TEACHING
Teaching Acknowledgements
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2023-24 Best Undergraduate Teaching by Graduate Teaching Assistant in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
2024 Campus-Wide Undergraduate Research Symposium: Mentor of Awardee for Outstanding Poster Presentation
Teachers Ranked as Excellent with Outstanding Distinction (FA2021, SP2022, FA2022)
Dr. Sandra J. Finley Teacher Scholar Certificate
Master Course in Online Teaching Certificate
Independent Instructor
Introduction to American Politics
PS 101 | Spring 2025 (scheduled) | University of Illinois | Co-taught (2 Instructors)
This course examines the organization and development of national, state, and local governments in the U.S.; the federal system; the U.S. Constitutions; civil and political rights; the party system; and the nature, structure, powers, and procedures of national political institutions. This course may require limited participation as a subject in research.
Democratic Backsliding
GLBL 296 | Spring 2025 (scheduled) | University of Illinois | Syllabus
This course unravels the intricacies of global democratic backsliding, exploring its cases, theories, and potential solutions. By delving into real-world examples from both the global North and South and the theoretical frameworks, students will develop a profound understanding of the interplay between domestic political dynamics and international ramifications.
Introduction to Political Research
PS 230 | Spring 2024 | University of Illinois | Syllabus
Teachers Ranked as Excellent (2024)
This course surveys the principles that guide empirical research in political science. Students will be exposed to the principles of theorizing, measurement, and conceptualization, and learn to gather, wrangle, visualize, and statistically analyze data using R.
Introduction to Political Theory
PS 270 | Fall 2024 | University of Illinois | Syllabus
This course introduces the nature, structure, and purposes of political theory. The course examines major works on the problems of political order, obedience, justice, liberty, and representation to distinguish and clarify different theoretical approaches.
Introduction to Political Science
PS 100 (Online) | Fall 2020 | University of Illinois | Pre-Designed Course
This course surveys the major concepts and approaches employed in the study of politics. Overviews all major subfields in political science -- IR, AP, CP, and PT.
Teaching Assistant
Introduction to American Politics
PS 101 | Spring 2022, Fall 2021 | University of Illinois | for Professor Gisela Sin
Teachers Ranked as Excellent with Outstanding Distinction (2022, 2021)
This course examines the organization and development of national, state, and local governments in the U.S.; the federal system; the U.S. Constitutions; civil and political rights; the party system; and the nature, structure, powers, and procedures of national political institutions. This course may require limited participation as a subject in research.
Introduction to Political Theory
PS 270 | Fall 2022, Fall 2019 | University of Illinois | for Professor Benjamin Miller
Teachers Ranked as Excellent with Outstanding Distinction (2022) | Teachers Ranked as Excellent (2019)
This course introduces the nature, structure, and purposes of political theory. The course examines major works on the problems of political order, obedience, justice, liberty, and representation to distinguish and clarify different theoretical approaches.
Introduction to Comparative Politics
PS 240 | Fall 2023 | University of Illinois | for Professor Avital Livny
Teachers Ranked as Excellent
This course offers an introduction to the comparative politics in Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democracies (WEIRD). The course focuses on identifying and explaining differences among and across WEIRD countries. In particular, the course explores four key political-economic outcomes: state, regime, identity, and economy.
On Multiculturalism
POL 778 (Grad Course) | Fall 2015 | Korea University | for Professor Nam-kook Kim
This course surveys the 30+ years' worth of discourse on multiculturalism in Political Theory with a heavy focus on contemporary theories of inclusion and deliberation.
Law and Political Thought
POL 238 | Fall 2015 | Korea University | for Professor Nam-kook Kim
This course surveys the rise of pre-modern and contemporary South Korean constitutionalism in the face of Western legal and theoretical influence.
Student Evaluations
*Unedited open-ended reviews from all courses in random order
*Unedited open-ended reviews from all courses in random order
"Seongjoon is very knowledgeable about course content and good at fostering conversation."
"Seongjoon makes the concepts more palatable. He has a way of bringing concepts down to a level that anyone can understand."
"You sir, are funny as hell. You make the class very enjoyable and putting out ideas very easy, which helps me learn. You challenge our thoughts without making us feel dumb."
"Seongjoon always encourages everyone to think deeply and allows everyone's ideas to be shared."
"I like how willing to help Seongjoon is outside of class, whether at office hours or over email during the week."
"Seongjoon has been one of the most knowledgeable TAs that I had come across. He is talented and kind in his demeanor and it helps him create a great environment to learn in."
"Seongjoon is a fantastic TA. He adjusted extremely well to the varying online/in-person status of both our lectures and the discussion sections. He was also prepared every time and had students engage in interesting conversations."
"Seongjoon is a very accommodating, personable, and knowledgeable instructor. He is receptive to student feedback, is a very engaging lecturer, and is relatable and laid back for his students without being overly so. Overall a very good T.A."
"Seongjoon explained every single concept from the whole week all in one short discussion so well. Sometimes, his explanations were better than the professor and the discussion was more helpful than lecture. He also was very receptive to participation and showed an immense amount of respect to every single student and gave their answers to questions all the same amount of thought and care.
"Seongjoon is one of the BEST TAs in the political science department, if not the best, hands down. He's an excellent communicator, honest, relatable, and a great teacher."
"Willingness to adapt to student suggestion. Post-midterm feedback I thought the class was much more valuable and the fact you were willing to listen and adjust to accommodate your students was awesome."
"Seongjoon is very knowledgeable in the field of political science. I was surprised how much he knew about comparative politics because I know that PS 270 [intro to political theory] is his go-to class, and he did amazing as a TA for that class as well. [...] I am very lucky to have had him as a TA twice now.
"Great guy, good at leading potentially contentious discussions, knows the material."
"He was extremely funny and was always open to discussion in section. He was very helpful and understanding towards his students and answered any questions we had."
"The instructor was very positive and comedic, so coming to this course was enjoyable because he was very engaging with his presentations and questions"
"This instructor was really patient because this was a very hard course. He also is very understanding of our struggles."
"I thought the labs we did to learn R were extremely helpful and made it easier to be self-sufficient when working on my own codes. Seongjoon was also very understanding and you can tell he knows sooo much because he was so easily able to help out when needed and give a lot of insight to help guide projects."
"This course was extremely helpful in furthering my understanding of political research and introduced R and coding to me. The instructor is fantastic - he is very well-versed and was always prepared and willing to help students when needed. I appreciate the hard work he put into this course."