Seijin NaGraduate Student

I am a PhD student within the Civil Society & Community Research program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. My 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. I believe that carefully designed spatial environments can play a significant role in addressing and promoting social justice. Therefore, through my study, I want 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, my 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.

Prior to my enrollment at UW–Madison, I did professional practice for several years as an architectural designer. My 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 me to understand an existing gap between people’s environmental needs and the actual architectural outcome and drives me to pursue my PhD study to solve an existing gap.

I have worked as a DesignLab consultant at UW–Madison, and as a teaching assistant for CSCS 570: Community-Based Research and Evaluation and DS 242: Visual Communication 2.

Awards and Recognition

• 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