Weclome to my website! I am a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science and Informatics at Indiana University Bloomington. I am part of the NSF-funded Interdisciplinary Dual Ph.D. Program in Complex Networks and Systems. The program is discussed in a recent study published in PLOS ONE.

My research bridges international relations and computational social science to explain how global cooperation and contestation unfold through informal institutions, relational structures, and networked forms of power. I am especially interested in how international order is sustained, adapted, or contested when formal rules are weak, authority is fragmented, and states rely on flexible patterns of alignment rather than binding commitments. My dissertation examines this question through the case of APEC, showing why non-binding IGOs can remain effective even without strong enforcement mechanisms. I argue that cooperation in such settings emerges through strategic, networked alignments such as balancing, bandwagoning, and hedging. Using temporal ERGMs on APEC co-sponsorship networks from 2006 to 2019, I show that states form issue-specific coalitions through relational pathways shaped by existing ties, with influential members anchoring collaboration and others aligning through friend-of-friend structures conditioned by power, institutional position, and issue domain. These findings demonstrate that non-binding institutions remain strategically valuable because they provide flexible arenas for network-based cooperation under changing geopolitical conditions. .

More broadly, my current research agenda examines how states compete and cooperate across multiple issue areas central to contemporary global order, including regional governance, standard-setting, climate-related human trafficking, and China’s role in international institutions. In one line of work, I study the politics of ISO standardization to understand how influence operates in ostensibly technical arenas and how standard-setting institutions may reflect broader patterns of geopolitical competition and coordination. In another, I examine how legal institutions and environmental shocks reshape human trafficking networks, with particular attention to how climate-related pressures alter routes, vulnerabilities, and institutional responses. A collaborative paper from this project is currently under revise-and-resubmit at International Studies Quarterly. Across these projects, I ask how power operates through networks, how institutional arrangements shape strategic behavior, and how emerging global challenges are reorganizing cooperation in the contemporary international system. For more details, please go to my research page.

My research is also informed by prior professional experience as a coordinator of the APEC SME Working Group for the Taiwanese government, which gave me firsthand exposure to the practical politics of non-binding regional cooperation.

At Indiana University, I have taught across Political Science and Informatics, serving as instructor of record for Data Fluency and Politics of Global Governance, and as associate instructor for Analyzing Politics, Data Fluency, International Organizations, and Introduction to Informatics. For more details, please go to my teaching page.

My research has been supported by Taiwanese Overseas Pioneers Grant from the National Science and Technology Council to fund my Ph.D. dissertation, along with a four-year fellowship for doctoral study abroad from the Taiwanese Ministry of Education. I hold an M.A. in International Relations from National Taiwan University and a B.A. in Political Science from Chinese Culture University.