Saint Paul's Ventura - Our Seminarians Bill Knutson and Jim Lee

Jim Lee was born in Taegu, South Korea, and immigrated to the U.S. at the age of two. The first five years of his life in the U.S. were spent in North Carolina, where his father attended seminary and led his first congregation. In the winter of 1977, Jim's family moved to New York, and lived in various neighborhoods in Queens for the next nine years. In 1986, three months before the Mets won the World Series, Jim once again moved to the suburbs of Philadelphia, so that (once again!) his father could attend seminary to receive a doctorate.

Jim stayed in Philadelphia to attend college, the University of Pennsylvania, where he majored in English. After college, he did community organizing in a local activist group in Philadelphia. Then, in 1993, he flew across the country to begin graduate studies at UCLA. Two years later, he received a master's degree in Asian American Studies, and in 2000 received his Ph.D. in English. Jim thought he was so done with school.

Jim's first academic position was at the University of Texas at Austin, where he taught in the English Department and Center for Asian American Studies. In 2004, Jim returned to California, after being offered a position to teach at UCSB in the Department of Asian American Studies. It is at UCSB where he received tenure, and continues to teach courses in literature. In 2004, Jim also published his first book, titled Urban Triage: Race and the Fictions of Multiculturalism (University of Minnesota Press). He is currently serving as an associate editor of the journal American Quarterly and is also an editor for the Heath Anthology of American Literature.

Jim was raised in the Presbyterian/Reformed tradition, and came to the Episcopal Church in 1997. He was confirmed in 1999, and served on the Vestry at All Saints Church in Pasadena. He has also been a member of St. James' Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas during his time at UT. He is currently sitting on the vestry at St. Paul's.

Although he had been thinking about vocational issues for a decade, it was in 2006 that Jim began a formal discernment process. A year later, in the fall of 2007, Jim was officially a postulant for Holy Orders in the Diocese of Los Angeles. This fall (2008), he begins coursework at the Episcopal Theological School at Claremont, and intends to complete a Master of Divinity degree through the Claremont School of Theology.

While he takes seriously his calling to the priesthood, as well as his ministry as a teacher and scholar, Jim's most important vocation is as partner and parent to Julie Cho and Sona Cho-Lee. Julie is a filmmaker who also teaches at UCSB, and Sona, currently three years old, attends Kinko's Early Learning Center at Santa Barbara City College. Julie and Jim recently celebrated their tenth anniversary of marriage.