Sanghoon Kim-Leffingwell

Sanghoon Kim-Leffingwell

Senior Lecturer and Assistant Director

Johns Hopkins University

I am a Senior Lecturer and Assistant Director of the Data Analytics and Policy Program and a Faculty Affiliate at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University. My primary research focuses on authoritarian nostalgia and related political behavior in post-authoritarian democracies. I further develop research projects in the intersection of domestic and international politics of China’s expansion in Asia. My regional focus is on South Korea and other Asian democracies. I introduce various research methods in answering key research questions, including experiments and text and image analysis. I received my PhD in Political Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2022 and MA and BA at Korea University. My research has appeared in International Journal of Press/Politics, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of East Asian Studies, Party Politics, Social Science Quarterly, and World Development.

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.

Interests

  • Authoritarian nostalgia
  • Comparative political behavior
  • Post-authoritarian democracies
  • Political economy in Asia
  • Computational research methods

Education

  • PhD in Political Science, 2022

    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  • MA in Political Science, 2016

    Korea University

  • BA in Political Science; Economics, 2011

    Korea University