Jimin Gim was selected as a 2026 Emerging Scholar by Women & Wellbeing in Wisconsin & the World (4W) at UW–Madison.
The 4W mission is to leverage the strengths of UW-Madison to be a convener and leading voice in education, applied research, and impactful engagement to promote global wellbeing and full participation of women in society. The Emerging Scholar Engagement Grant supports graduate students in any relevant discipline who are engaged in work related to gender and wellbeing.
Jimin’s project, “It Takes a Village?: How Immigrant Families Navigate Childcare in a Privatized System,” examines how immigrant families navigate deeply privatized childcare in the United States. Drawing on interviews and ethnographic observations with Korean parents in Wisconsin, it explores how families build and sustain “villages of care” to meet everyday childcare needs, as well as the invisible mental and emotional labor and gendered responsibilities involved.
Jimin Gim is a PhD student in Sociology who studies inequality, work–family dynamics, caregiving and carework. Her research examines how childcare is understood, (de)valued, and distributed across multiple actors. She has also been involved in equity- and care-focused initiatives at UW–Madison, including the Sociology Department’s BIPOC Recruitment and Retention Committee and the UW Ethics of Care Initiative.