Seijin NaGraduate Student

SeiJin Na is a Ph.D. student within Civil Society and Community Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research objective is to support marginalized groups of people living alone with a lack of social experiences and introverted elderly to get a sense of belonging to society for their happiness while considering a comfortable social distance of personal relationships. She believes that carefully designed spatial environments can play a significant role in addressing and promoting social justice. Therefore, through her study, she wants to find a way of creating an inclusive environment as a medium for building a healthy community to give isolated elderly wider social gathering choices. Broadly, her research focus is strongly related to social issues, the relationship between everyday environments and society, and its impacts on the elderly’s health, and well-being.

Education and Relevant Experience

Prior to her enrollment at UW-Madison, SeiJin Na did professional practice for several years as an Architectural Designer. Her work was mainly related to finding an environmental solution for people who use space to get a better quality of life through sufficient communication with space users from major international companies to individual clients to provide a user-oriented space. This experience helps her to understand an existing gap between people’s environmental needs and the actual architectural outcome and drives her to pursue her Ph.D. study to solve an existing gap.

Awards and Recognitions

Design Studies Graduate Scholarship, School of Human Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison | 2021

Graduate School Fellowship, School of Human Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison | 2020

Research Grant, School of Architecture, Cornell University | 2014

Earl R. Flansburgh Merit Award, Cornell University | 2013

Merit-based Scholarship, Hongik University | 2008-2010

Korea National Science and Engineering Undergraduate Scholarship, Korean government | 2007

Teaching Experience

Teaching Assistant, DesignLab Consultant at UW Madison

Teaching Assistant, CSCS 570: Community-Based Research and Evaluation

Teaching Assistant, DS 242: Visual Communication 2