Eunkyeong Lee joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as a visiting scholar for the 2025-2026 academic year. She currently serves as Research Fellow at the Korea Institute of Public Finance. While at APARC, she will be conducting research on healthcare systems and utilization among the elderly in South Korea.

Seok Jin Eom joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) at Stanford University as a visiting scholar for the 2025-2026 academic year. He is a professor of the Graduate School of Public Administration at Seoul National University, Republic of Korea, and received his Ph.D in public administration from Seoul National University. He has published numerous papers in academic journals, including Government Information Quarterly, Public Management Review, Administration & Society, Perspectives on Public Management and Governance, and The Korean Public Administration Review. He also published many books on the history of public administration and policy in Korea and Japan, as well as digital government and AI adoption in the public sector, including The Intellectual History of Korean Public Administration (2025, forthcoming), Enabling Data-Driven Innovation and AI Governance (2025), The Changes and Continuity of Japanese State Apparatus (2015), and others. Dr. Eom serves as the editor-in-chief of the Korean Public Administration Review, one of the most prestigious academic journals in Korea. His current research interests include the intellectual evolution of Korean public administration, public governance in the era of economic growth in Korea, and the evolution of governance in the AI era. (sjum21@stanford.edu; sjum21@snu.ac.kr).

Soo Chan Choi joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as a visiting scholar for the 2025-2026 academic year. He currently serves as Dean and Professor of the School of Social Welfare at Yonsei University. While at APARC, he will be conducting research on the adaptation of Korean workers to overseas environments, focusing on the Bay Area.

Byongjin Ahn joined the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as a visiting scholar for the 2025 fall quarter. He recently served at the State Affairs Planning Committee (equivalent to the transition team as President Lee had to assume his post immediately after his election in June).

He is currently a professor at Kyung Hee University's Global Academy for Future Civilizations. He has served as the Rector of the Global Academy for the Future of Civilizations at Kyung Hee University, Vice President of Kyung Hee Cyber University, Assistant Professor of International Relations at Changwon National University, and Lecturer at the City University of New York. Born in Daegu (1967), he earned a B.A. in sociology from Sogang University and an M.A. in political science from Seoul National University. He earned his Ph.D. in American politics from the New School for Social Research, founded by John Dewey. For his dissertation, he was awarded the Hannah Arendt Award.

His main specialty is the U.S. presidency and Korean politics, and he has appeared on numerous television programs and newspapers, including a panel on the U.S. presidential election specials on MBC and SBS and an interview with the New York Times. He has been a regular columnist for the JoongAng Ilbo, Kyunghyang Shinmun, and Hankyoreh, and a guest commentator for KBS. He is a co-author of South Korea's Democracy In Crisis: The Threats of Illiberalism, Populism, and Polarization (Gi-Wook Shin and Ho-Ki Kim Eds, Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, 2022) and many other books and articles. 

Yuli Xu joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as Asia Health Policy Postdoctoral Fellow for the 2025-2026 academic year. She recently obtained her Ph.D. in Economics at the University of California, San Diego. Her research focuses on Labor and Health Economics, with particular interests in how female labor force participation and fertility decisions are influenced by labor market institutions and past birth experiences.

In her thesis, "Gendered Impacts of Privatization: A Life Cycle Perspective from China," she demonstrates that the reduction in public sector employment has widened the gender gap in the labor market while narrowing the gender gap in educational attainment. She also finds that this structural shift has delayed marriage among younger generations.

In another line of research, Yuli examines the effects of maternity ward overcrowding. She finds that overcrowding reduces the use of medical procedures during childbirth without negatively impacting maternal or infant health. While it has no direct effect on subsequent fertility, she shows that mothers, especially those with a college degree, are more likely to switch to another hospital for subsequent births after experiencing overcrowding.

During her time at APARC, Yuli will further investigate patient-physician relationships in the Chinese healthcare system, where patients have considerable flexibility in choosing their doctors at each visit. She will explore the persistence of these relationships and examine how patients respond when their regular doctors are temporarily unavailable.

Yuli also holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of International Business and Economics in China.

Minyoung An joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as Korea Program Postdoctoral Fellow beginning July 2025 through 2027. She recently obtained her 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 PhD students in the U.S., 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 APARC, she will be involved with the Korea Program and the Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab (SNAPL) as she pursues 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.

Jun Akabane joined the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as visiting scholar beginning spring 2025 through winter 2026. He currently serves as Professor at Chuo University in the Department of Economics. While at APARC, he conducted research analyzing business strategies in the era of economic security from the perspective of global value chains, environmental and human rights issues, with a particular focus on companies in the U.S. and Asia.

Professor Shinichi Kitaoka joined the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as Visiting Scholar, Japan Program Fellow for the spring quarter of 2025. He serves as Special Advisor to the President (former President) of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), as well as Emeritus Professor of the University of Tokyo and Rikkyo University. Previously, he was President of JICA. Dr. Kitaoka’s career also includes President of the International University of Japan (2012-2015), Professor of National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) (2012-), Professor of Graduate Schools for Law and Politics, the University of Tokyo (1997-2004, 2006-2012), Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Deputy Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations (2004-2006), and Professor of College of Law and Politics, Rikkyo University (1985-1997).

Dr. Kitaoka’s specialty is modern Japanese politics and diplomacy. He obtained his B.A. (1971) and his Ph.D. (1976) both from the University of Tokyo.

Huiyi Lyu joined the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as a visiting student researcher from January to April 2025. She is currently a doctoral student in International Relations at Tsinghua University. While at APARC, she conducted research on U.S.-Asia relations, particularly the U.S.-China narrative competition in the information age, with the Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab (SNAPL).