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Dobbs receives grant for collection of narratives

By Amy Lohmann '14
July 25, 2011

Assistant Professor of English Jennifer Kwon Dobbs recently received a grant of $11,500 from the Korean Unwed Mothers Support Network to develop a collection of narratives.

The collection will contain the stories of unwed Korean mothers describing, in their own voices, their struggles to preserve their families. The project will be in collaboration with the Korean Unwed Mothers and Families Association, which is the first organization of its kind in South Korea to advocate for the human rights of unwed mothers and their children. This will be the first book to provide direct testimony from child-rearing, unwed mothers in Korea.

Kwon Dobbs has conducted this research with the mothers since 2009. She emphasized the importance of "making human connections through stories," and hopes that "this book, which emerges through collaboration, will amplify unwed mothers' voices, which have been largely invisible in the West."

Contact Kari VanDerVeen at 507-786-3970 or vanderve@stolaf.edu.