Dr Soohyun Christine Lee joined EIS as a Korea Foundation Lecturer in Korean and East Asian Political Economy. She has a BSc in Political Science (Ewha, South Korea), MSc in Social Policy and Planning (LSE), and DPhil in Social Policy (Oxford).

Before coming to KCL, she was a Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the University of Leeds (2013-2018), and postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Oxford (2012-2013).

Research

• Political Economy of East Asia
• Comparative Political Economy
• Public and Social Policy in East Asia
• Political Economy of the Welfare State

Dr Lee’s research interests lie in the comparative political economy of welfare states with a regional focus on East Asia and Europe. Looking at how countries in the two different regions address the common challenges to the welfare state, her recent project investigates under what conditions “successful” welfare state reform can be achieved. Dr Lee publishes in leading journals in political science (such as World Politics, Politics & Society, Comparative Political Studies) as well as in East Asian studies (Journal of Contemporary Asia, The Pacific Review). 

Teaching

• The Political Economy of Korean and East Asian Development
• The Political Economy of the Welfare State
• The East Asian and Western Models of Capitalism

PhD Supervision

Dr Lee would be interested in supervising students working on welfare states, labour markets, public policy (especially social, family, labour market and skills policies) or East Asian political economy more broadly.