Title: <\/strong>Assistant Professor of Politics <\/p>\n\n\n\n Degrees from: <\/strong>Boston University, Ph.D. in political science; Seoul National University, M.A. in international cooperation, B.A. in international relations <\/p>\n\n\n\n Her research: <\/strong>Lim studies efforts at gender equality in West African nations, particularly the effects of a 2010 gender parity law in Senegal that mandates that the country\u2019s National Assembly and other legislative bodies comprise 50 percent women. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere are different ways of looking at the concept of gender equality or gender parity,\u201d Lim says. \u201cFor Senegalese women, their roles and identities as mothers, wives, and caregivers are very important. Passing this law on gender parity didn\u2019t necessarily mean that they wanted to give up their household work or have men do half the chores, for example.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLaw does not exist as a legal tool only. It has to fit within society. My argument is that the gender parity law does face certain social and cultural and religious challenges \u2014 but from a theoretical perspective, it contributes to the diversity of feminisms in Africa.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Finding her path<\/strong>: Lim was <\/strong>born in South Korea. Her father had a steady job but it \u201cdidn’t necessarily allow him to spend that much time with our family.” That’s not what he wanted, she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWest Africa definitely holds a special place in my heart.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n So he decided to take \u201ca big adventure, a big risk\u201d by taking a position in Mauritania, a country he\u2019d never heard of until someone he knew went to work there. The family lived there for 15 years before moving back to Korea for Lim’s and her sister\u2019s college education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWest Africa definitely holds a special place in my heart,\u201d Lim says. She lived there as a young child and teenager, not yet able to grasp its “political, social, or religious aspects.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n When she arrived at Boston University for doctoral study, \u201cone of the first classes I took was on African politics. It confirmed some of the things I instinctively knew because I had grown up there, but it was a shift in terms of how I can see these things from an academic perspective.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Inside out:<\/strong> On a flight to Senegal to do fieldwork, Lim looked out the window as the plane was about to land. \u201cThe landscape is just so different from what I was experiencing traveling back and forth between the U.S. and mostly Korea. It was like going back home for me \u2014 it’s very similar in many ways to Mauritania.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Being both an outsider and insider, \u201cthinking about my identity within all of that, was actually a really exciting part of field work and research.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n That aspect of fieldwork was alluring to Lim, the \u201cfeeling of going back home \u2014 eating the food that I used to eat when I was growing up. It\u2019s not necessarily academic but has to do with how you feel as a researcher. I met childhood friends that I had not seen for more than 15 years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Being both an outsider and insider, \u201cthinking about my identity within all of that, was actually a really exciting part of field work and research.\u201d Along the way, Lim learned to interrogate her inside-outside perspective. <\/p>\n\n\n\n During doctoral studies, a professor from Senegal was \u201creally good at making me aware of my own prejudices as I was doing my research \u2014 after all, it had been such a long time since I left the country. And so I had some preconceived notions that I wasn’t even aware of, and he pointed those out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why teach<\/strong>: <\/strong>\u201cI really like the fact that students can learn as much from me as I can learn from them. It\u2019s not just a one-way process where I\u2019m regurgitating what they have read. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne of the things that impressed me during my visit to Bates is that whenever I was talking to a faculty member, there would always be one or two students passing by and waving hands. I really liked that connection, that we get to know students not only as students, but also as individuals who have their own experiences and stories.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Assistant](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/08\/200821_Seulgie_Lim_0023.jpg\")