Soyeon Park

Welcome! I am a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Political Science at Michigan State University. I study International Relations, international law and organizations, with a focus on human rights. I am on the academic job market.

My research examines how the design of international institutions and the participation of non-state actors shape the development and effects of international norms. In my dissertation, I examine institutional overlap, changes in treaty interpretation, and how victims and advocates both respond to and contribute to institutional change, focusing on United Nations human rights treaties. I combine original data collection with computational text analysis, statistical methods, interviews, fieldwork, and comparative case studies. My dissertation has been supported by the National Science Foundation’s Law and Science Dissertation Grant, the Institute for Humane Studies, and MSU Center for Gender in Global Context.

Beyond the dissertation, I study when international institutions influence domestic politics and how that influence depends on domestic and transnational actors. My current projects examine civil society advocacy in international institutions and the effects of international treaties beyond formal ratification. My research has been published in International Interactions.

I hold M.A. degrees in Political Science from Michigan State University and Korea University, and a B.A. in Global Korean Studies and Political Science from Sogang University, where I graduated summa cum laude.