RyuGyung (Rio) Park

Assistant Professor
Department of Government & ENSP
William & Mary
✉️ rgpark@wm.edu

About Me

I am an assistant professor at the College of William & Mary, jointly appointed in the Department of Government and the Environment & Sustainability Program. I am interested in how economic and security concerns affect support for environmental protection. In my dissertation, I examine how international economic competition affects environmental support in the U.S. Congress and among the American public. I strive to pursue a variety of research methods, including observational studies, text analysis, and survey experiments.

Before coming to the academia, I interned at the headquarter of the U.N.E.S.C.O and KOICA as an undergraduate, and worked in the non-profit sector in South Korea for about a year after graduating college.

In my free time, I like watching movies (all genres except for horror), collecting books (maybe more so than reading them), and travelling (to explore cafés and bakeries).

Education

PhD in Political Science, 2025
University of California, Davis, USA

MA in Public Policy, 2019
Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University, South Korea

BA in International Relations & Communications, 2015
College of Liberal Studies, Seoul National University, South Korea

Research interests

International Political Economy | Environmental Politics | International Trade | Issue Linkage | Economy and Security