'Double Fulbrighter' to teach in Korea

James Madison University Professor Sang Yoon is preparing for her second journey to South Korea as a Fulbright Scholar. According to Fulbright records dating to 1998, she is JMU's first two-time Fulbright award winner.

Yoon, who teaches graphic design in the School of Art, Design and Art History, will share her talents and knowledge with students at Kyung Hee University for 10 months, beginning in March 2013. She will teach as part of the Core Fulbright Scholar Program.

Her previous Fulbright experience was as the recipient of a 2007 Fulbright Research Grant. The fruit of her three-month study was "The Street Graphics of Seoul: A Culturally-focused Contribution to the Study of Urban Graphics," a project she has presented at three international conferences in Hawaii, Venice and Athens.

While Yoon taught one course in 2007, her upcoming Fulbright-sponsored residency will completely focus on teaching graphic design to undergraduate, master's and doctoral students at Kyung Hee University. Yoon, a native of South Korea, will teach in English since students are required to take several courses within their programs of study in the language.

She is currently revamping content from courses she teaches at JMU to accommodate the curriculum and culture she will encounter in South Korea. In addition to teaching typography in English and Korean alphabets, Yoon has been asked to add Chinese characters to the mix. "Since I have worked with English fonts only in the U.S., I am working on finding out what kinds of Korean and Chinese fonts are available for my students to use," she said.

"I'm anxious to share with my Korean students, both my work and that of my JMU students," Yoon said. "Likewise, I'll share my Korean students' work with my students here upon my return."

Before coming to the United States in 1983, Yoon, a graduate of Seoul National University's bachelor of fine arts program, was a graphic designer for a cosmetics packaging company and an advertising company. She earned a scholarship to study at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, graduated with a master of fine arts degree in 1988 and joined the JMU faculty that fall semester.

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