In the third volume of the running series, Dr. Chong Eun Ahn shares her experience growing up in South Korea, and what it has been like to come to America and live in the country as an immigrant.
Chong Eun Ahn (안종은)
Dr. Chong Eun Ahn is the director of the Asian Studies program at CWU. She earned her bachelor’s degree in British and American studies at Sogang University (서강대학교), her master’s degree in East Asian languages and cultures from Columbia University and her PhD in history at the University of Washington. Ahn grew up in Mok-dong (목동), Seoul in South Korea.
“My parents were different from the stereotypical South Korean parents. My parents were pretty open-minded and liberal, so they did not pressure me much when it came to studying and academics” Ahn said. “But I think there was always this assumption that I would do well because both my parents did, even though they did not interfere. So compared to other students in my age group, I had great experiences traveling here and there with my parents, and not having to spend much time in cram schools. I enjoyed sports and friendships and all that, so I think that’s a privilege right? Being a naive privileged kid with hippie parents, that’s how I grew up.”
Growing up, Ahn said she remembers some political chaos around her. “I spent part of my elementary school years in the 80s, which was under military dictatorship, and lots of democratization movements were going on,” Ahn said. “My parents were on the leftist or pro-democracy side in the 80s and 90s, so oftentimes I was told not to share what we talked about in the family setting or over the dinner table because you could get questioned by the police.”
After getting her undergraduate degree in South Korea, Ahn moved to the US to pursue her master’s degree in East Asian languages and cultures from Columbia University. “Everything was about the geopolitics of East Asia, how I can work on bringing peace to the region. I joined a student activist group that read books around these issues together. Spring and summer of 2003 I was on the streets protesting against the Iraq war with that group.” After graduating from Columbia, Ahn moved to Washington to pursue her PhD.
Moving to the US for her graduate programs felt like the right step, Ahn said. “I did my study abroad in China while I was in college, which I loved. But at the time, I think in 2001, China was already open to the world, but it was and still is an authoritarian state, and the academic life did not seem so fitting for geopolitics.”
After finishing her PhD, Ahn was offered a position at CWU. Ellensburg was very different from any other place she was used to. “I was from Seoul which is a super big city, and then I did my study abroad in Beijing, another super crowded, cosmopolitan city. My first destination in the United States was New York and then Seattle, all super cosmopolitan. When I came to Ellensburg for my interview it was the first time I had been past Snoqualmie Falls. Here it was very rural, I saw a lot of horses during my visit, I was amazed. But I was so ready to move on from that poor scholar’s life in the city. I wanted to settle down, own a house and grow my family. I had already given birth to the first daughter in Seattle living in a small apartment as a graduate student, and that was not ideal. But the people in the department here were so welcoming and nice.” After that, Ahn began working at CWU in 2013.
“Raising children of color in Ellensburg is not easy. It’s not that people are always racist, but they grow up feeling that they are different,” Ahn said. She shared that for several weeks without her knowing it, her oldest daughter had been segregated on the school bus, and she didn’t tell anyone because she didn’t want to feel further alienated. “All of that got resolved, but that kind of thing happened several times. During COVID Asian kids were spat on and told not to come to school, and I heard from my middle school kid that kids use the N-word all the time.”
Ahn said that she is worried that it will only become worse with the recent election, “The teacher that deals with Title IX violations told me that under the first Trump administration, it was really bad. Kids were feeling entitled to be honest about their racist and sexist comments and now it’s happening again,” Ahn said.
“I think that international education is not separate from the education concerning diversifying and making education more equitable and inclusive. Everyone deserves to know more about the world. The world is more connected than ever, and we need to be engaged in more universal conversations about race, ethnicity, sexuality, identity, everything. Central is located in the central part of Washington where there aren’t many institutions that can promote globalization and international learning. I think this is a responsibility that we have.”
