معرفی
Seungmi L. Cho is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of Vermont’s College of Education and Social Services. She holds a PhD in Social Welfare and degrees in social work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her academic and activist work centers on critical issues of race, adoption, power, and justice.
Education:
- PhD, Social Welfare – University of Wisconsin-Madison
- MSW – University of Wisconsin-Madison
- BSSW – University of Wisconsin-Madison
Seungmi's research focuses on socioemotional and behavioral issues linked to adoption and racial difference as manifestations of systemic power and oppression. As a critical interdisciplinary qualitative researcher, she employs anti-racist, intersectional feminist frameworks. Her expertise includes macro social work, critical qualitative inquiry, and social justice pedagogy. She investigates how normalized power structures shape narratives around adoptees, particularly within transnational and transracial adoption contexts.
Her recent publications explore themes such as anti-adopterism, colorblind distortions in adoption, and the transnational politics of Korean adoption. These works reflect a strong commitment to critical theory, adoptee solidarity, and resistance to racial exceptionalism.
Scientific Awards:
- Fulbright Korea Award (2022–2023)
Seungmi has been deeply involved in coalitional activism, having served as Adoptee Relations Coordinator at KoRoot Guesthouse and NGO in Seoul (2013–2014) and as a member of the steering committee for Adoptee Solidarity Korea (2012–2015). She teaches SWSS 5160: Human Behavior and the Social Environment. Her scholarly and personal journey includes renaming herself from Laura Klunder to Seungmi L. Cho to affirm her Korean heritage and advance political resistance to adopter-centric narratives.
She has no listed grants or advisees on her public profile. Her work is featured in media, including a New York Times Magazine cover story that used her adoption case number, K85-160, as a central narrative element.
