Dongwook Kim
267 19th Ave S
Minneapolis,
MN
55455
Dongwook Kim is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of Minnesota, specializing in international relations and political methodology. His research examines how states build authority in spaces beyond national territory, including the high seas, international airspace, outer space, and other parts of the global commons.
His dissertation, Authority without Territory: State Claims of Right in the Global Commons, studies how states justify new claims of control in non-sovereign spaces, how other actors accommodate or contest those claims, and how legal and political vocabularies shape the durability of these arrangements. His broader research interests include international order, global commons, sovereignty, and the politics of ambiguous authority.
He holds an M.A. in Security Studies from Georgetown University and B.A. degrees in Political Science and International Relations and in Sociology from Seoul National University, where he also completed a minor in Economics. Before beginning his graduate studies, he worked as a translator, an experience that informs his interest in how political and legal concepts move across languages, disciplines, and institutional settings.
Educational Background
- M.A.: Political Science, University of Minnesota, 2024
- M.A.: Security Studies, Georgetown University, 2019
- B.A.: Political Science and International Relations, Seoul National University, 2015
- B.A.: Sociology (minor: Economics), Seoul National University, 2015
Specialties
- International Relations
- Political Methodology