Department of Modern Languages and Cultures
October 14, 2026
Wednesday, 4:00pm, NQ 143
During my sabbatical, I pursued three projects: AI in language education for study abroad, a practitioner inquiry into dual language immersion programs, and autoethnographic storytelling (narrating one’s own personal experiences to examine the broader cultural and social issues). My presentation focuses on the third project and a reading from my work-in-progress:
An Autoethnographic Reflection on Ruptures in a Transnational Family and End-of-Life Care
In this project, I explore the emotional, ethical, and relational complexities of caregiving within a transnational family. Following the sudden death of my mother, the primary caregiver for my father, who had advanced Parkinson's disease, I took family medical leave and traveled from the United States to Korea. What followed was not a redemptive reunion, but a fraught caregiving experience shaped by grief, guilt, cultural tensions, and the raw realities of end-of-life care.
Care unfolded amid layered ruptures. These included communication and cultural gaps that developed over decades of transnational separation; my position as a third-culture kid navigating multiple cultural expectations and taboos surrounding death and filial responsibility; and the gendered assumption that, as the only daughter, I would take on primary caregiving responsibilities. Ultimately, I examine caregiving as extending far beyond physical labor to encompass complex patterns of mobility, communication, and emotional exchange that define transnational family life.