Dr Hyeyoon Park

Dr. Hyeyoon Park is a Lecturer (equivalent to Assistant Professor) in International Politics. Her research spans the areas of global governance, global environmental politics, and global political economy. She focuses on the interplay between global norm development and international power politics and its impact on the agency of various state and non-state actors in transnational environmental governance (with specific focus on China as an emerging power, the business sector and actors from the global South). Her empirical research interests center on transnational governance pertaining to critical mineral resource extraction and green/climate finance. Her work aims to analyze those governance realms from critical perspectives, in terms of global equity and planetary justice (such as climate colonialism).

She has published multiple academic articles on the topics, in high-impact journals such as Global Environmental Politics and Chinese Journal of International Politics, book chapters, and policy reports while working as a former policy researcher at Korea Environment Institute (KEI), a government think tank on environmental policies.

Before joining the University of Stirling, she worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in Political Science at Lund University in Sweden and in the Environmental Policy Group at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Born in South Korea, she gained her B.A. in Political Science and International Relations (major) and Law (minor) from Yonsei University in Seoul, her M.A. in Political Science from Free University of Berlin in Germany, and her Ph.D. in Political Science from Colorado State University in the USA. Her PhD dissertation examined China’s role in transparency norm development in global extractives governance, drawing on realist constructivism in International Relations.

She is passionate about international research and teaching collaborations based on her experience working and studying in six different countries - the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, the USA, Germany, and South Korea. She is a research fellow of the Earth System Governance, the largest social science research network in the field of global environmental change and governance (https://www.earthsystemgovernance.org/).

In her free time, she enjoys playing the piano and violin, as well as creating nature-inspired paintings.

Key research expertise: Global environmental politics, global governance, global norm, extractive industries, climate finance, China

Hyeyoon’s research spans the areas of global governance, global environmental politics, and global political economy. She focuses on the interplay between global norm development and international power politics and its impact on the agency of various state and non-state actors in transnational environmental governance (with specific focus on China as an emerging power, the business sector and actors from the global South).

Her current projects include the impact of geopolitical rivalries on global governance of critical mineral extraction, multi-level power dynamics in transnational climate finance governance, transparency of private climate finance (TRANSGOV project based at Wageningen University, https://trans-gov.org/), climate colonialism regarding climate finance, the state's role in decarbonizing energy-intensive industries (e.g., the steel sector), and climate litigation & norm contestations.

Hyeyoon’s teaching expertise encompasses International Relations, Global Governance, Global Political Economy, and Global Environmental Politics. She has taught various undergraduate and graduate courses, including M.A. thesis supervision, at Colorado State University (2019-2021) and Lund University (2021-2023). At the University of Stirling, she teaches the following modules as a module coordinator, in addition to supervising undergraduate, master's, and PhD dissertations and contributing to POLU9RM (Research Methods in Politics) and POLU9X3 (Introduction to International Politics).

POLU9IP: International Politics

International politics is essential to understanding the world in which we live. Yet understanding international politics requires that you develop knowledge and insight into the different theoretical tools necessary to explain, predict, and critique the world around us. In this module, students will advance and hone their understanding of the different theoretical and analytical approaches used in the scholarship of international relations, including realism, liberalism, constructivism, feminism, and critical theory.

POLU9EZ: Environmental Politics in an International Context (Global Environmental Politics)

In this module, students will survey the current literature and debates surrounding the environment in International Relations (IR). Students will garner a comprehensive overview of the political, economic, social, and ethical aspects involved in multilateral environmental agreements. Students will learn to critically analyse the actors, architecture, and issues shaping global environmental governance and politics today, such as environmental security and conflicts, global environmental justice, global climate governance, and global biodiversity governance.

POLU9X1: Problems in International Politics (Transnational Governance)

What are global common problems in international society? How can state and non-state actors (e.g., companies, NGOs, philanthropy, etc.) across different jurisdictions solve them through what political procedures, institutions, and policies cooperatively? International society started facing unexpected issues more than ever in the current turbulent era with increasing geopolitical tensions that shape a new world order – such as a global pandemic, AI, and climate change. Transnational governance (emphasising multilateral cooperation and public-private partnerships) is one of the key international political approaches to solve such problems considering the problems’ transnational impacts beyond a single national territory. By taking this module, you will learn about a wide range of emerging global common problems and the existing governance institutions and policies. You will also examine the challenges of the current transnational governance and find transformative directions, situating them within a theoretical and historical context and critically evaluating their associated problems using case study analyses.