Yehyang Lee joined Syracuse University School of Education as Assistant Professor of Inclusive Education in 2025. As a first-generation immigrant scholar, Lee explores the intersectional oppressions faced by students at the interplay of disability, race/ethnicity, language, culture, and other social markers. Specifically, her work challenges the systemic invisibility and multiple marginalizations faced by students with disabilities from underserved communities. Her research examines the post-high school experiences of transition-age youths with intellectual and developmental disabilities who are experiencing homelessness, including building collaborative research-practice partnerships among schools and communities to promote their well-being.
Lee’s teaching interests include preparing future educators as changemakers through critical thinking and activism and working toward revitalizing classrooms into diverse, equitable, and inclusive learning environments for all students.
Lee’s publications include “Marginalization at the Intersection of Language, Culture, and Disability: Systemic Contradictions Perceived by Special Education Teachers in Serving Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students with Disabilities in South Korea” in the Peabody Journal of Education and “Culturally Sustaining Inclusive Systemic Design to Address Overrepresentation of Students of Color with and without Dis/abilities in School Discipline” in Equity and Excellence in Education.
Among her services roles, Lee is Treasurer of the Division for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Exceptional Learners at the Council for Exceptional Children and Secretary/Treasurer of the Cultural Historical Research Special Interest Group at the American Educational Research Association.
Most recently, Lee was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Special Education, Illinois State University. Before her move to the United States, she served as a Cognitive Behavioral Therapist and Special Education Teacher in her native South Korea. Lee holds a Ph.D. in Special Education (2024) from the University of Texas at Austin, as well as an M.A. in Philosophy of Education and Curriculum Studies from Sookmyung Women’s University and a B.A. in Elementary Special Education from Daegu University, both in South Korea.