About 

I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Riverside. My subfields are Comparative Politics and International Relations.  My past research focuses on refugee and migration politics in China, North Korean transnational politics, and civil society. My current research areas include migrant incorporation, national belonging, and intergroup relations in East Asia. My dissertation examines how host citizens' preferences toward migrants shape intergroup relations and the national belonging of migrants in South Korea. 

Prior to beginning my Ph.D. at UCR, I was a human rights activist and worked for several NGOs in South Korea and Canada to advocate for and promote North Korean human rights. I also interned at the Honorable Yonah Martin's Office in the Senate of Canada in 2016, where I drafted a report on the situation of North Korean refugees in China and testified human rights conditions of North Koreans at the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights in Canada. 

I received my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science from Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. 

Outside researching and working, I am a passionate runner,  a coffee lover, and an enthusiastic traveler. Above all, I am a devoted partner to a loving spouse and a proud mother of one child.