Yuna Shin

 

Q&A with Yuna Shin, CFCC German Instructor

Degrees & Certificates

• B.A., English & German, University of California at Irvine
• M.A. German, University of California at Irvine
• M.A. Princeton University
• M.L.I.S. University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Professional Organizations

Cape Fear Foreign Language Collaborative, Community College Liaison

Q&A

Please tell us about yourself.

I grew up on three different continents. As a result, I speak three languages fluently and know three cultures intimately, all of which have helped shape my view of the world. I studied English and German as an undergraduate at the University of California at Irvine from which I graduated with honors and Phi Beta Kappa in both majors. Then I continued with German Literature at Princeton University for a graduate degree, focusing on critical theory, feminist literary theory, and the psychoanalytic approach to literature. I also spent time at the University of Chicago as a CIC-Scholar and at the Universität Hamburg for guided research under Dr. Prof. Marianne Schuller.

Since I started teaching at CFCC, I have been focusing on language pedagogy and language acquisition. I am also the faculty advisor for the CFCC Feminist Alliance and help students gain experience organizing and hosting events. I have also been a guest speaker and panelist at discussions and events at UNCW. I am also actively engaged in the local community and work with many organizations such as Working Films and the YWCA. I serve as one of the organizers for the annual Out of Darkness Community Walks event on behalf of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

What year did you start working at CFCC and what brought you here?

I started as a part-time instructor August 2004 and became a full-time instructor in 2012.

What do you enjoy most about your work?

It keeps me grounded in the real lives of everyday students. I get to experience what the future will bring through my contact with the younger generation.

When you’re not working, what do you do?

The question is when am I not working? I try to bring equilibrium into my life through a steady yoga practice.

Who had the greatest influence on your education and/or career path?

It is hard to say. I come from a family of academics. All, except for myself, are scientists, more specifically physicists. I knew early on that I would be an educator.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

If you don’t try, how will you know what you are capable of?

Which three people (living or dead) would you invite to dinner and why?

I don’t cook, so it will be a dinner out. I would probably invite Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Hannah Arendt, and Charlotte Brontë. I would tell Goethe that his oeuvres are overrated; I would ask Arendt how we can prevent fascism; and I would thank Brontë for giving us the ‘Madwoman in the Attic’.

What is something not many people know about you?

I am an excellent skier. I also used to teach yoga.

If you’ve been published and would like to share that information with us, please do so!

“She Would Rather Depart the Earth in Fire”: Reading Diotima’s Death in Friedrich Hölderlin’s Hyperion Or the Hermit in Greece’, Women in German Yearbook 15, 1999, pp. 97-115.