Assistant Professor
Joining the faculty at CU Boulder is a dream come true for Professor Adrian Shin, who started here in the Fall of 2016.
”I love being able to drive only 20 minutes and to be in the mountains,” he said, “and living near the mountains has always been a dream of mine.”
“I had always thought I wanted to be a lawyer, but I realized I didn’t want to work in a law firm for the rest of my life”, which led him to Political Science.
“Political Science is about peoples’ behavior, and their desire to be better off, and sometimes these desires conflict with each other,” he said, “and that conflict raises a lot of fascinating and interesting questions.”
Shin has taught many classes at CU during his time at the university. This semester he is teaching PSCI 2106: Intro to Public Policy Analysis and PSCI 4193: International Political Economy. Next Spring, he will be introducing a new course, PSCI 4283: Immigration and Migration Policy.
“The class is about why people move, why policy makers shut the doors to immigrants, and what are the effects of people’s movement across borders.”
“I wanted a course for students who wanted to learn more about this issue” he noted, reflecting on the current prominence of the immigration issue in the United States and around the world.
For Adrian Shin, being able to integrate his research into his courses is his favorite part about being a professor at CU.
“I love talking about my research” he said, which looks at “economic globalization from a historical perspective.”
“I always wanted to travel the world, and I got to see different things and cultures. I was drawn to studying and understanding globalization as a result.”
Shin won the APSA 2017 Best Dissertation Award in the Migration and Citizenship Section, which sought to understand the differences in immigration policy between developed countries.
“My first thought was that I was definitely getting a book contract”, he joked. “It was also unexpected.”
The book manuscript, titled Primary Resources, Secondary Labor, which is based off his dissertation, “looks at the development of immigration policy of 29 countries.”
Shin is also working on a second book, titled War, Elite Competition, and Economic Globalization, which he quipped as “basically what we see on Game of Thrones.”
The book focuses on the “effects of mass warfare on economic policies” and “how war reshapes the political competition between elites in the national policy-making process.”
When he is not researching or teaching, he enjoys exploring Colorado and traveling the world, especially Europe.
“I have a lot of friends in the Netherlands and all over Europe, so I really enjoy traveling and visiting with my friends in Europe.”
According to Shin, working on a college campus affords him an opportunity not many other professions offer: the opportunity to connect with students.
“I love how I get to blend in with CU students,” he noted, “I act like a student on my non-teaching days.”
“Humans are students forever”, he observed, “and a college campus is the perfect place to foster that continued learning.”