Esther Song

Dr. Esther Song is an Associate Professor in the Department of Government at the University of Bergen (UiB), a position she has held since January 2024. She is also an Associate at the GIGA Institute for Asian Studies since October 2023, where she previously served as a Research Fellow from January 2022 to September 2023. Earlier, she was a Lecturer at Randolph-Macon College in 2021. She earned her PhD in Political Science from Stanford University in 2020, along with an MA from the same institution, and a BA in Political Science and International Relations from Korea University.

Her research centers on Chinese foreign policy, civil society in China, foreign policy attitudes in South Korea, and authoritarianism. She employs computational social science methods, including text analysis of media and social data, to examine elite narratives, public opinion dynamics, and authoritarian regime strategies. Her work bridges comparative politics, international relations, and political methodology.

Dr. Song’s recent publications explore anti-Chinese sentiment in South Korea driven by the pandemic and transboundary air pollution, China’s dual signaling in maritime disputes, evolving narratives about China in South Korea, and elite personnel management in North Korea. Her research demonstrates a strong trend toward analyzing political communication, public sentiment, and authoritarian resilience using innovative data sources and methods.

• South Korea’s Narratives on China: Evidence from Elites, Masses, and Scholars (2025)
• Introducing Career Transition Data on Elites in North Korea (2025)
• China’s Dual Signalling in Maritime Disputes (2024)
• Why Aren’t South Koreans Studying in China Anymore? (2024)
• Personnel, Institutions, and Power: Revisiting the Concept of Executive Personalisation (2024)
• COVID-19, Anti-Chinese Sentiment, and Foreign Policy Attitudes in South Korea (2023)
• Air Pollution Coverage, Anti-Chinese Sentiment, and Attitudes Towards Foreign Policy in South Korea (2023)
• South Koreans Have the World’s Most Negative Views of China. Why? (2022)

Dr. Song actively contributes to public discourse through media outlets like The Diplomat and presents her research at major academic conferences such as the American Political Science Association (APSA) and the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR). She has delivered lectures on computational methods in political science at institutions like Ewha Womans University. She has collaborated with scholars across institutions on projects related to executive personalization and elite politics. While her teaching includes courses on Chinese politics, no information is available about her advisees or students. No scientific awards or grants are mentioned in the provided text.

She is affiliated with research teams at the GIGA Institute for Asian Studies and the University of Bergen, contributing to projects on authoritarianism, executive personalization, and East Asian foreign policy. Her future work appears focused on expanding datasets on North Korean elites and deepening the understanding of domestic-international signaling dynamics in authoritarian foreign policy.