Marjorie Pajaron joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center as Visiting Scholar beginning April 2026 through July 2026 from the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPSE), where she serves as Associate Professor in the School of Economics. She was previously at APARC as Asia Health Policy Postdoctoral Fellow during the 2012–13 academic year.

While at APARC, she will be conducting research on the migration of healthcare workers from the Philippines and the nexus with climate change.

Pajaron received a PhD in economics from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa.

Publications:

Ramel, R. C. D., Legaspi, J. D., & Pajaron, M. C. (2026). Illuminating the land: the effects of nighttime lights on land values in the Philippines. Remote Sensing Letters, 17(5), 465–477. https://doi.org/10.1080/2150704X.2026.2650396

Pajaron M, Vasquez GN. (2023). Weather, Lockdown, and the Pandemic: Evidence from the Philippines. Philipp J Sci 152(S1): 47–62. https://doi.org/10.56899/152.S1.04

Pajaron, M.C., Vasquez, G.N.A. (2020). Weathering the storm: weather shocks and international labor migration from the Philippines. Journal of Population Economics 33, 1419–1461. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-020-00779-1

Pajaron, M. (2017). “The Role of Remittances as a Risk-Coping Mechanism: Evidence from Agricultural Households in the Philippines.” Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 26 (1): 3–30. https://doi.org/10.1177/01171968166806

Pajaron, M. (2016). “Heterogeneity in the Intrahousehold Allocation of International Remittances: Evidence from Philippine Households.” Journal of Development Studies 52 (6): 854–875. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2015.1113261

Young-Hae Han is a visiting professor at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for the 2012–13 academic year. She is also a professor at the Graduate School of International Studies at Seoul National University (SNU). Her research and education focuses on contemporary Japanese society. She has conducted field research on Japanese local-level grassroots social movements in cities such as Kawasaki, Kunidachi, Kobe, Yamagata, Kanazawa, and Oita. After the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, she organized a team and conducted research in the damaged area. Han is also involved on researching another topic that is of great interest to her: ethnic minorities in contemporary Japan. For this topic, her research has been focused on identity issues of Zainichi Koreans, particularly on the new relation of Zainichi with their “homeland” in the post-cold war period.

Han served as the director of the Institute for Japanese Studies at SNU from 2006 to 2012 until just before she joined Shorenstein APARC. She also served as the chair of the Exchange Committee of KSA-AJS at the Korean Sociological Association from 2008 to 2011.

Han is the author of numerous publications, such as the books: Understanding Contemporary Japanese Society (in Korean); Japanese Community and Grassroots Social Movements (in Korean); Multi-Cultural Japan and Identity Politics (co-author, in Korean). Her recent publications include Institutionalization of East Asian Studies and New Dilemmas: With a Focus on Japanese Studies (in English); New Relationship between Zainichi Koreans and the Homeland: Through the Journeys of the Former ‘Chosen Nationals’ Living in Korea (in Japanese); The Meaning of ‘Seikatsu’ (Life) in the Citizens’ Movement in Contemporary Japan (in Korean); and The Inheritance of the Korean Dance and Identity in the Ethnic Korean Community (in Korean).  

Daniel M. Smith was a postdoctoral fellow at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) during the 2012–13 academic year.

He is an expert on Japanese politics whose research interests include political parties, elections and electoral systems, candidate recruitment and selection, and coalition government. During his time at Shorenstein APARC, he will be completing a book manuscript about the causes and consequences of political dynasties in developed democracies, with a particular focus on Japan.

Smith earned his PhD and MA in political science from the University of California, San Diego, and his BA in political science and Italian from the University of California, Los Angeles. He has conducted research in Japan as a Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology research scholar at Chuo University (2006–2007), and as a Fulbright IIE dissertation research fellow at the Institute of Social Science at the University of Tokyo (2010–2011). After completing his fellowship at Shorenstein APARC, he will join the Department of Government at Harvard University as an assistant professor.