November 19-26, 2025 (Berlin, Germany)

I completed a short research visit to the SOEP Research Center at DIW in Berlin to work on the empirical chapter of my dissertation using the SOEP panel data. This was my second visit to the RDC this year, following an initial stay in April. I am grateful to Antonia and Philipp for organizing and hosting both visits and for their support throughout my work with the data.

More information about the SOEP data can be found here. 

November 13 -14, 2025 (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

I was invited to participate in the two-day workshop Political Identities in Europe, hosted by the Amsterdam Centre for European Studies (ACES). I presented the research design phase of my project, When Contact Matters: The Quality of Interpersonal Interaction and Immigrant Political Integration. I am grateful to ACES for supporting my international travel to Amsterdam and providing accommodation throughout the workshop.

More information about the workshop can be found here. 

September 11 -14, 2025 (Vancouver, Canada)

At the 2025 APSA annual meeting, I presented a part of my dissertation project "When Contact Matters: The Quality of Interpersonal Interaction and Immigrant Political Integration". I really appreciate the constructive feedback from our discussant Boyoon Lee. I also served as a discussant for two papers: "Crowding in representation? The impact of immigrant political success on minority candidate emergence" by Dario Sidhu and "Closing the Door: Why Immigrants Become Anti-Immigrant" by Priyanka Sethy, Marco Aviña, and Mashail Malik.

More information about the panel can be found here. 

Summer, 2025 (Zoom)

I participated in two APSA Dissertation Workshops: (1) New Topics in European Politics (June 12, 16) and (2) Citizenship & Migration (August 19, 25, 26). In these workshops, I presented a draft of my pre-analysis plan for my dissertation experiment on the effect of interpersonal contact on political integration. I am grateful to all participants for their valuable feedback, and I especially thank the facilitators, Miguel and Mareike (European Politics) and Claire and Irene (Migration & Citizenship), for their guidance and support. It was also wonderful to meet other graduate students who share similar research interests and are at a similar stage in their academic journey. I wish everyone the best of luck with their work!

More information about the workshops can be found here.

May, 2025 (Mannheim, Germany)

In May, I was a visiting fellow at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES) in Mannheim, Germany for a month. MZES is home to outstanding faculty and students working in political science, computational social science, and migration studies, and I had the opportunity to engage with several inspiring scholars during my stay. On May 14, I presented the pre-analysis plan for my experimental dissertation chapter and greatly appreciated the valuable feedback I received.

More information about the fellowship can be found here.

Photo: Lunch from the Mensa. April to May is white asparagus season in Germany (and Belgium too). I'll miss it so much. 

April 7- May 31, 2025 (Belgium and Germany)

I conducted fieldwork in Belgium and Germany as part of my dissertation research, focusing on the lived experiences of first-generation immigrants in both countries. During this period, I interviewed immigrants to better understand their everyday lives and integration experiences. During the fieldwork, I was a visiting researcher at the Research Centre for Migration, Diversity and Justice (CMDJ) in Belgium and at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES) in Germany until the end of May. 

I am deeply grateful to both host institutions—CMDJ in Belgium and MZES in Germany—for supporting my stay and providing an intellectual home during my fieldwork. I also sincerely appreciate the generous Dissertation Travel Grant from the Graduate College, which made this research possible.

Photo: Special thanks to the trains in Belgium (and Germany) for making it possible for me to travel across both countries for interviews. Luckily and weirdly, I didn’t experience many delays!

April 3-6, 2025 (Chicago, USA)

At the 2025 Annual MPSA Conference, I presented two papers: (1) my dissertation project,  Included but Not Integrated? The Role of Positive Interactions with Natives in Political Integration of Immigrants, and (2) a co-authored paper with Dr. Antoine Bilodeau, Cross-Ethnic Engagement and Political Integration: The Role of Political Engagement with Non-Co-Ethnics in Immigrant Political Behavior in Quebec. I really appreciate the constructive feedback from the discussants, Dr. Seyoung Jung, Dr. Donghyun Danny Choi, and Dr. Felix Krawatzek. 

More information about the conference and its agenda can be found here.

November 26, 2024 (Montreal, Canada)

My three-month fellowship at the Immigration Research Initiative (IRI) has come to an end. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Montreal, engaging with scholars on immigration at IRI and the political science department at Concordia University. I am deeply grateful to my fellowship advisor, Professor Antoine Bilodeau, for his invaluable feedback, Professor Mireille Paquet for organizing the Immigration Reading Group, and Colin Scott for his insightful guidance and support. Here is my full interview after completing the fellowship. 

Read the full interview about my fellowship experience here.
More information about the IRI visiting doctoral fellowship can be found here. 

October 30, 2024 (Montreal, Canada)

I had the opportunity to present my dissertation ideas at McGill Political Behavior Workshop, getting comments from faculties and graduate students of the Department of Political Science at McGill University. I would like to thank Professor Colin Scott (Concordia University) for setting up my presentation and Professor Dietlind Stolle (McGill University) for organizing this Workshop.

October 18-19, 2024 (Montréal, Canada)

I had the opportunity to attend the workshop “Diversity and the Bounds of Solidarity: Barriers and Expectations in Public Opinion” at UQAM. Although I was not invited as a presenter, I attended the full two-day program as my co-authors on our dual citizenship paper—Cara Wong (my advisor) and Seyoung Jung (my co-author and Montreal roommate)—were invited to present other projects. Cara presented an early-stage paper, “Is Six Degrees of Separation Five Too Many? The Limits of Indirect Contact,” and Seyoung presented “Dual Nationality and Complex Forms of Belonging: A Study of US–Canada Dual Citizens.” It was such a coincidence to see both of them in Montréal while I was there as a visiting fellow.

More information about the workshop can be found here.

October 23, 2024 (Montreal, Canada)

I presented my project "Included but Not Integrated? The Role of Interpersonal Contact with Natives in Political Integration of Immigrants" at Immigration Research Initiative (IRI) Seminar at Concordia University. This was part of my fellowship project. 

More information about the seminar can be found here. 

September 5 - 8, 2024 (Philadelphia, USA)

At the 2024 APSA annual meeting, I presented my co-authored paper with Dr. Sanghoon Kim-Leffingwell from the University of North Texas, USA, titled "Reactivity of Voters With an Immigration Background to Discourses of Immigration Policies" under the session "The Political Preferences of Immigrants and Foreigners". We really appreciate the constructive feedbacck by our discussant António Valentim.

More information about the panel can be found here. 

July 8-10, 2024 (Lisbon, Portugal)

At the International European Social Survey (ESS) conference, I presented my co-authored paper with Dr. Sanghoon Kim-Leffingwell from the University of North Texas, USA, titled "Reactivity of Voters With an Immigration Background to Discourses of Immigration Policies" under the session "Studying Immigrants Using the ESS: Methodological Challenges, Empirical Consequences."

More information about the conference and its agenda can be found here. 

November 16, 2023 (Dalton, USA)

I participated the Politics of Race, Immigration & Ethnicity Consortium Conference (PRIEC) that took place at University of North Texas. I presented my work "Well Integrated Immigrants Without a Sense of Belonging? Revisiting Integration Paradox or Successful Integration in Europe". PRIEC is a supportive  and awesome community that provides great opportunities for constructive feedback from scholars studying race, immigration, and ethnicity. 

More information about the conference can be found here. 

July 3-12, 2023 (Bremen, Germany)

I participated in The Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences-Computational Social Science (BIGSSS-CSS Summer) School on Democratic Debate. I was also part of the project team titled 'Ethnic and Sexual Minority Representation in Parliamentary Speeches: A Comparative Analysis of the United States and Germany from 1945 to the Present'.  The Summer School was funded by a grant from the VolkswagenStiftung and my travel to Bremen was funded by German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Scholarship. 

More information about the summer school can be found here.

May 4-6, 2023 (Pittsburgh, USA)

At the 2023 European Union Studies Association (EUSA) Conference, I presented my co-authored paper with Ethan Vander Wilden from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, titled "Sharing Discourse: Transnational Party Communication on Twitter in Europe," as part of the session "6F Party Positioning and Communication in the New Europe." We greatly appreciated the insightful feedback from our discussants, William Daniel and Bjørn Høyland.

More information about the conference can be found here. 

September 9, 2022 (Saint Louis, USA)

As part of the exchange program between the Department of Political Science at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Washington University in St. Louis, this year's UIUC team (Ikrom Tuhtasunov, Lucie Lu, and I) led by Professor Matt Winters traveled to St. Louis to present our work at the department. We were truly grateful for the warm welcome and hospitality extended to us by the faculty and graduate students at WashU. The trip was a memorable one, and I especially want to thank Matt for driving us there and back, helping us prepare for the presentation, and also taking the time to show us around St. Louis. It was such a fun trip!

April 29, 2022 (Illinois, USA)

In 2022, I was awarded the Rita and Leonard Ogren Prizes for Academic Achievement from the Department of Political Science at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. The Rita and Leonard Ogren Prizes recognize the best academic performance by PhD student(s).

More information about the award recipients can be found here. 

April 11, 2022 (Chicago, USA)

This was my first MPSA and I presented my first-year paper "Well-Integrated Immigrants Without a Sense of Belonging?" I couldn't complete the project without the endless support of my two first-year advisors Professor Avital Livny and Professor Cara Wong. 

More information about the working group and its agenda can be found here.