SPAA Graduate Profile: Yong-Chan Rhee (PhD'24)

Name: Yong-Chan Rhee
Hometown: Seoul, South Korea
PhD Grad Month/Year: May 2024
Current Position/Organization: Incoming tenure-track assistant professor in the Criminology Department at DePaul University

Why did you enroll at SPAA?
Initially, I wanted to do research about arts policy and organizations, and it was one of the few schools with people who explored the topic before, but I accidentally found my talent in other topics (e.g., behavioral foundation of public administration/policy, policing, socioeconomic inequalities). You never know how things will turn out in your life.  

Favorite SPAA memory and/or most meaningful experience at SPAA?
Meeting my advisor.  

Biggest challenge(s)?
COVID-19. I never want to remember it ever again. There was a time when I regretted studying abroad in the U.S. because of the pandemic and the following chaos.  

Another one would be the two-year gap thanks to my mandatory military service. I was pretty busy while serving and people who did similar things will know very well you can't do anything else during the service. You're very busy and tired. That was when I completely forgot most of the things I had learned so far (math, English, etc.) and had to start all over again. Even nowadays, I still take a look at basic math books I used before and I still can feel the two-year gap while pursuing academic life, because two years of going back means losing four years in total. Ironically, this is also when I figured things out on my own and contributed to the field with approaches few to none had used before. You really never know how even bad luck will end up in the end.  

Next steps?
There is no complicated plan. I will just move forward as I always did.  

Advice to incoming students?
Be persistent. The saying I always keep in mind is: in nature, the strongest one is the one that survives until the end. You can say the fittest will survive, but you need to be persistent to survive until the end.