Over the past two decades, SooJin Pate has worked as a professor, scholar, and writer who has been dedicated to centering the lives and experiences of historically marginalized peoples. She is passionate about fostering inclusion and creating access and opportunity for those who have been historically left out or left behind, in order to equalize and level the playing field.
An alumna of Howard University, SooJin received her Master’s degree in English, specializing in African American and Caribbean literature. And since earning her Ph.D. in American Studies at the University of Minnesota, she taught courses on critical race theory, women of color feminism, comparative race and ethnic studies, African diasporic literature, and U.S. history and culture at various colleges and universities in the Twin Cities area in Minnesota. As a self-care practitioner, SooJin has led workshops across the country on how to maintain work/life balance and how to take care of yourself when taking care of others.
She is the author of From Orphan to Adoptee: U.S. Empire and Genealogies of Korean Adoption (University of Minnesota Press, 2014). Her writings on self-care, motherhood, African American literature, and Korean adoption have appeared in various journals and anthologies.