I am a Senior Lecturer (full-time faculty) with the Center for Advanced Governmental Studies at Johns Hopkins University. I received my PhD in Political Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2022. My research interests focus on authoritarian nostalgia and related political behavior in post-authoritarian democracies. My regional focus is on South Korea and other Asian democracies. My research has appeared in Party Politics and the Journal of East Asian Studies and is forthcoming at International Studies Quarterly and Social Science Quarterly.

My current book project, The Past that Binds, provides theoretical and empirical foundations for nostalgic behavior and democratic development. I argue that authoritarian nostalgia is an important source of group sentiment in post-authoritarian democracies, which produces large and surprising effects on voter attitudes and behaviors. My book will build much needed theoretical and empirical foundations for nostalgic behavior and democratic development and bolster its comparative implications by drawing on South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, and the Philippines as case studies.

My research has received support from various sources, including a Faculty Grant Award from the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University, a Taiwan Fellowship from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Taiwan, a Doctoral Fellowship from the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, and multiple institutions at the University of Illinois.