Su Yon Pak
Bio: A spiritual director and poet grounded in contemplative practices, Dr. Su Yon Pak sees her artistry as an expression of her embodied theological praxis. Her recent book Sisters in Mourning: Daughters Reflecting on Care, Loss, and Meaning with Rabbi Mychal Springer is one such expression of her artistry. A daughter of parents who were both born in northern Korea prior to the division, she came to the U.S. at the age of ten. She grew up listening to the stories of Koreans during the Japanese occupation, liberation, forced migration, and the Korean War. These stories fed her imagination and shaped her identity. Her writing explores the intersection of remembering/forgetting and grief woven through her mother’s life with Alzheimer’s Disease in its socio-political and historical context. She sees grief work as spiritual practice at the heart of what it means to be human. She is the Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York.