Seung Deok Seo

I am a Ph.D. student in Political Science (Comparative Politics) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. My research focuses on how foreign aid shapes political incentives and organizational behavior within civil society, with a regional emphasis on the Middle East and North Africa. My dissertation examines how organizational identity shapes inter-NGO cooperation and competition in Jordan, drawing on network analysis, surveys, experiments, and qualitative interviews.

Before my doctoral studies, I worked with UN Women in Palestine and KOICA in Iraq. My work has been supported by the Institute for Humane Studies, the University of Illinois Graduate College, and the Center for the Study of Global Gender Equity.