Graduate Asia Working Group
About
The Asia Graduate Working Group began in spring 2018 and allows graduate students from any discipline to give feedback on dissertations and proposals, weigh in on presentations and projects, and discuss any topic relevant to graduate studies.
Typically, a designated presenter leads the discussion for each monthly meeting. The group has attracted a range of disciplines: political science, sociology, anthropology, and theology.
Working Group Leader 2022-23
Isheika Cleare
Political Science
icleare@nd.edu
At the University of Notre Dame, Isheika is studying East Asian resistance to US hegemonic preferences. Her dissertation project considers America’s bilateral relationship with South Korea and Japan and explores explanations for foreign policy divergence between close allies. She was a recipient of the Chinese Government Scholarship (2014 - 2015) and the Korean Government Scholarship (2015 - 2018). Isheika has a BS from Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida, and MSs from the Sun Yat-Sen University (PRC) and KDI School of Public Policy and Management (South Korea). She has studied how liberal institutionalism shaped Chinese domestic policy decisions in the 1980s-90s, including the role of multi-lateral organizations like the WTO in marketing and institutionalizing new norms in China. She has also researched US-Korea trade negotiations to expose how asymmetrical negotiations weaken cooperation.