I mainly study a variety of group identities (e.g. partisanship, ideology, nation, age, gender, occupation, etc.) and their consequences for bureaucratic agencies, including the military. I also study how states can unite citizens divided by multiple intergroup cleavages, while dealing with side effects such as 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). My works are also interdisciplinary in their nature, informed by the fields of political science, economics, public administration, and social psychology.

My works have been recognized by scholarly awards, such as Alexander George Award (Foreign Policy Analysis Section, ISA) and Conflict Processes Junior Scholar Best Paper Award (Conflict Processes Section, APSA).

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.