Dr Youngah Guahk is a lecturer, focusing Asian Affairs at Luiss University in Rome, Italy. A native speaker of Korea, she is a trained political scientist who received the title of Dr. rer. pol from the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany. Her doctoral research focused on sustainable cities and the corresponding political transformation of local governments in South Korea. Over the past decade she has been teaching in various institutions from different countries and taught courses related to Korea and Korean politics, culture and society to diverse groups of international students. Dr. Guahk has research interests and has published in political institutions in Korea, including on the Korean National Parliament, the role of local government and on public and cultural diplomacy. And now she is expending her research interests more broadly to East Asia including China and Japan.