Yujin Choi
Harris-Henderson Post-Doctoral Fellow
- Ph.D. Columbia University
- B.A. Korea University
Area(s) of expertise
Political theory: feminist political theory, contemporary liberalism, multiculturalism, and postcolonialism.
BIO
Yujin Choi is a Henderson-Harris Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Political Science at the University of Vermont.
Dr. Choi received her Ph.D. in Political Science (with distinction) from Columbia University in 2024. Her dissertation, Liberalism from the Margins, examines the theoretical tension produced by the imposition of liberalism on so-called “non-Western” societies. She asks: if individual autonomy is a central moral and political value of liberal philosophy, can the historical imposition of liberalism be reconciled with the very value it claims to uphold?
Dr. Choi argues that while autonomy remains a value worth defending, the liberal conceptualization of autonomy—understood as self-government—complicates, rather than resolves, this tension, as it is often framed in ways that naturalize the superiority of White-Western experiences. Her current work instead draws on the feminist movement in South Korea to develop a variant of relational autonomy, which she calls autonomy as critical appropriation.
Her dissertation was awarded the 2023–2024 Lindt Dissertation Fellowship and the 2024 Giancarlo Doria Ph.D. Dissertation Prize. It was also nominated for the 2025 Leo Strauss Award.
In Fall 2025 and Spring 2026, Dr. Choi will teach a lecture course titled Gender and Political Theory. Before joining UVM, she was an Early Career Fellow and Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Columbia University.
Bio
Yujin Choi is a Henderson-Harris Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Political Science at the University of Vermont.
Dr. Choi received her Ph.D. in Political Science (with distinction) from Columbia University in 2024. Her dissertation, Liberalism from the Margins, examines the theoretical tension produced by the imposition of liberalism on so-called “non-Western” societies. She asks: if individual autonomy is a central moral and political value of liberal philosophy, can the historical imposition of liberalism be reconciled with the very value it claims to uphold?
Dr. Choi argues that while autonomy remains a value worth defending, the liberal conceptualization of autonomy—understood as self-government—complicates, rather than resolves, this tension, as it is often framed in ways that naturalize the superiority of White-Western experiences. Her current work instead draws on the feminist movement in South Korea to develop a variant of relational autonomy, which she calls autonomy as critical appropriation.
Her dissertation was awarded the 2023–2024 Lindt Dissertation Fellowship and the 2024 Giancarlo Doria Ph.D. Dissertation Prize. It was also nominated for the 2025 Leo Strauss Award.
In Fall 2025 and Spring 2026, Dr. Choi will teach a lecture course titled Gender and Political Theory. Before joining UVM, she was an Early Career Fellow and Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Columbia University.