Welcome. I am Ayoung Chun, a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Program on American Institutional Renewal (PAIR) at Purdue University. I received my Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in June 2025. My research examines how campaign finance shapes American political institutions. Methodologically, I employ text-as-data techniques, network analysis, and machine learning to link money in politics to patterns of lawmaking. My book project studies how legislators’ earliest donors influence their lawmaking behavior in the U.S. Congress, particularly through committee activity and legislative speech. My other work explores how financial contributions relate to lawmaking power in state legislatures and to Supreme Court nominations.

My research has been supported by the Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL), the Pauley Foundation, and the Institute for Humane Studies (IHS). My work has received the Best Graduate Student Paper Award from APSA’s State Politics and Policy Section (2026) and the Virginia Gray Graduate Student Research Award from APSA’s Political Organizations and Parties Section (2024). At UCLA, I received the Graduate Dean’s Scholar Award and the Dissertation Year Award. Prior to UCLA, I earned B.A. degrees in Political Science and Applied Statistics from Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea.

I teach courses in American politics, money in politics, quantitative methods, and critical data theory. At UCLA, I served as an instructor or teaching assistant for 16 quarters across undergraduate and graduate courses.

I am on the 2025–2026 academic job market. Here is my job paper.

My name is pronounced AH (sound you make at the dentist) – young (as opposed to old).