Authoritarianism, democracy, and social movements in Korea and East Asia are the primary research and teaching focus for Dr. Joan Cho. Her research on authoritarian regime support, South Korean democracy movement, and electoral accountability in post-transition South Korea has been published in Electoral Studies, Journal of East Asian Studies, Studies in Comparative International Development, and Routledge Handbook of Korean Culture and Society. Her other writings have appeared in the Pacific Affairs, The Diplomat, and The Conversation.

Dr. Cho's first book, Seeds of Mobilization: The Authoritarian Roots of South Korea's Democracy (University of Michigan Press), examines the roles of industrialization and tertiary education in South Korea’s nonlinear path to democracy. Her current project, “What’s Liberal about East Asia’s Liberal Democracies?” (with Aram Hur), offers a theory-driven explanation of the left-right ideological divide in East Asia, demonstrating how nationalist principles uniquely shape the left-right schema in the region. She additionally researches the political behavior of Asian Americans in connection to East Asian politics. 

Dr. Cho is an Adjunct Fellow (Non-resident) in the Office of the Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Associate-in-Research of the Council of East Asian Studies at Yale University. She serves on the APSA Committee on the Status of Asian Pacific Americans in the Profession (2024-2027). Previously, Cho was Vice President of the Association of Korean Political Studies (2022-2024), faculty co-convener of the Korean Political Studies Colloquium (2022-2024), and a 2018-2019 U.S.-Korea NextGen Scholar. Her academic appointment and research have been supported by the Korea Foundation and the Academy of Korean Studies.