Minny’s research explores human relationship to the environment by examining individuals’ engagements with traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) in response to the climate change and sustainability. Minny intends to explore various ways of approaching TEK, from indigenous farming methods to fermentation techniques to Buddhist worldview of interconnectedness and human-animal kinship. Minny is curious to learn how individuals create their own space and methods in the entanglement of postcolonial and postmodern space in South Korea, and how they navigate social, cultural, political, and historical conditions. While investigating political economy and cultural politics, Minny seeks to study how attunement to the environment and its sensory responses affects the mind-body relationship and worldmaking.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Minny researched Buddhist temple food and conducted fieldwork at South Korean Buddhist nunneries. Minny holds an MA in Anthropology from Columbia University, an MA in Art History from the City College of New York, and an MFA in Photography from ICP-Bard College. In addition to her scholarly work, Minny is a multimedia artist, working with photography, video, poetry, and sound. Her artist books, Encounters (Datz Press, 2015) and Million Years (Datz Press, 2018), are in the collections of the New York Public Library, Special Collections at Stanford University Library, Poetry Center at University of Arizona, Amon Carter Museum of American Art Library, International Center of Photography, and Getty Research Institute, among other venues.