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A Korean-American woman has become the first tenured Asian-American female law professor of Harvard University. The Harvard Crimson, daily newspaper of the university, said Harvard faculty voted to grant tenure to Jeannie Suk, a law professor, last month, and was immediately approved by the school.
The 37-year-old, specialized in family and fashion law, graduated from the Law School and joined the school’s faculty in 2006. She is teaching courses on criminal law and on performing arts and law.
“I’m used to being one of the few women [at the Law School]. But I’ve been a professor under two women deans. It’s hard to say why, but personally I am not that aware of my life as a professor having been more difficult because of being a woman on a mostly male faculty,” Suk wrote in an e-mail to the daily. “Harvard has been the most exciting and supportive place possible to do work I love to do, and to have my faculty vote tenure for me for doing this work makes me feel very fortunate.”
Last year, Suk became famous in the fashion world after she wrote an article in the Stanford Law Review arguing that American fashion designers should have their designs protected by law against imitations or knock-offs.
She also received the Herbert Jacob Prize by the Law and Society Association with her book, titled “At Home in the Law: How the Domestic Violence Revolution is Transforming Privacy.”
Suk immigrated to New York from Seoul when she was a 6-year-old and advanced to Yale University and studied English literature. She also gained a doctorate degree from Oxford University. She has served as a law clerk to Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court and to Judge Harry T. Edwards on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

한국 교포 하버드 법대 첫 동양인 여성 정년보장 교수
한인 교포가 동양인 여성으로는 처음으로 미국 하버드 법대에서 정년보장을 받는 교수가 되었다. 이 대학의 일간지 하버드 크림슨 (Harvard Crimson) 에 따르면 지난달 법대 교수회는 지니 석 (37) 씨의 정년보장 (tenure)을 승인했다.
가족과 패션관련 법에 정통한 석씨는 하버드 법대를 졸업하고 2006년부터 이 곳에서 교수로 일하기 시작했다. 현재 형사법과 예술공연법을 강의하고 있다.
석씨는 “하버드는 가장 흥미진진하며 내가 좋아하는 일을 할 수 있도록 지원을 아끼지 않는 곳” 이라며 "이 같은 일을 할 수 있도록 교수투표에서 종신교수로 통과시켜 준 것은 내게 큰 행운"이라고 말했다.”
6세때 뉴욕으로 이민을 간 석씨는 예일대학에서 영문학을 전공했고 영국으로 건너가 옥스포드에서 박사학위를 땄다.