I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Concordia College, Moorhead. I received my Ph.D.
in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
My research examines how institutions and policies shape—and are shaped by—political behavior and attitudes,
with a focus on gender, migration, and climate change. My regional focus is Asia, specifically East Asia.
In my recent work published in Comparative Political Studies, developed from one of the empirical
chapters of my dissertation, I explore the relationship between gendered labor markets and gender differences
in immigration attitudes in Japan. Drawing on survey experiments and content analysis, I find that women
oppose immigration more than men due to women's labor market vulnerabilities, highlighting the complexities
of anti-immigrant sentiments and underscoring the importance of gender-sensitive approaches in immigration policy.
Another recent paper, accepted at the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, shows that the well-documented
racial hierarchy among minorities, in which Latino/a immigrants are penalized more severely than Asian immigrants,
does not hold for undocumented migrants: Asian immigrants who are undocumented violate the pre-existing expectations
attached to them being model minorities and thus no longer receive the more favorable treatment.
I am also currently working on several other proejects including those on climate change and climate refugees,
foreign brides in East Asia, female emigration, refugee support and gender, and gender polarization.
My research has been supported by the APSA Summer Centennial Center Research Grant,
the NSF-APSA Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (DDRIG),
the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) Dissertation Fellowship,
the UCLA Initiative to Study Hate (ISH) Research Innovation Fund, and the Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies, among others.
I hold a master's degree in International Relations from Seoul National University and a Bachelor's degree in
International Relations from the Australian National University.