The Department of Asian Languages and Cultures celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. To commemorate this celebration, the department spotlights some of its alumni.
Meet Kori Cooper, who graduated from Weinberg College in 2018. Cooper now serves as a Corporate Associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP in New York, New York.
What inspired you to pursue a major or minor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures (ALC)?
I graduated Northwestern University with a B.A. in English Literature (major) and Chinese Language and Culture (minor) in 2018. My decision to pursue a minor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures (ALC) came about quite organically. I was born in Chicago Heights and attended Northwestern’s Center for Talent Development (CTD) summer program while growing up. Throughout that time I made a number of friends who spoke both Mandarin and English. This inspired me to take Chinese language classes during my middle school years. When I came to Northwestern as an undergraduate freshman, I was able to test out of the first segment of the curriculum and pick up where I left off in my studies. I later went on to study abroad at Nanjing University, which was my first experience traveling outside of the U.S., and take various Chinese literature, history, and business classes affiliated with the ALC Department, in addition to my language classes. I was not inspired to become a Chinese Language and Culture minor for any particular political or economic purpose, although there are certainly career advantages to having this academic specialty, but rather because I simply had a strong desire to better understand a culture and language system that seemed to be, in many ways, fundamentally different from my own.
How did your studies in the ALC department impact you personally or professionally?
As I reflect back on my studies in the ALC department, I know it was foundational in helping me become the professional I am today. Many of the skills I developed while studying abroad, attending classes, and working in jobs related to the focus of my minor are helpful to me now in my job as a lawyer. As an example, working for the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy (CTC) in Beijing in the summer of 2017 required me constantly balance different tasks and interests.The experience lead me to think critically about the trajectory of my career and determine what aspects of my working life I find most fulfilling. I ultimately decided to attend Columbia Law School (CLS) directly after graduating from Northwestern and have since been able to advance various impactful legal projects related to human rights, business, or international law. Most recently, I graduated from Columbia Law School in 2021 and currently work as an associate at an international law firm in New York City.
Is there a specific course, event, or memory associated with the ALC department that sticks out to you from your time at Northwestern?
In 2017, during my junior year of college, a classmate and I participated in the Midwest Chinese Bridge Speech Competition hosted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. There was a speech section and a talent performance section. Professor Hong Jiang spent many office hours helping me develop and memorize the speech I gave, as well as the song I sang for the talent section of the competition (The Moon Represents My Heart (月亮代表我的心)). Both the speech and the song had to be delivered entirely in Mandarin. On the day of the competition, Professor Li-Cheng Gu kindly took time out of his schedule to drive my classmate and I from Northwestern’s Evanston campus to Wisconsin. Both of these professors in the ALC Department went above and beyond what they needed to do to ensure their students developed their language skills and could have positive new learning experiences. This memory speaks to their character and commitment, and is indicative of the kind of faculty, staff, and students the department attracts.
What are you working on right now that excites you the most OR are there any accomplishments you would like to share?
A lot has happened since I graduated from Northwestern in 2018. For instance, while I was at Columbia Law School, I became a Davis Polk Leadership Fellow. With the fellowship, I founded and lead “Black Voices on Greater China,” a project focused on amplifying Black voices and perspectives in the field of Sinology. My personal experience in the field has been that there is a visible lack of members of the African diaspora in China-focused research institutions, media coverage, and relevant discussion panels. Through the facilitation of discussions involving a range of China-related topics that include Black creators, scholars, and professionals, “Black Voices on Greater China” was created in order to foster creative, informative, and engaging content for China experts, students in the field, and in-country practitioners who will benefit from the insights that the project spotlights. I believe these efforts have led to wider discourse on how Black people have engaged with China historically, how they engage with it today, and further opportunities to promote the perspectives of people of Black heritage. One can learn more about the project about why it was established by reading my paper on the subject, published with the Columbia Law Review, called “Why and How U.S. Law Schools Ought to Promote Inclusion of Black Scholars Aad Legal Practitioners in Chinese Legal Studies Programs”.
What’s a fun fact that you want to share with the Northwestern community?
A fun fact I want to share with the Northwestern community is that I lived in the Chapin Residential College during almost all 4 years of my time at Northwestern. Living in a residential college made my experience on campus more fun and intimate. Some of the ways in which Chapin enriches the student experience is by offering a daily venue wherein students can have lunch with faculty who are affiliated with the college, group trips to theater performances across the Chicago-area that come at no additional cost to students, private events at various museums, and so much more. Whether they are affiliated with a residential college or not, however, I sincerely hope members of the Northwestern community are taking full advantage of all of the unique programs and events running on its different campuses.
How do you enjoy spending your free time?
I currently enjoy spending my free time traveling to places around the world that I have not been yet, going for runs in New York City’s Central Park, watching classic films, reading, and writing. It can be more difficult to find pockets of free time now that I am no longer a student, so I really try to optimize the time I do have when I can find it. Most recently, I visited the Ikebukuro neighborhood of Tokyo, Japan and was finally able to complete a few novels that have been on my must-read list during the flights there and back.