Q1. Please briefly introduce yourself!
Hello. I am Kim So-yun, and I started volunteering at MAP in the second half of 2022. I am in charge of the Human Library and writing the Displaced newsletter. I first got to know MAP through Displaced, so it is amazing that I am now writing the newsletter. I took part in the Human Library in June as a reader, and I did promotional work at the World Refugee Day event. I am getting to know the human books one by one, and I look forward to the activities ahead.
Q2. Please fill in the blank in ‘I want to be a 000 volunteer’!
I want to be an ‘energetic’ volunteer.
I gave the same answer to the same question at the volunteer orientation. For about a year and a half I stayed shut up in graduate school and only studied, so I am glad to be meeting many new people through this work. I want to work energetically from now on~
Q3. Please tell us why you applied to MAP.
A3. After doing other activities earlier, I felt I needed to study more and went to graduate school, but after only studying again I felt I needed more field experience. I thought it was time to go back to activism, so I applied to MAP. Since I study migration and refugees, I wanted to do work in which I could meet refugees in the field. That is why I wanted to work with the activists at the Human Library, and luckily I have been put in charge of the Human Library this time.
Q4. When do you feel most like yourself?
A4. I have studied cultural anthropology for a long time. Since I am considering a career in anthropological research, I feel most like myself when I feel that I want to study whatever it is. For example, that was the case when I did promotional work for the Human Library at the World Refugee Day event. At first I had no plan to write anything, but I saw and felt so much at the event that I wrote a paper on those experiences, giving meaning to a migrants’ festival held in a big city square, and submitted it as my final report. I think I will find even more things I want to study as I work at MAP.
Q5. What do you think our society needs most right now to become a better society?
Many things come to mind, but one of them is an open mind toward others. This is something I always think about while studying cultural anthropology. It applies not only to migration and refugees, which I mainly study, but also to disability, religion, gender/queer issues, race and many other minority issues. If more people had, even a little more, the heart to accept and understand others as they are, I think our society could become better than it is now.
Q6. Finally, what kind of ‘change’ do you want to bring about through your work at MAP?
Because I am volunteering for a short period, I cannot achieve big or many changes, but I would like to start with small ones. The day I work is the day with the most volunteers. As I become close with the people I work with, I think we can build a culture of volunteers who get along well. I also hope to build good rapport with the human books so that our work has a good influence on each other. And I hope that through my writing, Displaced can cover a wider range of topics than before.
