TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY

College of Arts & Sciences

Department of English

Research Teaching Publications Talks

Manuscripts

Links

 

Min-Joo Kim

 

Ph.D., UMass-Amherst

Associate Professor, Linguistics

Director, Linguistics Program

Advisor, Linguistics Minor

 

Skype: minkim.lee1

E-mail: min-joo.kim@ttu.edu

 

Curriculum Vitae

 

I was born and raised in Gwangju (also spelled as "Kwangju"), one of the major cities of South Korea located in the southwestern region. (Gwangju literally means 'a town of light' and my name means 'agile/brilliant pearl'. So even though both words contain a sound approximating 'ju', they actually mean quite different things.)

I came to the United States in 1997 and attended the University of Arizona and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst between 1997 and 2004, earning two masters' and one doctoral degrees in linguistics. I joined the Texas Tech faculty in 2005 after having taught at Northwestern University as a visiting assistant professor of linguistics for a year.

When I was little, I wanted to become a bakery owner, a singer, an actress, a creative writer,  and/or a Supreme Court justice. And back in college and graduate school in Korea (Chonnam National University), I majored in English education and English literature. So becoming a linguist was something that I didn't quite expect in my former life. But this accidental path has taken me to a place that I'd call a utopia (well, most of the time!).

People like me do linguistics largely because it's fun. But perhaps the more important reason is that only humans are endowed with creative linguistic ability that is unbounded in scope. So by studying human language scientifically, we can have a better understanding of the human mind and ultimately what it means to be a human in ways different from other species. (Incidentally, many linguists are pretty good at baking, singing, and even acting, let alone writing, arguing, and judging. So living as a linguist has turned out to be not exactly incompatible with my earlier dreams!)

I'm married to a highenergy physicist. And I have a daughter, who not only gives me happiness and joy that go beyond my linguistic and literary abilities but also restores the sense of sanity that I often seem to lose.


 © 2013 Min-Joo Kim | All Rights Reserved.