Ph.D., Social Foundations, Department of Education Leadership, Foundations & Policy, School of Education and Human Development, University of Virginia, 2025
Advisor: Dr. Rachel Wahl
Title: “Where I don’t have to explain myself”: Ethnocultural church communities as a third place for immigrant education and acculturation. doi:https://doi.org/10.18130/d2w1-qw71

M.Ed., Social Foundations, Department of Education Leadership, Foundations & Policy, School of Education and Human Development, University of Virginia, 2015

B.A., Political Science, Columbia College, Columbia University, 2004

B.S., Chemical Engineering, Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, Columbia University, 2003

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Boston College, Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Department of Formative Education (2025-)

Nguyen, A. J., Sung, J., Pandey, T., Skrzypek, C., Hosig, K., & Bradshaw, C. P. (2025). Helping students weather the pandemic: A mixed-methods study of rural educators and their students’ wellbeing. Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sel.2025.100161

Sung, J., & Wahl, R. (2021). Education and cultural navigation for children in refugee resettlement contexts. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. New York: Oxford University Press. doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.414

Sung, J. (in preparation). Ethnocultural institutions as third places for immigrant acculturation, identity, and belonging.
Sung, J. (in preparation). “My deepest hope… an identity founded on something greater than themselves”: Religious affiliation and conceptions of ‘the good life.’”
Sung, J. (in preparation). “I talk to my church family”: Using the cultural capital of Korean ethnic church communities to navigate the education of children.
Sung, J. (in preparation). “Who knows, maybe we’ll end up figuring out how to do this better?”: Loss, insight, and educational reorientation in a post-pandemic world.
Sung, J. (in preparation). Gendered dimensions of refugee resettlement: Education and work in the experiences of women refugees.

Sung, J. (2024, July). Refugee youth voices: Strategies you should be using as a youth-serving professional [guest blog post]. Youth-Nex Blog. https://youthnexdrive.virginia.edu/refugee-youth-voices-strategies-you-should-be-using-youth-serving-professional
Sung, J., Nguyen, A. J., Hosig, K., & Bradshaw, C. (2021). Impacts of Covid-19 on mental and behavioral health support needs of rural Virginia schools [research brief].
Deutsch, N. L., Lawrence, E. C., Sung, J., & Williamson, S. (2018, October). Charlottesville area community resources for youths and families: A resource guide prepared for the International Rescue Committee, Charlottesville, VA.
Lawrence, E. C., Williamson, S., Sung, J., & Deutsch, N. L. (2018, June). Assessment of the needs of Charlottesville-area refugee youth and families: A report prepared for the International Rescue Committee, Charlottesville, VA.

(2024). Is the Good Life Political? Student-Facing Project Grant, Karsh Institute for Democracy and School of Education and Human Development, President and Provost’s Fund for Institutionally Related Research, University of Virginia. ($2,700)
(2021-22). Graduate Global Research (GGR) Grant, The Center for Global Inquiry + Innovation, University of Virginia. ($1,500)
(2021). School of Education and Human Development Doctoral Student Dissertation: Innovative, Developmental, Exploratory, Award (IDEAs) Grant, University of Virginia. ($1000)  
(2017).  PVI Collective Graduate Fellowship Grant, Power, Violence, and Inequality Collective, University of Virginia. ($2,000) 

(2023-24).  Project Fellow, “Is the good life political?: Civic engagement, ethics and student well-being.” Karsh Institute for Democracy and School of Education and Human Development, President and Provost’s Fund for Institutionally Related Research, University of Virginia 
(2022).  Finalist, 2022 Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, Institute for Citizens & Scholars 
(2022).  IASC Bradley Doctoral Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia ($3000) 
(2021).  Recognition for teaching and scholarship, The Seven Society 29th Annual Monticello Dinner Series, University of Virginia 
(2021).  Society for Prevention Research, Early Career Preventionists Network Travel Award Program 
(2020-21).  Center for Ethics and Education McPherson Fellow 2020-21, Center for Ethics and Education, Madison, WI 
(2019).  Dean’s Travel Fellowship Program, Curry School of Education, University of Virginia ($2,500)
(2019).  Robert Lynn Canady Fellowship, Curry School Foundation, University of Virginia ($1000 award)
(2019).  The Raven Society Inductee (Honor Society), University of Virginia 
(2018).  Jennings L. Wagoner, Jr., Scholarship, Curry School Foundation, University of Virginia ($1000) 
(2017).  Leadership, Foundations, & Policy Departmental Travel Award, Curry School of Education, University of Virginia 

 Sung, J. (2025, February). “My deepest hope is that my children have an identity founded on something greater than themselves”: Parent conceptions of learning, flourishing, and “the good life.” Southeast Philosophy of Education Society annual meeting, Greenville, SC.
Sung, J. (2024, March). Sharing the struggle, sharing the healing: Immigrant churches as sites of resistance and spaces of belonging, on panel "Highlighted Session: Higher and adult education in the context of global migration." Comparative and International Education Society annual conference, Miami, FL.
Sung, J. (2023, October). “My deepest hope is that my children have an identity founded on something greater than themselves”: Mothers' Shifting Conceptions of Learning, Flourishing, and “the Good Life.” North Eastern Philosophy of Education Society annual conference, New York City.
Sung, J. (2023, February). Learning beyond the classroom: The role of church community networks in the education of immigrant children. Comparative and International Education Society annual conference, Washington, DC.
Sung, J. (2022, April). Learning beyond school walls: The role of non-school settings in the education of children in refugee resettlement contexts, on panel "Highlighted Panel: NGO and Community-Based Education: Global Migration and Identities." Comparative and International Education Society annual conference, Minneapolis, MN.
Nguyen, A. J., Sung, J., Hosig, K., & Bradshaw, C. (2021, June). Understanding the mental and behavioral health support needs of rural Virginia schools in the wake of COVID-19, on panel A. Nguyen (Chair) & K. Herman (Discussant), "Engaging Schools in Youth Mental Health Prevention in the Context of COVID-19." Society for Prevention Research 2021 Annual Meeting [online].
Sung, J. (2021, May). Figuring out how to do this better? Teachers’ experiences of loss, insight, and reorientation to a post-pandemic world. Graduate Student Conference on Philosophy of Education [online].
Sung, J. (2020, October). What education is for, what teachers are for: Changing conceptions of learning and education amid a global pandemic. North Eastern Philosophy of Education Fall 2020 Virtual Polis [online].
Sung, J. (2020, March-April). Education, work, and negotiation of gender in the experiences of women refugees [canceled due to Covid-19]. Comparative and International Education Society annual conference, Miami, FL
Sung, J. (2020, March-April). The formal and nonformal education of forced migrant children: A mixed methods examination of refugee and asylee educational experiences [canceled due to Covid-19]. Comparative and International Education Society annual conference, Miami, FL.
Sung, J. (2020, February). Gendered dimensions of refugee resettlement: A case study of education and work in the experiences of women refugees. 32nd Annual Ethnographic & Qualitative Research Conference, Las Vegas, NV.
Sung, J. (2019, August). Gendered dimensions of refugee resettlement: Education and work in the experiences of women refugees. Sociologists for Women in Society Summer Meeting, New York, NY.
Sung, J. (2019, April). Aspirations for a meaningful life: Situating notions of the educated self and “the good life” in educational projects of refugees, on panel J. Sung (Chair) & D. Hoffman (Discussant), "The future that I see: Aspiration, education, and visions for 'the good life.'” Comparative and International Education Society annual conference, San Francisco, CA.   
 Sung, J. (2018, March). Experiences and emic perspectives of adult refugee language learners. Comparative and International Education Society annual conference, Mexico City, Mexico. 
Sung, J. (2017, March). From “G.I. Jane” to “Coed”: Women veterans of World War II and the G.I. Bill. Comparative and International Education Society annual conference, Atlanta, GA. 

Sung, J. (2022, March). Learning in non-school contexts: Church community networks and the education of immigrant children. Global Research Brown Bag Lecture Series: Research Presentations by Graduate Students, The Center for Global Inquiry + Innovation, University of Virginia. 
Sung, J. (2019, March). Learning grammar and negotiating meanings of “the good life”: Language acquisition in refugee resettlement contexts. Curry Research Conference, University of Virginia. 
Sung, J. (2018, April). Language acquisition by adult refugees and the symbolic power of language. Power, Violence, and Inequality Collective Graduate Fellows Mini-Conference, University of Virginia.
Sung, J. (2018, April). Language acquisition and the experiences of refugees in an adult ESOL program. Curry Research Conference, University of Virginia.
Sung, J. (2017, November). The intersection of adult refugee experiences and participation in English language education. Diversifying Scholarship Conference, University of Virginia.

*Online synchronous format
**Hybrid in-person and online synchronous format

Reimagining School and Society (Fall 2025) 
Globalization, Mobility, and Education (Fall 2025/Spring 2026 anticipated)

What is Education For? (Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2021*, Spring 2021*) 
Education in Multicultural Societies (Spring 2024, Fall 2022, Spring 2022) 

Education, Democracy, and Ethics (Fall 2022**) 

What is Education For? (Spring 2019, Spring 2018)
Comparative and International Education (Fall 2017)

Qualitative study examining interrelationships between formal education, religion, and formation of ideas about meaning, purpose, and flourishing. 

Dissertation project, an in-depth qualitative study examining how Korean American and Korean immigrant parents understand and act in relation to children’s formal education and development and how significant contacts and institutions such as Korean ethnic church community networks shape the ways they navigate formal education in the United States, and with what implications for overall experiences of adjustment, acculturation, and belonging in the American context. 

*Project Manager

Mixed-methods study examining the mental and behavioral health support needs of students, teachers, and other school stakeholders as students return to schools in the wake of the COVID-19 health crisis. 

Qualitative study examining learning through sustained, deliberative dialogue. 

 Interdisciplinary, mixed-methods project funded by 3Cavaliers research initiative to explore the experiences of Black immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean in U.S. public schools as a window into contemporary processes of racialization in American public life. 

 Development of survey questionnaire on police-youth relations for use by the Center for Teen Empowerment in Boston and Somerville, MA and Rochester, NY. 

 Needs assessment of challenges experienced by refugee youth in Charlottesville, funded by project grant from the International Rescue Committee. 

(2019-22). Co-Chair, Post-foundational Approaches Special Interest Group, Comparative and International Education Society
(2018-19).  Treasurer/Secretary, Post-foundational Approaches Special Interest Group, Comparative and International Education Society

(2022-24). Research and Practice Consultant, C-Ville Tulips, Sound Justice Lab, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
(2021-22). Logistics Committee Member and Technical Support, Hunter Student Research Conference Planning Committee, School of Education and Human Development, University of Virginia
(2020-21). Proposal Committee Member, Hunter Student Research Conference Planning Committee, School of Education and Human Development, University of Virginia
(2019-20). Committee Member, Curry Research Conference Planning Committee, Curry School of Education, University of Virginia
(2018-20). Committee Chair and Social Foundations Program Representative, EDLF Student Travel Fund Committee, Curry School of Education, University of Virginia

(2019-20). Research intern, International Rescue Committee (IRC), Charlottesville, VA

American Education Research Association 
American Educational Studies Association 
American Sociological Association 
Comparative and International Education Society 
John Dewey Society 
North American Association for Philosophy and Education 
North Eastern Philosophy of Education Society 
Philosophy of Education Society 
Sociologists for Women in Society 
Southeast Philosophy of Education Society