Madison conference allows sophomore English students global, feminist perspective

Following in a legacy of building world wide connections through literature, West sophomores taking English 2 Honors and Global Academy Level Two students participated in the Great World Text Conference in Madison on April 15. This year, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-joo was selected as the common text, the statewide study of which grounds the conference. During the event, which is put on annually by UW Madison Humanities, students had the opportunity to share a project they created about the book, engage with other students’ projects, and even meet the author of this year’s book.

The Great World Texts Conference is much more involved than a typical field trip. Students begin preparing months earlier by reading and analyzing a book and putting together creative projects relating to the text that they then display in Madison. English 2 Honors teacher Abigail Van Eeckhout appreciates the experience for her students.

“The way I’ve been explaining the Great World Text Conference is almost as if we were having a science fair for literature,” she said. “So often English classes are all in our own little classrooms and it’s a fantastic thing to read as a community in a class and to have a dialogue with each other, but we don’t often get the chance to get out of the classroom and actually see the larger conversations happening around a novel. The Great World Text Conference is an opportunity for us to get out of the classroom and into a dialogue with students from all across Wisconsin about one text.”

Dr. Crystal Mueller, English teacher for Level Two of the Global Academy, agrees with the importance of allowing students to discuss the novel with colleagues from other schools that they otherwise wouldn’t interact with.

“Everyone who attends the conference recognizes how vibrant it can be when we’re engaging with each other about creative ideas we had when we were reading this book together,” she said. “I also think it’s really powerful because at the conference there were 25 schools represented, and so to bring together students from 25 schools across the state and know that we all shared reading this book, and we could talk with one another and see what different people thought, that’s really exciting.”

While some schools spend entire semesters studying the text, West students began reading the book just a few months prior to the conference. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 tells the story of South Korean everywoman Kim Jiyoung, who experiences a mental breakdown in her mid-thirties. The novel goes back and traces her life story, emphasizing the experiences that led up to her mental breakdown, on suffered shortly after quitting her job to raise her child. The novel was well received by students, including sophomore Samreen Chahal.

“This novel was genuinely one of the best I’ve ever read for English class, and I would recommend for everyone to read it,” she said. “It is so emotional and realistic with valuable lessons.”

The topics discussed in Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 don’t just apply to South Korea. Van Eeckhout found that students resonate with the book because they are able to see similarities to American life.

“The thing that I think most students who read the book found that they loved is that it gave us the opportunity to talk about these large, current issues in our world,” she said. “A lot of the book is viewed through a feminist lens, so we get to sort of both do a comparison of what gender equality looks like in South Korea, which also gives us the opportunity to talk about what is that looking like in the United States right now.”

Chahal believes people everywhere have something to gain by reading it.

“The book is important mostly because it is applicable universally,” she said. “The problems faced within this specific novel aren’t just limited to Korean society; they can be observed anywhere in the world but in different ways.”

Beyond reading the book, students were asked to create a project using their own talents and passions to share their interpretations. These projects show off students’ creativity while demonstrating their understanding of relevant topics, with no limits to what they could create. Student projects ranged from interactive games and models, to creative stories and infographics, to sculptures and artwork. 

Mueller appreciated the diversity of the projects.

“Everyone took things they were interested in or strengths of theirs and developed it into an idea,” she said. “I think my favorite thing wasn’t a single project but rather the ways that students are able to showcase their strengths and create something from that.”

The freedom for students to choose project themes and mediums is what many students like Chahal appreciated.

“I really enjoyed getting the freedom to create whatever I wanted,” she said. “I don’t mind writing essays, even if they’re boring sometimes, but making something with paper and art supplies is just so satisfying to me. I was really happy with the end result because I feel like the same thing couldn’t be conveyed with typed words on a digital document.”

While at the conference, students started out the day with a plenary discussion where a representative from each school presented their project. After this, keynote ambassadors from 10 schools got to ask author Cho Nam-joo a question. To end the day, students got to showcase their own projects in gallery-walk style presentations and engage with other students’ creations. 

Sophomore Uzma Mirza, who was selected as a keynote ambassador for West, found the opportunity to ask the author a question a rewarding highlight.

“I thought it was a positive experience,” she said. “It’s not often you get to ask someone like her a question and get a personal answer. I am glad I did it; she was very thoughtful and careful with her answers.”

Van Eeckhout loved the gift of interaction with an author.

“I think it’s so important for us to have a conversation with our authors because so often we think of a book almost as if it were a dead thing, but actually seeing the flesh and blood behind it and what they were thinking while writing it is important,” she said. “Books are a human experience of putting your own life and your own reflections on the world into that, and now we get a little bit of a closer look to it.”

Overall, students were positively impacted from the conference. After seeing how other students interpreted the book through their projects, they were able to form a deeper understanding of the text and its themes. Mirza felt inspired after attending the conference.

“I felt really emotional witnessing some of the projects that really were passionate,” she said. “They give you a deeper awareness of different cultures and traditions from a close up perspective and experience which makes you more mature about the world, and more motivated to try and do good.”

by Genna Blustin

Published April 28th, 2025

Oshkosh West Index Volume 121 Issue VII