Stanford University

PESD Researchers in Copenhagen for the United Nation's Climate Change Conference

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PESD researchers Richard K. Morse and Gang He are in Copenhagen attending international climate negotiations at the UN's COP 15.  Key issues in PESD's research platform are prominently featured in the event: carbon capture and storage, reform of the clean development mechanism (CDM), Chinese energy markets, carbon markets,  the future of coal and gas and global emissions, the smart grid, and a host of other topics central to the future of the global energy system.  Richard and Gang are testing their latest research with some of the world's key decision markers on energy and climate and sharing Stanford and PESD insights in this global forum.

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The Cleanest Race: How the North Korean See Themselves and Why it Matters

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Brian Myers will talk about his new book The Cleanest Race: How the North Korean See Themselves and Why it Matters (January 2010).

Myers was born in New Jersey and raised in Bermuda, South Africa, and Germany.  He has a Ph.D. in North Korean Studies from the University of Tubingen, Germany.  His books include Han Sorya and North Korean Literature (1994) and A Reader's Manifesto (2002).

In addition to writing literary criticism for The Atlantic, of which he is a contributing editor, Myers regularly contributes articles on North Korea to the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and academic journals. He is a contributor to a book First Drafts of Korea: The U.S. Media and Perceptions of the Last Cold War Frontier (2009) published by The Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center of Stanford University.

This seminar is supported by the generous grant from Koret Foundation.

Philippines Conference Room
Encina Hall
616 Serra St., 3rd floor
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305

Brian Myers Director of International Studies at Dongseo University in Korea Speaker
Seminars
Korean Studies Colloquium Series

Beginning with Children: Reflections on UNICEF's Work in North Korea

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UNICEF immunizes children, provides nutritional supplements and essential medicines, promotes better child care practices, provides access to safe water, promotes hygiene and sanitation practices and improves conditions in schools.  Working with partners, UNICEF has succeeded in pushing the envelope in some areas including access to communities, improving teaching and learning methodologies, starting a process to improve the condition of children in residential institutions and measuring the impact of the work done through surveys and assessments.

The presentation will illustrate some of these initiatives to promote a discussion on the lessons to be drawn for a wider engagement with North Korea through humanitarian interventions in the social sector.

Mr. Balagopal was head of UNICEF’s office in Pyongyang for over three years from September 2006 to November, 2009.  UNICEF has been in North Korea since 1997 and has currently 12 international and 24 seconded national staff working in Pyongyang.

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Philippines Conference Room
Encina Hall
616 Serra St., 3rd floor
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305

Gopalan Balagopal Speaker
Seminars
Korean Studies Colloquium Series

The Contributions of School Quality and Teacher Qualifications to Student Performance: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Beijing Middle Schools

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We use administrative data from the lottery-based open enrollment system in Beijing middle schools to obtain unbiased estimates of school fixed effects on student performance. To do this, we classify children in selection channels, with each channel representing a unique succession of lotteries through which a child was assigned to a school, given his parents’ choice of schools and the schools’ enrollment quotas. Within each channel, students had an equal probability of being assigned to a given school. Results show that school fixed effects are strong determinants of student performance. These fixed effects are shown to be highly correlated with teacher qualifications measured in particular by their official ranks. Furthermore, teacher qualifications have about the same predictive power for student test scores as do school fixed effects, implying that observable aspects of school quality almost fully account for the role of school quality differences.

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Fang Lai Assistant Professor Speaker New York University
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Can the U.S. Play a Role in Northeast Asian Reconciliation?

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Much of the debate over Japan's historical disputes with neighboring countries treat unresolved issues from World War II as an intra-Asian problem. In recent years, however, there is a growing view that the United States can hardly afford to stand outside these disputes, particularly since it was intimately involved in their formation immediately after the war. The U.S. was the undisputed leader of the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, which failed to address Japanese war crimes against Asian victims. The U.S. also brokered the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which laid the legal framework to deter Asian victims from filing suits against the Japanese government and corporations for wartime grievances. The United States should address its responsibility in contributing to Japan's "history problem," while playing a constructive role in facilitating historical reconciliation in Northeast Asia.

Professor Gi-Wook Shin is the director of Shorenstein APARC; the Tong Yang, Korea Foundation, and Korea Stanford Alumni Chair of Korean Studies; the founding director of the Korean Studies Program; senior fellow at FSI; and professor of sociology at Stanford University. As a historical-comparative and political sociologist, his research has concentrated on areas of social movements, nationalism, development, and international relations. Dr. Shin has served as editor of the Journal of Korean Studies, a premier journal in the field of Korean studies.

Philippines Conference Room

Gi-Wook Shin

Shorenstein APARC
Encina Hall E301
616 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305-6055
(650) 724-8480 (650) 723-6530
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Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Professor of Sociology
William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea
Professor, by Courtesy, of East Asian Languages & Cultures
Gi-Wook Shin_0.jpg PhD

Gi-Wook Shin is the William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea in the Department of Sociology, senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and the founding director of the Korea Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) since 2001, all at Stanford University. In May 2024, Shin also launched the Taiwan Program at APARC. He served as director of APARC for two decades (2005-2025). As a historical-comparative and political sociologist, his research has concentrated on social movements, nationalism, development, democracy, migration, and international relations.

In Summer 2023, Shin launched the Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab (SNAPL), which is a new research initiative committed to addressing emergent social, cultural, economic, and political challenges in Asia. Across four research themes– “Talent Flows and Development,” “Nationalism and Racism,” “U.S.-Asia Relations,” and “Democratic Crisis and Reform”–the lab brings scholars and students to produce interdisciplinary, problem-oriented, policy-relevant, and comparative studies and publications. Shin’s latest book, The Four Talent Giants, a comparative study of talent strategies of Japan, Australia, China, and India to be published by Stanford University Press in the summer of 2025, is an outcome of SNAPL.

Shin is also the author/editor of twenty-seven books and numerous articles. His books include The Four Talent Giants: National Strategies for Human Resource Development Across Japan, Australia, China, and India (2025); Korean Democracy in Crisis: The Threat of Illiberalism, Populism, and Polarization (2022); The North Korean Conundrum: Balancing Human Rights and Nuclear Security (2021); Superficial Korea (2017); Divergent Memories: Opinion Leaders and the Asia-Pacific War (2016); Global Talent: Skilled Labor as Social Capital in Korea (2015); Criminality, Collaboration, and Reconciliation: Europe and Asia Confronts the Memory of World War II (2014); New Challenges for Maturing Democracies in Korea and Taiwan (2014); History Textbooks and the Wars in Asia: Divided Memories (2011); South Korean Social Movements: From Democracy to Civil Society (2011); One Alliance, Two Lenses: U.S.-Korea Relations in a New Era (2010); Cross Currents: Regionalism and Nationalism in Northeast Asia (2007);  and Ethnic Nationalism in Korea: Genealogy, Politics, and Legacy (2006). Due to the wide popularity of his publications, many have been translated and distributed to Korean audiences. His articles have appeared in academic and policy journals, including American Journal of Sociology, World Development, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Political Science Quarterly, Journal of Asian Studies, Comparative Education, International Sociology, Nations and Nationalism, Pacific Affairs, Asian Survey, Journal of Democracy, and Foreign Affairs.

Shin is not only the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, but also continues to actively raise funds for Korean/Asian studies at Stanford. He gives frequent lectures and seminars on topics ranging from Korean nationalism and politics to Korea's foreign relations, historical reconciliation in Northeast Asia, and talent strategies. He serves on councils and advisory boards in the United States and South Korea and promotes policy dialogue between the two allies. He regularly writes op-eds and gives interviews to the media in both Korean and English.

Before joining Stanford in 2001, Shin taught at the University of Iowa (1991-94) and the University of California, Los Angeles (1994-2001). After receiving his BA from Yonsei University in Korea, he was awarded his MA and PhD from the University of Washington in 1991.

Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab (SNAPL)

Explore SNAPL

Shin's Reflections on Korea

A monthly column in the Korean magazine Sindonga
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Reengaging North Korea

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Stanford Asia-Pacific Innovation

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Director of the Korea Program and the Taiwan Program, Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Director of Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab, APARC
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Gi-Wook Shin Tong Yang, Korea Foundation, and Korea Stanford Alumni Chair of Korean Studies Professor, Department of Sociology Director, The Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies Speaker Stanford Univesrity
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The American Role in Northeast Asian Reconciliation
Divided Memories and Reconciliation

International Voices Seminar

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Thitinan Pongsudhirak, an International Visitor in 2009-10, is a high-profile expert on contemporary political, economic, and foreign-policy issues in Thailand today. Pongsudhirak is not senior in years, but he is in stature.  His career path has been meteoric since he earned his BA in political science with distinction at UC Santa Barbara only ten years ago. In 2001, he received the United Kingdom’s Best Dissertation Prize for his doctoral thesis at the London School of Economics on the political economy of the Thai economic crisis in 1997.

Since 2006 he has held an associate professorship in international relations at Thailand’s premier institution of higher education, Chulalongkorn University, while simultaneously heading the Institute of Security and International Studies, the country’s leading think tank on foreign affairs. 

His publications include: “After the Red Uprising” in Far East Economic Review, May 2009; “Why Thais Are Angry” in The New York Times, 18 April 2009; “Thailand Since the Coup” in Journal of Democracy, October-December 2008; “Thaksin: Competitive Authoritarian and Flawed Dissident” in John Kane, Haig Patapan and Benjamin Wong (eds), Dissident Democrats: The Challenge of Democratic Leadership in Asia, New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. He was Salzburg Global Seminar Faculty Member in June 2009, Japan Foundation’s Cultural Leader in 2008, Visiting Research Fellow at ISEAS in Singapore in 2005.

For ten years, in tandem with his academic career, he worked as an analyst for The Economist’s Intelligence Unit.  He has written on bilateral free-trade areas in Asia, co-authored a book on Thailand’s trade policy, and is admired by Southeast Asianist historians for having insightfully revisited, in a 2007 essay, the sensitive matter of Thailand’s role during World War II.


The international visitors seminar series provides an opportunity for the Humanities Center's international scholars in residence to engage with the Stanford community by presenting and discussing their recent work in a congenial environment. Stanford faculty, students, and affiliates meet over lunch to hear a brief, informal presentation and engage in vigorous discussion. The series seeks to foster the exchange of ideas across borders and across disciplines, with the particular goal of enhancing interactions between researchers in the humanities and the social scientists.

Levinthal Hall

Thitinan Pongsudhirak Professor, International Political Economy, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand; FSI-Humanities Center International Visitor, 2009-2010 Speaker
Seminars

Working paper series on health and demographic change in the Asia-Pacific

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Karen Eggleston
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In December 2009, the Asia Health Policy Program celebrates the first anniversary of the launch of the AHPP working paper series on health and demographic change in the Asia-Pacific. The series showcases research by AHPP’s own affiliated faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting scholars, as well as selected works by other scholars from the region.

To date AHPP has released eleven research papers in the series, by authors from China, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Pakistan, and the US, with more on the way from Japan and Vietnam. Topics range from “The Effect of Informal Caregiving on Labor Market Outcomes in South Korea” and “Comparing Public and Private Hospitals in China,” to “Pandemic Influenza and the Globalization of Public Health.”  The working papers are available at the Asia Health Policy website.

AHPP considers quality research papers from leading research universities and think tanks across the Asia-Pacific region for inclusion in the working paper series. If interested, please contact Karen Eggleston.

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China Education Report: REAP Gives Students the Freedom to Choose

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A 2009 article in China Education Daily highlights REAP's work in Shaanxi Province.

"A newly published two-year study on high school students in Shaanxi Province's eight poorest counties reveals insight on how scholarship money can affect the college decision making process. If scholarships are offered to poor students before they write their "zhiyuan" form, they are more likely to choose colleges and majors they are interested in, rather than free normal colleges and cheaper professional colleges. How much does scholarship money affect the decision-making process for a student's college and major? What kind of scholarship policy will best work in China? If we promise scholarships to students before they fill out their "zhiyuan" form, what kind of difference will it make? The "Shaanxi Study" offers valuable insights."

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“International Workshop on Evaluation With Participation (EWP)” held in Beijing

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An "International Workshop on Evaluation With Participation (EWP)" was held in Beijing between August 21st and 23rd. This is one of the series of activities organized by the Rural Education Action Project (REAP) in order to share its projects and research progress with the general public.

The Policy Forum on Rural Education Challenges in China was held on the first day (August 21st). Professor Jikun Huang, the Director of the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy (CCAP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Dr. Jin He, the Ford Foundation's Program Officer, gave the opening address. Dr. Linxiu Zhang, Deputy Director of CCAP and Director of REAP-China, chaired the opening ceremony. During the day, REAP team members and collaborators shared their most recent research findings on multiple topics: nutrition and education in rural areas, rural boarding school management, barriers to higher education for the rural poor, and the migrant children's education . Experts from other organizations were also invited to share the results from their research.

From August 22nd to 23rd, Paul Glewwe, a professor from the University of Minnesota, gave a two-day intensive training on the "Methods for Project Evaluation." At Glewwe's side was Professor Scott Rozelle, the Co-Director of REAP from Stanford University, who summarized the presentation with his fluent Chinese and translated on the spot.

Nearly 140 participants from government organizations, universities, research organizations, NGOs, businesses, and the media, attended the policy forum and the methodology training. The participants all agreed that the training was very helpful. They also expressed their keen interest in building up their research capacities through similar training workshops in the future. 

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Education Economics Seminar Series First Meeting Held at the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Chinese Academy of Sciences

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On July 31, 2009, the Education Economic Seminar Series held its first meeting at the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy (CCAP). Professor Linxiu Zhang moderated the meeting, while Doctor Yingquan Song jumpstarted the series by presenting his research on the "Information and Educational Choices of Junior High Students in Rural China."

The meeting was attended by various professors and graduate students from universities and research institutions in both China and America, including CCAP, Stanford University, The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Peking University, Beijing Normal University, and Renmin University. Doctor Song's presentation was followed by a heated and in-depth discussion. Attendees debated and brainstormed ideas for the next step in Song's research.

During the meeting, Professor Linxiu Zhang, the co-director of REAP and the deputy director of  CCAP, introduced the idea behind the Seminar Series. Jointly founded by REAP, CCAP, Peking University's China Institute for Educational Finance Research, and Beijing Normal University's School of Economics and Business Administration, the goal of the Seminar Series is to foster creative dialogue among researchers on the development of Education Economics and its role in society. They plan to meet each quarter to discuss fresh ideas and exchange research results. Professor Scott Rozelle from Stanford University, also the co-director of REAP, stresses that once the Seminar Series has started, it needs to continue in order to provide a platform for continuous dialogue among those in the field.

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