Euchan Jang

I am a PhD candidate at the Ohio State University. My research interests are political participation, political communication, and democratic innovation. Specifically, I study how new, more ambitious modes of participation can change the way people learn about, discuss, and ultimately have a say on policy. My work draws on field experiments, surveys, and LLM-based text analysis. 

My dissertation examines how deliberative forums, where randomly selected citizens discuss and decide real policy questions, can reshape political journalism—both on the supply side (how journalists cover policy) and on the demand side (how citizens engage the news).

I also study how democratic innovations function in practice. In a co-authored paper, I revisit the common worry that deliberation excludes already disadvantaged citizens. Conventional measures of participation capture speech but miss silence and filtered contributions (e.g., incivility or off-topic speech)—precisely where inequality lurks. Taking into account all three, we find little evidence that disadvantaged citizens are systematically excluded.

I am also involved in more applied efforts, such as developing an AI-powered deliberation platform that lets large groups of people efficiently communicate with decision-makers.

Prior to my PhD, I earned a BA (International Relations and German) from Tufts University and an MA (Political Science) from Seoul National University. I also served as an interpreting officer for three years in the Republic of Korea Air Force, two of them as a personal interpreter to a four-star Army general. In my free time, I play tennis, watch Buckeye football, or read novels take care of Estie, my baby daughter.

You can reach me at jang.460@osu.edu.