I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland. I earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and sociology from Sungkonghoe University and a master’s degree in political science from Korea University.  

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My research examines how political actors perceive threats, respond to violence, and organize for conflict and cooperation. I study the interactions between states and challengers, focusing on state repression, political violence, and the dynamics of conflict negotiation and peace. A central theme of my work is that the consequences of violence and political conflict cannot be understood solely through actors' observable capabilities or actions; they also depend on how actors interpret their circumstances through historically formed expectations and social relationships. By examining how these interpretations shape strategic responses and organizational behavior, I seek to explain why similar political conditions and experiences of violence produce different outcomes.

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Methodologically, I combine statistical analysis, network approaches, and computational methods with diverse sources of evidence, including cross-national event data, organizational networks, social media traces, and historical cases. I am particularly interested in developing theoretically grounded measures of political expectations and network structures to uncover patterns that conventional approaches often overlook.

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​​​Email: hanskwak@umd.edu