2023 Presentations and Publications

2023 Presentations & Publications

Liminal Pedagogies of Care in South Korean EFL Contexts

2023 marked a pivotal year of rebuilding professional momentum following disruptions caused by COVID-19 and a period of personal health challenges in 2021–2022. I made a deliberate commitment to sustained, monthly scholarly engagement—using presentations, workshops, and writing as a structured way to re-enter academic and professional communities.

This rhythm of ongoing work not only re-established continuity in my teaching and research, but also directly supported the completion of my doctoral dissertation, which was accepted in August 2024.

Across this year, my work explored how English language classrooms can hold anxiety, shifting modalities, and complex cultural positioning while still fostering agency, connection, and meaning-making.

Three interrelated strands guided this work:

  • Affect & Care: Designing classrooms that respond to anxiety, rebuild confidence, and center relational trust
  • Expression & Access: Expanding beyond words through multimodal and translanguaging practices
  • Positioning & Agency: Rethinking identity, distance, and participation in culturally situated contexts

Presentations

Deconstructing Myself: An Autoethnography on Liminality and English Language Teaching
March 3 | GRaS (IU C&I) | Zoom

Collab in Times of Anxiety
April 28 | KOTESOL International Conference | Online

Going Multimodal: Meaning Making Beyond Words
May 20 | Jeonju KOTESOL Workshop | Face-to-Face

Cheerleading & Private Investigations of an EFL Teacher: Action Research & Practitioner Inquiry
July 8 | Gwangju KOTESOL Workshop | Face-to-Face

Mascots, Mottos, Manifestos, & Missions: Multiliteracies Pedagogy & Multimodal Activities
Aug 17–20 | AsiaTEFL International Conference | Online

Translanguaging and Advocacy: Restoring Confidence in Face-to-Face Classrooms
Oct 12 | SNU ICER | Face-to-Face

Mind the Gap: (Im)Proper Distance in the Korean Classroom
Oct 27 | Gwangju KOTESOL Conference | Face-to-Face

Han as Unity and Sadness: Exploring Korean Cosmopolitanism in the Classroom
Nov 11 | KOTESOL National Conference | Online

The Affordances of (In)action: Passive Agency in Language Education
Nov | Daejeon KOTESOL Symposium | Prepared (not presented)

Anxiety-Sensitive Collaboration in the Language Classroom
Nov 26 | JALT International Conference | Online

Jung: Understanding Across Difference & Building Global Relationships
Dec 9 | Global Englishes JALT | Online

Publications

Building Rapport Through Multimodal Lessons: Value Shields
Aug 10 | Gwangju News Magazine

Accepted / Prepared Work (Not Presented)

Reconnecting Learners by Tapping into Environmental Vulnerability & Healing
ThaiTESOL International Conference

Fostering Equity and Resilience in English Language Education for South Korean Students: A Pedagogy of Care
The Qualitative Report Conference (TQR)

Closing Reflection

Taken together, this body of work reflects an ongoing commitment to teaching in the “in-between”—where anxiety, identity, and language intersect. Rather than treating these as barriers, my work approaches them as generative conditions for rethinking participation, agency, and care in English language education.

Equally, this year demonstrates the role of sustained, incremental engagement in rebuilding scholarly practice. By committing to regular presentation and writing, I was able to reconnect fragmented lines of inquiry and carry them forward into the successful completion of my dissertation in 2024.

This period continues to shape my approach to research and pedagogy as practices that are iterative, embodied, and responsive to lived conditions.

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