I am Somi Lee, a Teaching Assistant Professor of Art Education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. I enjoy taking an idea and figuring out how to make it happen, whether through a class, an exhibition, or a new tool. Many of my research questions begin while making something or working through a problem with others.
WHAT I CARE ABOUT
I care about how people take part, whose experiences are included or excluded and why, and what we choose to share with others. Four ideas guide my teaching and research: learning together, voice and agency, shared inquiry, and dialogue.
Learning Together: Learning from one another’s experiences and ideas.
Voice and Agency: Having opportunities to express ideas and take part in decisions.
Shared Inquiry: Asking questions together and developing ideas with others.
Dialogue: Listening to different interpretations and reconsidering our own understanding.
CURATORIAL QUESTIONS
Four questions are central to my curatorial practice
Selection
What do we include?
Representation
Whose stories are told?
Participation
How do visitors take part?
Documentation
What do we leave behind?
Curatorial Judgement Recorder
I developed the Curatorial Judgment Recorder (CJR) to provide an additional way to document and understand people’s voices in exhibitions.
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Why I Started This Book
Doctoral study can leave people unsure of what they can ask or share. A question might seem too basic, a personal concern too private. Worrying about how supervisors or colleagues will respond can make it difficult to speak openly, especially when future opportunities seem to depend on making a good impression.
This edited collection brings together personal accounts of doctoral life, including family responsibilities, identity, belonging, and academic work. Contributors describe how their circumstances affect their studies and their relationships with others. Narrative inquiry offers a way to understand doctoral education through the experiences of people living it.
I put the book together for readers who want to hear how others have managed the uncertainty of doctoral study. Students may recognize concerns they have kept to themselves. Faculty and others who support doctoral students can learn more about experiences that may never come up in a meeting. The book offers a place to begin talking about what students need and how people around them can respond.