Ongoing Research Projects

Grant Period : Mar 2025 - Mar 2028

Faculty : Selina HO Li Ching

In sum, this project will contribute to plugging the gaps in the current empirical and theoretical literature on Chinese power and behavior. It will be the first systemic and comparative study of Chinese behavior in managing shared water resources with its neighbors, The project is inter-disciplinary and will speak to a large audience as I draw concepts and frameworks from political science and international relations, geography, anthropology, sociology, and environmental science.

Grant Period : Oct 2024 - Sep 2029

Faculty : Alessio ALBARELLO

I plan to analyze institutional structures in democratic systems and their effect on policymaking processes and outcomes, and how these structures and policies in turn affect how people behave. My research will span broadly, but it will also focus on immigration policy, and gender and politics. A few questions I plan to answer are:

- What are the conditions that favor immigrant integration in host societies?
- What are the political incentives and costs that parties and countries face in favoring or
hindering immigration?
- What are the factors that still prevent women to be equally represented in political institutions?
- How can women increase access to political positions?

The geographic scope will be broad, but it will also concentrate in the U.S., Europe, and East Asia. The primary mode of research employs secondary data analysis, survey and experimental methods, and archival work.

My work is highly relevant as it addresses two critical aspects of contemporary political inequality: citizenship and gender. Immigration has surged in recent decades, with foreign-born populations now comprising significant portions of many countries, such as 30% in Australia and Germany. This demographic shift has contributed to political realignment, with anti-globalization parties gaining traction as many populist voters express concerns about rapid changes in the cultural and ethnic makeup of their countries. Understanding the political consequences of immigration is crucial today, as it significantly influences policymaking, social cohesion, and economic policies in numerous nations worldwide.

Women's representation in politics is crucial both for normative reasons and for its impact on policy outcomes, yet achieving gender parity in political institutions remains one of the most persistent global inequalities. Despite their greater numbers, women face higher barriers to entry and advancement in political offices. Additionally, women's policy preferences are often penalized compared to those of men. Therefore, deepening our understanding of the causes of female under-representation in politics is essential for promoting policies that can help create a more egalitarian society.

Grant Period : Nov 2023 - Apr 2027

Faculty : LIU Yao, Adam

I study how Southeast Asians’ economic preferences affect their foreign policy preferences, especially security policy preferences, amidst China-US rivalry. The project has three components. The first is a traditional survey that uses canonical trade theories to predict individual’s security policy preferences. The second is specifically about choosing sides, where different trajectories of development in China and the US will be randomized in a conjoint experiment. The final component is a vignette experiment on a showdown between in the Taiwan Strait. Randomized are the predicted probabilities of US intervention. The goal is to assess how individuals wish their governments to respond. 

Grant Period : Dec 2021 to Nov 2027

Faculty : Jonathan Art CHU

My research explores the causes and consequences of public and elite opinion in international relations, focusing on how law, identity, and norms shape individual beliefs about foreign policy issues. The substantive domain of my inquiry covers the three major areas of the laws of war: jus ad bellum (the right to war, conflict initiation), jus in bello (wartime conduct), and jus post bellum (ending wars, transitional justice), but will also engage with issues relating to people’s beliefs about liberal democracy and a liberal world order. My geographic scope is global but will focus on the U.S., UK, and East Asia. The primary mode of research employs survey and experimental methods but will also engage with other approaches.

The significance of this research is twofold. Theoretically, international relations research has focused on interstate or system-level explanations for outcomes relating to warfare, rather than individual-level factors, which is the focus of my research. By examining variation across individuals, my research innovates by bringing in social psychology and behavioral economics to answer international relations questions. Empirically, I will bring new data to the field via original polling work, the most novel of them being of elite samples.