Yun Young Kim, Hsu Sun, and Xavy Ramirez reflect on what brought them to the School of Social Work, the experiences that have shaped their academic journeys, the questions guiding their inquiry, and the impact they aspire to make through their scholarship and engagement. Together, their stories illustrate the depth, rigor, and sense of purpose that define the doctoral experience and the meaningful contributions they are making to communities, policy, and practice.
Yun Young Kim
Yun Young Kim, a University of Illinois School of Social Work PhD student, shares what drew her to the university, how she finds focus on campus, and how her work is reshaping conversations around child welfare and prevention in social work.
What drew you to the University of Illinois, and how has the program supported or shaped your research?
I chose the University of Illinois primarily because of my advisor, HK, whose research closely aligned with my interests in child maltreatment. Over the past four years, my advisor’s consistent mentorship and support have been central to shaping my academic and professional growth. The program has also been deeply supportive, particularly during a difficult period following the loss of my grandmother, allowing me to continue my studies while I was in South Korea. Overall, my journey at Illinois has been both academically enriching and personally meaningful, filled with many positive memories shared with my peers.
Where is your go-to place on campus for completing work or studying, and why?
My go-to place on campus is the Main Library, where I can focus without distractions. I especially love the dual monitors and the flexibility to meet friends informally without needing to schedule appointments. For me, the Main Library is both a cozy and supportive space—surrounded by peers who work independently on their research while also encouraging and supporting one another.
Your research aims to prevent child maltreatment with the goal of supporting vulnerable children and families. What key questions are currently guiding your work, and how do you see this research contributing to the broader field of social work?
My research examines how structural conditions shape child maltreatment reporting, CPS decision-making, and service outcomes, rather than assuming risk is driven solely by individual or family behavior. By highlighting the role of socioeconomic context and policy environments, my work contributes to a more structural and prevention-oriented approach in social work, with implications for child welfare policy, equity, and system-level reform.
Hsu Sun
We asked Hsu Sun, PhD Student in the School of Social Work at the University of Illinois, about what drew them to the program, where they find focus on campus, and how their work is reshaping conversations on how transgender lives are governed, represented, and resisted across institutional, discursive, and geopolitical contexts.|
What drew you to the University of Illinois, and how has the program supported or shaped your research?
Ranking of the Illinois SSW PhD program, intimate relationship(my partner lives here), and that I was an intern here at University of Illinois GSRC in Summer 2024 due to the collaboration project between U of I and National Taiwan University, where I got both my BSW and MSW. I know Champaign and the university quite well based on my former experience, so I could start working on my research asap without spending the first year exploring the city. The School of Social Work really has a lot of resources. Faculty members are mostly nice and willing to help all the time. Fellowship money is okay. The required courses out of Social Work have also created a lot of learning experiences for me, which significantly inspire my projects right now.
Where is your go-to place on campus for completing work or studying, and why?
I can only work at home. I need silence to focus. I do not listen to music when I work either. Also, not being able to wear whatever I like, or eat whatever I like whenever I want would stress me out even more.
Your research interests focus on discrimination and microaggressions, trauma and resilience, transnormativity, queer theory, and neoliberalism. What key questions are currently guiding your work, and how do you see this research contributing to the broader field of social work?
My research is guided by a central question: how transgender lives are governed, represented, and resisted across institutional, discursive, and geopolitical contexts, and what this means for social work intervention and advocacy. Across three projects, I examine this question at multiple levels. My scale development project conceptualizes transgender discrimination and microaggressions within the Taiwanese sociocultural and institutional context, addressing the limitations of Western-centered measures in social work research. My critical discourse study of The New York Times examines how early 2025 anti-transgender policies were framed and how transgender resilience and agency emerged within elite media discourse. My work on transnormativity and civil defense in post–Cold War Taiwan analyzes how national security logics instrumentalize transgender bodies, and how individuals and civil society negotiate, resist, or rework these demands under conditions of legal and geopolitical precarity. Together, this research contributes to social work by linking lived experience, discourse, and state power, and by advancing culturally grounded, structurally informed approaches to transgender justice, policy critique, and ethical intervention.
Xavy Ramirez
We also connected with Xavy Ramirez, a doctoral student in the School of Social Work at the University of Illinois, to learn more about his journey to campus, the spaces that help him stay grounded in his work, and how his research is advancing more equitable approaches to perinatal mental health screening, education, and care for Latina communities.
What drew you to the University of Illinois, and how has the program supported or shaped your research?
A major reason I applied to the PhD in Social Work program at Illinois was the opportunity to engage in interdisciplinary research. The curriculum encourages students to take methodology courses outside the School of Social Work and includes a focus area requirement, which allowed me to pursue graduate minors in Latina/o Studies and Gender & Women’s Studies. I was also drawn to Illinois because of my research interests in perinatal mental health among Latinas. Illinois is home to a leading expert in perinatal health inequities, Dr. Karen Tabb, whom I am fortunate to have as my mentor and dissertation chair. Her support has been invaluable,particularly in shaping my research trajectory and facilitating opportunities to engage with national and international scholars in the field.
Where is your go-to place on campus for completing work or studying, and why?
I completed much of my writing at Espresso Royale on Oregon, just down the street from the School of Social Work. It’s an ideal space to put on headphones and focus. A close second is the Department of Latina/o Studies, where the Graduate Organization for and by Latine Students hosts weekly study hours. It’s a space that makes it possible to be productive while also building community.
Your research focuses on how language shapes perinatal mental health screening, education, and access to care for Latinas. What key questions are currently guiding your work, and how do you see this research contributing to the broader field of social work?
My work is guided by my experiences as a perinatal social worker. Many screening tools, practices, and service delivery processes are rooted in Eurocentric standards of care that do not reflect the needs or realities of diverse populations in the United States. When these practices go unquestioned, the experiences of Latinas are often erased.
In perinatal mental health, I am interested not only in the content of depression screeners, but also in how and where Latinas want to access care. The United States has a long history of violence and discrimination that shapes how communities navigate reproductive and perinatal services, yet these histories are frequently absent from education, research, and clinical training.
I hope my work contributes to social work by emphasizing the importance of understanding communities, not just implementing interventions. In my experience, our field prioritizes methods over meaning and relationships. My research in perinatal care demonstrates how this disconnect can lead to interventions that fail to meet the needs of the people they are intended to serve. We cannot claim to honor diverse lived experiences while relying on approaches that are not grounded in those realities.
This article was reposted from the School of Social Work website.