The American Political Science Association is pleased to announce the Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (DDRIG) Awardees for 2020. The APSA DDRIG program provides support to enhance and improve the conduct of doctoral dissertation research in political science. Awards support basic research which is theoretically derived and empirically oriented.
Seo Nyeong Jo, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Seo Nyeong Holly Jo is a doctoral candidate in political science at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Her subfields are Comparative Politics and American Politics. Her research focuses on judges’ decision-making behavior in the civil law judiciary. Her dissertation, “Gender Matters in the Judiciary: Adjudicating Sexual Assault in Korea,” explores whether or not the presence of women on the bench makes a difference in rape cases. Taking into account the influence of deeply rooted hierarchical culture among judges based on their age and seniority, she investigates if and how a judge’s gender and position interact to create unequal voices among three judges on the panel during the deliberation process and consequently affect the outcome of rape cases, gender-based violence. The dissertation contributes new theoretical perspectives on gender and judging in civil law judiciaries (i.e. no juries) by generating empirical findings that have a potential policy implication–to increase the presence of women judges on the multi-judge panel that tries gendered issues in particular. Seo Nyeong received her M.A. in political science and international relations from Korea University, Seoul in 2015, and her B.A. in political science from Macalester College, St. Paul, MN in 2011.