Young Jee Deliberates

I study public deliberation with computational text analysis.

Recent Posts

About

Young Jee Kim

My name is pronounced [yung-jee], young as in youthful, and jee that rhymes with see.
Despite the space between the two syllables, Young and Jee are all part of my first name, but I will respond if you call me ‘Young.’

Ph.D. Candidate in Communication, Stanford University
Deliberative Democracy Lab · Advisor: Dr. James Fishkin

About Me

I study what happens inside public deliberation. Using transcripts from Deliberative Polls, I combine computational text analysis (topic modeling, LLM-based classification, linguistic style analysis) with multilevel statistical modeling to examine who speaks, whose arguments shape the conversation, and how deliberation changes opinions and reduces polarization. My work spans deliberations in the United States and Korea about scientific risks such as climate change, Generative AI, and nuclear energy.

Research interests: deliberative democracy · political communication · polarization and depolarization · social inequality within deliberation · computational social science · risk and uncertainty · bilingual (Korean/English) NLP

Full CV (updated Nov. 12, 2026)

Google Scholar Profile (manuscripts shared upon request)

Education

Ph.D. in Communication, Stanford University — 2020 – present
Dissertation: Deliberative Distortions in Structured Deliberation (ABD)
Advisor: Dr. James Fishkin

M.A. in Communication and Media, Ewha Womans University — 2018
Thesis: Discursive struggles through the cultural economic model on media reports about THAAD deployment in Korea
Advisor: Dr. Yung-wook Kim

B.A. in Advertising and Public Relations (Summa Cum Laude), Ewha Womans University — 2016
Scranton Honors Program, Digital Humanities Track (Double Major) · Minor in Philosophy

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles (selected)

– Manuscripts shared upon request!

  • Kim, Y. J. (2026). The law of group polarization revisited: Using transcripts from a Deliberative Poll to examine the influence of imbalance in the argument pool. International Political Science Review. https://doi.org/10.1177/01925121251410597
  • Kim, Y. J. (2025). Do the more advantaged dominate deliberation? Using transcripts for identifying relationship between social advantage and deliberation. Journal of Deliberative Democracy, 21(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.16997/jdd.1549
  • Kim, Y.-w., Kim, Y. J., & Kim, S.-h. (2018). Risk seeking and processing on climate change: Moderating effects of perceived information gathering capacity, channel beliefs, and behavioral beliefs. Korean Journal of Journalism & Communication Studies, 62(5), 72–106. https://doi.org/10.20879/kjjcs.2018.62.5.003 (in Korean)
  • Kim, Y.-w., Ham, S.-k., & Kim, Y. J. (2017). Media discourse analyses on the Sewol ferry incident: The methodological integration of the critical discourse analysis and the semantic network analysis using newspaper big data. Korean Journal of Communication & Information, 83, 7–38. (in Korean)

Conference Presentations (selected)

– Manuscripts shared upon request!

  • Kim, Y. J. (2026, September). BERTopic analysis of the Korean public deliberation on nuclear energy. 122nd American Political Science Association (APSA) Annual Meeting, Boston, MA.
  • Siu, A., & Kim, Y. J. (2025, July). 5 National Deliberative Polls in the Global South on guiding principles in Generative AI governance. 28th International Political Science Association (IPSA) World Congress of Political Science, Seoul, Korea.
  • Kim, Y. J. (2025, June). Tight groups are not on a tight rope: Opinion homogenization in political deliberation measured with linguistic style mimicry among participants. 75th Annual Conference, Denver, CO.
  • Kim, Y. J. (2024, July). Unboxing the black box of deliberation: Identifying participants’ concerns. 77th Annual World Association for Public Opinion Research (WAPOR) Conference, Seoul, Korea.
    • Forthcoming as a book chapter! TBD
  • Kim, Y. J. (2024, June). Revisiting the domination by the more advantaged in deliberation: Using transcripts for individual differences in sophisticated language use and group domination. 74th Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference, Gold Coast, Australia.

Research Experience

Doctoral Student Researcher, Deliberative Democracy Lab, Stanford University — 2022 – present

Research Assistant, Ewha Womans University — 2017 – 2018

Teaching

Instructor, Stanford University — Summer 2026
Political Language Lab: Analyzing the Texts of Democracy

Teaching Assistant for Dr. Xiaochang Li, Stanford University — Spring 2026
Race and Media

Teaching Assistant for Dr. James Fishkin, Stanford University — 2022 – 2026
Deliberative Democracy and its Critics (2022, 2024, 2026)
The Dialogue of Democracy (2022, 2025)

Volunteer Instructor, Stanford Splash — Spring 2025
Deliberation Hours

Skills

Computational Social Science: few-shot LLM classification, RAG pipelines, topic modeling (BERTopic)
Statistical Modeling: multilevel modeling, mediation analysis, experimental survey design, longitudinal analysis
Python: Transformers (Hugging Face), pandas, NumPy, scikit-learn
R: lme4, mediation, tidyverse, brms
Specialized: LIWC-22, high-performance computing (HPC), bilingual Korean/English NLP (Llama-3, Bllossom, localized embeddings)
Leadership: NIH-sponsored training (Becoming a Resilient Scientist) on conflict management and emotional intelligence

Awards & Honors

  • Scholarship for Doctoral Study Abroad Program, Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies (2020 – 2025)