Doctoral students Eitan Paul and Jieun Lee named inaugural IPC Research Scholars

April 21, 2017

Doctoral students Eitan Paul and Jieun Lee (MPP ’12) have been named inaugural recipients of the International Policy Center's (IPC) Research Scholar Award.

IPC Research Scholar Awards aim to facilitate cutting-edge scholarship and to help doctoral candidates pursue valuable research experiences and develop international partnerships. The IPC Research Scholarship will support Paul and Lee’s field research during the summer of 2017.

Eitan Paul is a doctoral student pursuing a joint-PhD in comparative politics within the Department of Political Science and the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. He earned his master’s degree in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and his bachelor’s degree from the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown. Paul is also a 2016-2017 Ford Fellow and Weiser Emerging Democracies Fellow.

Paul’s research project, titled “Contentious politics in competitive authoritarian regimes,” explores political parties and politics in the developing countries of Cambodia and Malaysia. The IPC award will help Paul build on prior work he has done in Cambodia, supporting field research in both countries.

Jieun Lee is also a doctoral student pursuing a joint-PhD in political science and public policy. She is interested in the political economy of trade policies in both domestic and international arenas. Lee earned a bachelor of arts degree and a bachelor of business administration degree from Ewha Woman's University, South Korea. She also holds a master's degree in international commerce from Seoul National University and a joint-master's degree in economics and public policy from the University of Michigan.

Amid the recent allegations regarding Russia’s involvement in the 2016 U.S. election, Lee’s research project will examine the political impact of foreign enterprises in the United States. Her field work will include collection and analysis of materials housed in the Science, Industry and Business Library in New York and the Bureau of Economic Analysis in Washington, DC.

Paul and Lee will deliver seminar talks on their research for Ford School students and faculty during the 2017-18 academic year, and each will submit a paper for possible publication in IPC’s working paper series.

--Story by Cliff Martin, global engagement program manager at the International Policy Center.