My research focuses on politics of China and authoritarian governance, with a particular emphasis on state–society relations, civil society and NGO policy. More broadly, I study authoritarianism in East Asia (China and the Korean peninsular) and international affairs in the Asia-Pacific.

Current on-going research:

• public opinion on foreign policy involvement in external conflicts
• knowledge production in autocracies
• civil society/NGO policy in autocracies
• leadership succession in autocracies

Prior to joining UiB I was a research fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) and a pre-doctoral fellow at Fudan University. I hold MA and PhD in Political Science from Stanford University. https://esthersong.org 

GLGOV: Politics and Governance of Global Challenges

• Quantitative Methods (Spring 2026)
• Academic Writing (Fall 2025)
• China in Global Politics (Spring 2024, Spring 2025)

Please see my google scholar page for a full list of publications.

Peer-reviewed articles (selected)

“Personnel management, institutional engineering, and coercion: mechanisms of the personalization of executive power.” Democratization, 2025. (with Thomas Richter, Mariana Llanos, David Kuehn, Martin Acheampong, and Emilia Arellano)

“Introducing Career Transition Data on Elites in North Korea.” Journal of East Asian Studies, 2025. (with Jacob Reidhead and Jeongsue Park)

“China’s Dual Signaling in Maritime Disputes.” Australian Journal of International Affairs, 2024, 1-23. (with Sung Eun Kim)

“Air Pollution Coverage, Anti-Chinese Sentiment, and Attitudes towards Foreign Policy in South Korea.” Journal of Chinese Political Science, 2023, 28, 571–592.

“How Outsourcing Social Services to NGOs Bolsters Political Trust in China: Evidence from Shanghai.” Chinese Political Science Review, 2022, 9, 36–62.

Media

South Koreans have the world's most negative views of China. Why?. The Diplomat, December 2022 (with Richard Turcsanyi).