– My colleagues always gives me new ideas and challenges.

Home University:
(Bild borttagen) Ewha Women’s University

Disciplinary background:
Public Administration

How long will you stay?
– Until February 29 th, 2020

What are your areas of expertise and research areas?
– Public Policy (Gender, Diversity, Social Welfare), Quantitative methodologies.

Why did you choose to come to the Centre for Gender Research?
– I have admired Uppsala University for a long time. Therefore, when I got a chance, it was a natural choice that I would choose the Centre for Gender Research. But most of all, the main reason why I chose the Centre for Gender Research was because of its academic diversity. I find my colleagues’ research topics very interesting, which are based on a wide range of fields. I didn’t need to hesitate. Now I feel that my choice was excellent. Discussions about various topics with my colleagues during fika and meetings always give me new ideas and challenges.

What is your current research project?
– I’m currently doing two studies. One is about the Swedish welfare model and the other one is about the Swedish Gender Equality Policy. Since I moved to Sweden I’ve been studying the Swedish welfare model. My research deals with Sweden’s welfare system, democracy and governance. It is now in its final stage and the book will be published around autumn 2018.

The other one is a study of the policy of Gender Equality in Sweden. The title of my doctoral dissertation is “Does the Institutionalization of Gender Responsive Budgeting Contribute to Gender Equality?” and I’d like to have a research which is extended from this. Sweden is one of the best countries because of its high Gender Equality. I’ll look at Sweden’s various Gender Equality policies and find a possibility to benchmark against Korea. In particular, I’ll focus on the study of Gender Mainstreaming. I’ll look at how the Gender Mainstreaming policy spreads across Swedish policies. Currently, Korea’s Gender Equality policy are better. However, the international community doesn’t recognize Korea as a country with a high Gender Equality. It is because the policies of Sweden and Korea are similar, but the results of the policies are very different. I’ll study why there are differences in the results.

Finally, what is the best thing about Uppsala?
– It is good because Uppsala is a place where Swedish tradition is alive. Living in the city of Uppsala is like being on the countryside and it seems that people are friendlier than in Stockholm. I don’t know if you know about it, but the historic tombs in Korea and Uppsala are very similar. The ancient tombs in Uppsala were the same as royal tombs from ancient Korea. When I first saw it, I was very surprised but I think now that maybe it is an amazing coincidence between Sweden and Korea, and between me and Uppsala.