SNAPL People

Gi-Wook Shin   
Director and Principal Investigator

Gi-Wook Shin is the William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea in Sociology; senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; the director of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center since 2005; and the founding director of the Korea Program, all at Stanford University. As a historical-comparative and political sociologist, his research has concentrated on social movements, nationalism, development, democracy, and international relations. Profile >

 

Paul Y. Chang
Senior Fellow

Paul Y. Chang is the Tong Yang, Korea Foundation, and Korea Stanford Alumni Association Senior Fellow at Shorenstein APARC, Stanford University. A sociologist by training, Chang’s research on South Korean society has appeared in flagship disciplinary and area studies journals. He is the author of Protest Dialectics: State Repression and South Korea’s Democracy Movement, 1970-1979 (Stanford University Press) and co-editor of South Korean Social Movements: From Democracy to Civil Society (Routledge). His current work examines the diversification of family structures in South Korea. Profile >
 

Xinru Ma   
Research Fellow

Xinru Ma’s research focuses on nationalism, great power politics, and East Asian security with a methodological focus on formal and computational methods. At SNAPL, Xinru leads the research group in collaborative projects that focus on U.S.-Asia relations. She also provides mentorship to student research assistants and research associates. Before joining SNAPL, Xinru was an assistant professor at the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at Beijing Foreign Studies University. Profile >

Minyoung An
Postdoctoral Fellow

Minyoung An recently obtained a doctorate in sociology from the University of Arizona. Her research lies at the intersection of gender, transnational migration, and knowledge production, combining statistical modeling, computational methods, and in-depth interviews.

Her dissertation analyzes gendered migration patterns in South Korea and among international doctoral students in the United States, revealing how gender inequality in countries of origin produces distinct selection effects and return migration dynamics. She also studies academic career trajectories and prestige hierarchies, exploring how gender and national origin affect integration into global academia.

At SNAPL, she will pursue two projects that extend this research agenda: one using computational analysis of social media data to examine gendered migration intent, and another investigating the academic trajectories and institutional reception of international scholars from East Asia. Through these projects, she aims to advance understanding of how transnational inequalities shape global mobility, opportunity, and inclusion. Profile >

Ruo-Fan Liu   
Postdoctoral Fellow

Ruo-Fan Liu is a sociologist studying culture, inequality, and education. She obtained her doctorate in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In July 2024, she began her appointment at APARC as a postdoctoral fellow on contemporary Taiwan. Her research examines the uncertainties students encountered after Taiwan’s holistic admission reforms, and how parents and teachers activate cultural and social capital to regain admissions advantages. She is a Fulbright recipient, a former Congress party negotiator, and author of Let the Timber Creek, which was selected as the top-tenth best non-fiction book by China Times. Her other line of research focuses on meritocracy and credentialism in East Asia. Profile > 

Jinseok Kim
Visiting Fellow

Jinseok Kim is a 2024-25 Asia health policy postdoctoral fellow at APARC. He obtained his doctorate in economics from the Technology, Economics, Management and Policy Program of Seoul National University. He holds a master's degree in environmental technology from Imperial College of London and a bachelor's degree from University College London. His research interests focus on behavioral economics, demand forecasting, and policy analysis in the fields of technology diffusion, energy, and the environment. Profile >

Kerstin Norris  
Research Associate   

Kerstin is a research associate with APARC. She earned a master's degree from Stanford’s Center for East Asian Studies, where she wrote a master’s thesis on populist attitudes and political participation in South Korea. Her current research interests include topics related to nationalism, popular sovereignty, democracy, and imperialism in East Asia, primarily in South Korea. Kerstin received her bachelor’s degree in international relations and Korean from Ohio State University, with a minor in Spanish. In addition, she has studied the Korean language at Korea University and Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul. Profile > 

Heather Ahn   
Lab Manager

Heather Ahn is the program manager at the Korea Program at APARC. Before joining APARC, she worked in the computer industry, primarily in system software development. She also provided consulting for Korean high-tech firms in the U.S. She received a bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Minnesota and in political science from Ewha University in Korea. Her graduate studies concentrated on information management systems. Profile >