My research interest lies at the intersection of comparative politics and political psychology, with a focus on intergroup relations, bureaucratic politics, and civil-military relations.

I mainly study biases and discrimination originated from a variety of group identities (e.g. partisanship, ideology, age, gender, occupation, etc.) and their effects on bureaucratic and military performance. I also study how states can unite citizens divided by such intergroup cleavages with a common national identity, while dealing with its side effects such as aggressive nationalism and xenophobia. I explore these topics largely in the context of South Korea and East Asia, along with other new and advanced democracies around the world. My works combine theory development based on extensive fieldwork and in-depth interviews with a variety of rigorous quantitative methods, such as causal inference, surveys and survey experiments, field experiments, and automated text analysis (including the use of large language models).

I received Alexander George Award for the best graduate paper presented at the Foreign Policy Analysis section of International Studies Association. I am a Ph.D. candidate in the department of political science at the University of California, San Diego, where I am a recipient of Marsha Chandler Fellowship. I hold M.A. in political science from Columbia University, the other M.A. in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I received University Fellowship, and B.A., highest honors, in political science and philosophy from Yonsei University, where I received National Humanities & Social Sciences Scholarship (in Korean, “인문100년장학금”).

To fulfill the military service duty as a South Korean male citizen while working on my dissertation project, I am working as a lecturer of military history (first lieutenant) at Korea Army Academy from June 2024 to May 2027. I am particularly excited about this valuable opportunity to improve my teaching skills and also conduct fieldwork in the country of my academic interest.