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Biography

Yu Jung Han serves in the Warner School's Center for Learning in the Digital Age (LiDA). Her research centers on the intersection of emerging technologies, interest-driven learning, and second language acquisition. With years of English teaching experience across her native country of Korea, Japan, and the United States, she has closely observed how English language learners develop meaningful English skills and a range of other transferable skills by engaging in activities aligned with their deep, personal interests (e.g., gaming, fan practices, etc.). Her work explores how formal educational environments can better support and sustain these interest-driven learning experiences, which often originate outside the formal classroom.

Interest-driven practices are often among the first to actively utilize emerging technologies such as generative AI, providing her with early, firsthand exposure to both the capabilities of these tools and how individuals leverage them to support personally meaningful pursuits. These real-world examples have shaped her commitment to personalized, meaningful learning enabled by human-centered technology integration. Her research agenda focuses on drawing insights from exemplary cases of such integration in interest-driven contexts and developing and implementing innovative practices and pedagogical models that guide thoughtful and effective technology integration in teaching and learning.