- PhD, Social Welfare, University of Wisconsin
- MSW, University of Wisconsin
- BSSW, University of Wisconsin
Department of Social Work
BIO
As a critical interdisciplinary qualitative researcher, Seungmi Laura Cho investigates so-called socioemotional and behavioral problems that are associated with adoption status and racial difference as reflections of largely normalized and invisible power relations.
Seungmi received her doctorate in social welfare, and master’s and bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She previously conducted constructivist grounded theory research in Seoul as a Fulbright Korea award recipient for the 2022-2023 academic year.
Seungmi’s forthright anti-racist, intersectional feminist research is made possible through coalitional activism. Previously in Seoul, Seungmi served as the Adoptee Relations Coordinator at the KoRoot Guesthouse and NGO (2013-2014) and served on the Adoptee Solidarity Korea steering committee (2012-2015). Using her previous name, Laura Klunder, the New York Times Magazine used her adoption case number, K85-160, as a narrative path to its cover story, “Why a Generation of Adoptees is Returning to South Korea” (January 15, 2014).
Seungmi has since re-named herself to make visible her Korean family’s contribution to “anti-adopterism” – a lifelong personal and political project that advances adoptee solidarity as an anti-racist alternative to the false notion of adoptee racial exceptionalism.
Courses
SWSS 5160: Human Behavior and the Social Environment
Area(s) of expertise
- Power, privilege, and oppression
- Macro social work
- Developmental perspectives on racial difference and adoption status
- Critical qualitative inquiry
- Social justice pedagogy
Bio
As a critical interdisciplinary qualitative researcher, Seungmi Laura Cho investigates so-called socioemotional and behavioral problems that are associated with adoption status and racial difference as reflections of largely normalized and invisible power relations.
Seungmi received her doctorate in social welfare, and master’s and bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She previously conducted constructivist grounded theory research in Seoul as a Fulbright Korea award recipient for the 2022-2023 academic year.
Seungmi’s forthright anti-racist, intersectional feminist research is made possible through coalitional activism. Previously in Seoul, Seungmi served as the Adoptee Relations Coordinator at the KoRoot Guesthouse and NGO (2013-2014) and served on the Adoptee Solidarity Korea steering committee (2012-2015). Using her previous name, Laura Klunder, the New York Times Magazine used her adoption case number, K85-160, as a narrative path to its cover story, “Why a Generation of Adoptees is Returning to South Korea” (January 15, 2014).
Seungmi has since re-named herself to make visible her Korean family’s contribution to “anti-adopterism” – a lifelong personal and political project that advances adoptee solidarity as an anti-racist alternative to the false notion of adoptee racial exceptionalism.
Courses
SWSS 5160: Human Behavior and the Social Environment
Areas of Expertise
- Power, privilege, and oppression
- Macro social work
- Developmental perspectives on racial difference and adoption status
- Critical qualitative inquiry
- Social justice pedagogy