Hello!

Welcome to UBC’s Centre for Korean research, we are a university in Vancouver, Canada,
located on the ancenstral, traditional and unceded territory of the Musqueam people. My name is
Jeehye, and I currently serve as Director at The Center for Korean research. We are part of The
Institute of Asian Research at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of
British Columbia. Today I am joined by Dr. Jihyun Shin from the Dept of History at UBC, as
well as our CKR graduate fellows.

This is our fourth outside guest speaker event since the new year, and we are so fortunate to have
here with us today a distinguished scholar of Korean politics, Dr. Yeonju Lee, who is the is the
Korea Foundation-Song Family Assistant Professor in Korean Business and Economics in the
Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Her research and teaching interests
include comparative political economy with a focus on the political origins and consequences of
economic inequality and development in Korea and East Asia. She holds a B.A. in Political
Science and International Relations from Korea University, an M.P.P. from Harvard Kennedy
School, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago. She completed a
postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, where she was also affiliated with the
Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion.

Dr. Lee will share her research on how people perceive and react to income inequality and
examine how these inequality perceptions shape political outcomes such as redistributive
preferences and democratic discontent, with a focus on Korea and Japan. After Dr. Lee's
presentation, I would warmly encourage our audience to present their questions and comments.
With that, please join me in welcoming Dr. Lee.