When Dahjin Kim selected a topic for her doctoral dissertation in 2022, her chosen focus area — online communities — elicited some skepticism from those in her field.
“At the time people asked, ‘Where is the politics in that?’” Kim said. Today, however, the political impact of online communities is widely recognized, if not yet widely studied.
“The conversation has shifted, and the relevance of online communities to politics is more widely understood now,” said Kim, who recently joined Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs as assistant professor of Asian studies and global affairs.“There’s a growing body of literature on political communication in online communities.”
Kim earned her Ph.D in political science from Washington University in St. Louis in May 2025. Her dissertation, supported by the Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant from the American Political Science Association, examined how members of anonymous online communities in South Korea corrected misinformation.
“How people interact online has big implications for larger society,” Kim said. “And in turn the political polarization in society ends up being mapped onto your online choices. It’s not uncommon in South Korea to catch a conversation about how someone doesn’t want to date or be friends with a person that uses a particular website.”
South Korea, one of the larger democracies in the world, is undergoing rapid demographic changes, with an aging population and declining birth rates. Social issues such as gender roles, opportunities for upward mobility and immigration are the hot-button issues that dominate many online forums.
“The way these issues are discussed online makes it into hard politics,” Kim said. “It affects the way politicians talk about things like gender issues in their party manifestos or presidential campaigns, because politicians pay attention to online media.”
Because Kim researches South Korea and East Asia more broadly, the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies made the Keough School an especially appealing place to begin her academic career.
“East Asia is an overlooked region in political communication, yet it is one of the most interesting regions to study,” Kim said. “What is happening in South Korea reflects what is happening in Japan, China and other East Asian countries. I want to be able to continue to highlight this fascinating region in my research.”
Kim said her own research on South Korea in some ways mirrors what is happening in other democracies such as the United States.
“The phenomenon is interesting in and of itself, but studying it also gives us a lot of insight into how democracies around the world need to understand this problem,” Kim said, “It gives us a better sense of what is to come and how to better prepare for it.”
In keeping with her academic interest in community, Kim said Notre Dame’s sense of community made it an especially appealing place to begin her academic career.
“I wanted to find a job in a place where I could feel a sense of belonging,” she said. “For me that’s very important in order to thrive as a researcher. I feel very welcomed here.”
Originally published by at keough.nd.edu on September 03, 2025.