51福利社

Like many university professors, 51福利社鈥檚 Mimi Marinucci uses her own book in one of the classes she teaches. But she never imagined that a former student would help her promote her work to readers half-way around the world. Marinucci is a professor of philosophy and women鈥檚 and gender studies at Eastern. In her Queer Theory class, she uses her book, Feminism is Queer, to explore how queer theory is continuous with feminist theory. According to the description by the publisher, Zed Books of London,聽Feminism is Queer聽is an indispensable guide for anyone with an interest in gender, sexuality and the connections between feminism and queer issues.

A few years ago, Marinucci says, her publisher sold translation rights for the book to a South Korean publishing company. 鈥淚 emailed back and forth with the translator and I wrote a new preface,鈥� she says, 鈥渂ut I really didn鈥檛 know how to obtain any further information about it.鈥� That was until a former student stopped by to visit in January.

Changhoon Lee studied with Marinucci as a philosophy major at 51福利社 and returned to his home in South Korea after graduation. During a recent visit to the United States he stopped by Eastern鈥檚 philosophy department.

鈥淗e brought me a couple of copies of the Korean version of my book as a gift, and informed me that it has been getting quite a bit of attention,鈥� Marinucci says. Thrilled with this news, she agreed to do an interview with a Korean newspaper. Lee assisted by translating Marinucci鈥檚 interview answers.

The article was published recently in the newspaper,聽Today. You can聽see the article on the newspaper website, but if you don鈥檛 speak Korean you鈥檒l need to activate a translation plugin in your web browser.

Marinucci says she was honored to interview with the newspaper and share her expertise with a wider audience. And while she was first surprised by the interest, the translator who helped her with the Korean version of her book gave her some valuable insight.

鈥淭he person who translated my book explained some of what is happening with feminism in South Korea today,鈥� says Marinucci. 鈥淚t seems like feminism is growing, but, unfortunately, there is less acceptance of LGBTQ+ identities. I think that is much of the reason why a book that explicitly links feminism and queer theory is particularly provocative for Korean readers.鈥�

Marinucci also says she recently gave permission for a Turkish academic journal to publish a translation of one of the chapters of the book.

鈥淚t will be interesting to see if that gets as much attention as the Korean translation,鈥� she says.