Rate My Professor Kyung Joon Han

Kyung Joon Han is an Associate Professor and Associate Head in the Department of Political Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he joined the faculty in Fall 2010. He earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2010, an M.A. in Political Science from UCLA in 2007, and an additional M.A. in 2001. Han's research specializes in comparative politics, with emphasis on Western European party systems. His academic interests include party position ambiguity and blurring as electoral strategies, voter polarization and issue salience, the electoral effects of party shifts on sociocultural issues, mainstream party responses to immigration and radical right challenges, social pacts influencing working-class support for populism, and gender differences in affective polarization.

Among his significant publications is the book Rationality of Irrationality: Political Determinants and Effects of Party Position Blurring (University of Michigan Press). Peer-reviewed articles include 'Marginalisation or Legitimation? Mainstream Party Positioning on Immigration and Support for Radical Right Parties' with Ian Down (West European Politics, 2020), 'Voter Polarization, Issue Priority and Position Blurring' (British Journal of Political Science, 2020), 'It Hurts When It Really Matters: Electoral Effect of Party Position Shift Regarding Sociocultural Issues' (Party Politics, 2017), 'Social Pacts and Manual Worker Support for Radical Right-Wing Populism' with Eric G. Castater (Political Research Quarterly, 2021), 'A Left-wing Social Policy by a Right-wing Political Party' (Journal of Asian and African Studies, 2023), and 'Gender and Affective Polarization' (European Journal of Political Research, 2025). Han has obtained research grants such as a $5,000 award from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2019 and SARIF Foreign Travel funding. He serves as a reviewer for prominent journals including the American Journal of Political Science and British Journal of Political Science, advancing knowledge on party competition and democratic electoral dynamics.