from a diversity science perspective.