Jody Park

I’m a first-year Ph.D. student in Political Science and Social Data Analytics at The Pennsylvania State University.

My research focuses on American politics, emphasizing race and ethnicity politics, public policy, social inequality, and migration. I’m particularly interested in how interethnic contact shapes political ideology. The research question examines political ideology formations across distinct or overlapping dimensions of race and ethnicity in the multiethnic context. To answer the research question, I focus on variations in political ideology by comparing groups with ethnic fractionalization (i.e., shorter intergroup distance) and ethnic polarization (i.e., longer intergroup distance). Despite the complexity of measuring intergroup distance across states over time, my research question becomes more crucial as racial and ethnic diversity continues to grow alongside political polarization in the U.S. My research extends the literature on race and ethnicity politics by providing cross-ethnic networks in political ideology formations.

Before joining Penn State, I received a Master’s in Development Policy with a specialization in Data Science from the KDI School of Public Policy and Management in South Korea and a B.B.A. from the University of Prince Edward Island in Canada. I also worked as a researcher at the Korea Development Institute (KDI) and the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training (KRIVET).