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 >

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 US-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 >

Gidong Kim   
Postdoctoral Fellow

Gidong Kim is a 2023-25 Korea Program postdoctoral fellow at APARC. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Missouri, and an M.A. and a B.A. in Political Science from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. He studies comparative political behavior and economy in East Asia, with a particular focus on nationalism and identity politics, inequality and redistribution, and migration in South Korea and East Asia. At APARC, Gidong works to transform his dissertation project, “Nationalism and Redistribution in New Democracies: Nationalist Legacies of Authoritarian Regimes,” into a book manuscript. At SNAPL, he also leads collaborative projects about nationalism, racism, and democratic crisis to address emerging social, economic, and political challenges in Korea and, more broadly, Asia. Profile >

Ruo-Fan Liu   
Postdoctoral Fellow

Ruo-Fan Liu is a sociologist studying culture, inequality, and education. She obtained her Ph.D. 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-fictional book by China Times. Her other line of research focuses on meritocracy and credentialism in East Asia.

Junki Nakahara   
Postdoctoral Fellow

Junki Nakahara recently defended her dissertation and has completed her doctorate in Communication at American University (AU), Washington DC. Her research interests include nationalism and xenophobia, critical and cultural studies, feminist media studies, and postcolonial/decolonial IR. She holds a B.Ed. in Educational Psychology from the University of Tokyo and an M.A. in Intercultural and International Communication from AU. At SNAPL, Junki primarily leads the “Nationalism and Racism” research group. She also intends to explore issues related to democratic backsliding and its intersections with media and technology in East Asia. Profile >

Irene Kyoung   
Research Associate

Irene Kyoung is a research associate with the Korea Program at APARC. Irene supports research regarding Korean politics and society, as well as the Nationalism and Racism in Asia and the Talent and Development research projects at SNAPL. Previously, she worked as a policy associate at the Korea Society. Irene holds an M.A. in Political Science with a concentration in International Relations from Columbia University and graduated with honors in Government and Legal Studies from Bowdoin College. She is also fluent in Korean. Profile >

Kerstin Norris  
Research Associate   

Kerstin is a research associate with APARC. She earned an M.A. 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 > 

Marco Widodo
Research Assistant   

Marco is an undergraduate student at Stanford majoring in Political Science with concentrations in International Relations and Data Science. His background lies in historical studies of race and ethnicity, particularly in tracing how different colonial influences map onto nation-building strategies and intergroup dynamics. His current research interests center on comparative studies of democracy and development, especially with how international and domestic security issues affect democratic governance and state stability.

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 >