- Email:
- aymcclea@iu.edu
- Office:
- Global and International Studies Building, 2073
- Office hours:
- Office Hours by appointment only
- Website:
- https://www.angelaymcclean.com/
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Education
PhD, University of California-San Diego
AM, Harvard University
BA, Wellesley College
Research Interests
- Contemporary Korean society
- International migration
- Refugees and asylum-seekers
- Law and society
- Political sociology
- Transnational and global sociology
Bio
Angela Yoonjeong McClean is the Korea Foundation Assistant Professor of Korean Politics and Society. She studies contemporary Korea through an interdisciplinary lens spanning Sociology, Political Science, and Law. Specifically, she investigates how domestic institutions and actors – including lawmakers, the bureaucracy, the judiciary, and civil society – interpret and adapt international human rights laws and norms to facilitate or resist social and institutional changes.
Angela’s research is driven by a curiosity about how the interplay between international and domestic norms impacts vulnerable populations, namely, refugees seeking safety in South Korea. In her book manuscript, Politics of Refugee Reception in South Korea: Liberal International Norms and Restrictive Domestic Institutions, Angela explores the historical context of South Korea’s participation in the international refugee regime, the current on-the-ground dynamics of administrative and legal determination of refugee status, and the practical implications of these dynamics on the lives of refugees and asylum-seekers in South Korea. In doing so, she aims to address why, despite being one of the richest democracies in the world and having ratified international refugee laws, South Korea rejects an exceptionally high number of asylum-seekers compared to its Western counterparts.
Her work has been published in International Political Sociology and Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies as well as public outlets like 9Dashline and The Conversation.