Born and raised in the quiet suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri, I am a Midwesterner at heart, but I have had the privilege of experiencing personal and professional growth across several different places. These include small-town Arkansas, Washington D.C., the bustling metropolis of Seoul, and the southern region of Ontario. I enjoy indulging my passion for drip coffee and Cold War-era spy thrillers. Above all, I am a devoted partner to a loving spouse and an accomplished translator.

Currently, I am a Lecturer and Vice-Director for the Study Program in East Asian Economy and Society (EcoS) for the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Vienna. I am also the Vice-Director of the European Centre for North Korean Studies (ECNK). I teach graduate-level courses in international relations, comparative politics, and research methodology.

As a comparativist specializing in East Asian affairs and the Koreas, my core research interests include citizenship and migration, democracy and authoritarianism, and the political economy of entrepreneurship. Additionally, I contribute to studies in innovation policy and the dynamics of firm growth, using cases primarily in North America.

My research mainly uses surveys and experimental methods to understand public opinion, but I also work with administrative data and mixed-method approaches for analyzing qualitative data.

I earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Toronto, an M.A. in Global Affairs and Policy from Yonsei University, and a B.A. in Political Science from Harding University.

Read more about my current research projects at the Research page, and find my latest publications at the Publications page.