Sun-Ki Chai

Office: Home:
Department of Sociology Email: sunki@hawaii.edu
University of Hawai`i 3094 Kaloaluiki St. Web: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~sunki/
Honolulu, HI 96822 Honolulu, HI 96822
Phone: 808 956-7234
Fax: 808 956-3707


Academic Positions

Fall 2011-Present Professor, University of Hawai`i, Department of Sociology.

Courses Taught

Soc 100, Section 1: Introduction to Sociology (Unit Mastery), Soc 100, Section 3: Introduction to Sociology (Writing Intensive), Soc 214: Introduction to Race and Ethnicity, Soc 218: Introduction to Social Problems, Soc 300: Social Research Methods, Soc 316: Survey of Social Change, Soc 321: Survey of Sociological Theory, Soc 358: Sociology of Korea, Soc 495B: Tutoring and Testing, Soc 610/715: Ethnic Identity, Conflict, and Cooperation (graduate level), Soc 751: Development in Asia (graduate level)
Fall 2005-Spring 2011 Associate Professor, University of Hawai`i, Department of Sociology.
Fall 2001-Spring 2005 Assistant Professor, University of Hawai`i, Department of Sociology.
Fall 1994-Spring 2001 Assistant Professor, University of Arizona, Department of Sociology.
Courses taught: Political Sociology, Social Research Methods, Rational Choice Theory (graduate level),Social Change and Development (graduate level)
Fall 1990-Spring 1993 Teaching Assistant, Stanford University, Department of Political Science.
Courses taught: Japan's Political Economy; Japanese Foreign Policy; The Politics of Foreign Aid; Race and Ethnicity in Africa.
Spring 1986, Summer 1987 Instructor, University of Hawaii, Department of Electrical Engineering.
Courses taught: Pascal Programming, Fortran Programming.
Winter 1983 Teaching Assistant, Stanford University, Department of Computer Science. Course taught: The Mathematics of Computation.

Education

Ph.D. Political Science, Stanford University, 1994. Dissertation:Re-examining Development: The Cognitive Basis for Rational Action. Committee: Robert Packenham, Gabriel Almond, John Ferejohn.

Partial work towards M.J. Journalism, University of California at Berkeley, 1987-1988.

M.S. Computer Science, Stanford University, 1984. Major Areas: Theory of Computation, Artificial Intelligence. Master's Thesis: "A User-Modeling Front End for Dynamic Expert Systems." Advisor: Derek Sleeman.

B.S. Mathematical Science, Stanford University, 1983.

Major Fields Of Interest

Formal Modeling of Culture and Decision-Making

Social Media Mining and Interpretation

Race and Ethnic Identity

Sociology of East Asia

Development and Social Change

Theory of Culture and Rationality

Award, Grants, Patent

University Award

University of Hawai`i at Manoa Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2005.

Extramural Grant Awards

Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling, and Prediction 2016 Conference. Office of Naval Research, Broad Agency Announcement 2015-001. Contract N00014-16-1-2274. Principal Investigator, June 1, 2015-February 28, 2017. $5000. Subsidy for travel awards to the SBP 2016 Conference.

Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling, and Prediction 2015 Conference. Office of Naval Research, Broad Agency Announcement 2015-001. Contract N00014-15-1-2463. Principal Investigator, June 1, 2015-May 31, 2016. $5000. Subsidy for travel awards to the SBP 2016 Conference.

Willingness to Pay Project, Subcontract from European University Institute. Sponsor Award ID 295675. Subcontract Principal Investigator, December 1, 2014-December 31, 2015. $4999.37 Obligated. Computer-mediated behavioral experiments; part of larger project under Sven Steinmo investigating effects of different taxation schemes on compliance.

Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling, and Prediction 2011 Conference. Office of Naval Research, Broad Agency Announcement 2011-001. Contract N00014-11-1-0344. Principal Investigator, January 4, 2011-January 4, 2012. $7500. Subsidy for travel awards to the SBP 2011 Conference.

Developing Cultural Analysis and Sociological Network Theory for Understanding Virtual Communities and Their Intrinsic Relationships on the Web. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Broad Agency Announcement 2008-3 (Discovery Challenge Thrusts). Contract FA9550-09-1-0261. Principal Investigator, April 15, 2009-December 31, 2011. $507,168. Subaward to Arizona State University. Development of web crawler for discovery of socially relevant information through use of cultural and network theories, content analysis, and other social science techniques.

Online Social Behaviors and Prediction of their Implications for the Physical World. Office of Naval Research Broad Agency Announcement 09-001 (Human Social Culture Behavior Modeling Program). Contract N00014-09-1-0805. Principal Investigator, June 1, 2009-September 30, 2011. $353,754 obligated. Subaward to Arizona State University. Development of online and offline content analysis methods that can be used to measure major cultural and personality dimensions typically measured by surveys.

Coherence-Based Modeling of Cultural Change and Political Violence (CCPV). Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Broad Agency Announcement 2005-1, Contract FA9550-07-1-0253. Principal Investigator, February 1, 2007-November 30, 2010. $1,611,416. Multifaced project which included culture-based choice-theoretic modeling of the causes of cooperation and conflict between ethnic groups and development of web crawler for discovery of socially relevant information through use of empirical methodologies developed from cultural and network theories.

Integrated Lab for the Computer-Mediated Study Of Culture. Office of Naval Research, FY2005 DoD Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP), Contract N00014-05-1-0347. Principal Investigator, May 1, 2005-August 7, 2006, $159,131. Equipment for specialized laboratory for computer-mediated human subjects experiments that examine inter-cultural differences in behavior or interactions within multi-cultural groups.

Synthetic Training Environments. Office of Secretary of Defense, Small Business Technology Transfer Grant OSD07-T005, Asymmetric Synthetic Training Environments, Phase I, subcontract with Referentia Systems, Inc. University Subcontract Principal Investigator, September 1, 2007-January 25, 2008, $30,000. Design of role-playing training software that includes culturally differentiated agents.

Grid-Group Cm-alpha, Profiling Cultural Factors for Decision Aiding. Air Force Research Laboratory, SBIR Grant AF05-069, Contract FA8650-06-C-6633, Impact of Cultural Factors on Human Performance, Phase II, subcontract with 21st Century Systems, Inc. University Subcontract Principal Investigator, May 3, 2006-May 2, 2008, $137,684. Design of organizational procedures for small groups that adjust to heterogeneous cultural characteristics of group members.

Multi-National Cultural Difference Modeling. Office of Naval Research, Small Business Innovation Research Grant N03-112, Contract N00014-05-C-0523, Modeling and Simulation of Cultural Differences in Human Decision-Making, Phase I and II, subcontract with 21st Century Systems, Inc. University Subcontract Principal Investigator, June 17, 2003-May 16, 2004 and April 28, 2006-July 28, 2007, $169,997. Development of general predictive models of human behavior incorporating general and measurable cultural differences.

Grant Proposals Reviewed and Invited for Full Submission

A Grid-Group/Coherence Cultural Modeling System for Predicting Population Behavior using Community-Specific Social Media Conversation Data. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences Broad Agency Announcement for Basic Scientific Research. Principal Investigator. 2018-2020 Proposed Period of Performance, $712,882 Requested. White Paper submitted 4/4/2018.

Grant Proposals in Preparation for Submission

SCH: INT: Collaborative Research: Directly Gauging the Effect of Commuting Patterns on Mental Health Using Traffic Sensing and Medical Claims Data. National Science Foundation Smart and Connected Health, Program Solicitation 18-541. Collaborative Submission with University of Arkansas, Little Rock. Principal Investigator. 2019/1/19-2023/1/18 Proposed Period of Performance, $880K requested (exclusive of collaborating institution budget). Full Proposal to be submitted by 5/22/2018. Co-Pis David Ma (Civil and Environmental Engineering, Assoc. Dean of Engineering), Norman Okamura (UHTASI), Nitin Agarwal (University of Arkansas, Information Sciences).

Other Grant-Related Actiity

Behavioral Models for Base Protection Lab Tools. Office of Naval Research. Subcontract with SAIC, University Subcontract Principal Investigator, January 1, 2008- August 31, 2008, $50,000 awarded, but did not accept grant because of restrictions on dissemination of information.

Patent

Software Agent for Locating nd Analyzing Virtual Communities On The World Wide Web, United States Patent #7499965, March 3, 2009. Method for using of social network and other social theories as basis for web crawling algorithm that guides a general information-gathering and decision-support platform. This platform can be used to develop a number of applications, including those that perform the functions of a search engine, but with many more features, or that locate, analyze, and provide behavioral predictions for a virtual community of interest to the user.

Patent Disclosure

"Improved Decision Network Adaptation Method Using Botton Treegraph Extension" (R.G. Casey and S.K. Chai), IBM Technical Disclosure 26:7A (December 1983), 3372.

Laboratory, Dataset, Software, and Commercial Development

Laboratory

Integrated Lab for the Computer-Mediated Study Of Culture. Originally funded by an ONR DURIP grant, is used to carry out computer-mediated experiments that focus on the role of cultural differences on behavior in formal games. Hardware facilities also used to provide testbeds for server-side implementation of web-mining, behavioral prediction, and interface components of developedsoftware, as well as to provide facilities for other University faculty who wish to engage in computer-mediated experiments.

Software

"CLASSIC: A Software Agent for Locating and Analyzing Virtual Communities on the World Wide Web" (Web Analyst). Agent-based software, originally written in scripting language, and adapted as a Java-based web application. Utilizes social theories and choice-theoretic models to locate information based on the identification of the virtual community that possesses this information.

Cultural Difference Modeling Software. Set of modules expressing in algorithmic form the ideas contained within the Coherence Model proposed in the book Choosing an Identity, as well as the representative formaliations discussed in the book Culture and Social Theory.

Dataset

CCPV Constructionist Ethnicity Study Dataset, May 2010. Responsible for original dataset conceptualization and design. Augmented design through discussion with Ilan Noy, who supervised dataset coding by team of students This is the first group-focused dataset suitable for dynamic modeling of ethicity construction. The proposition that ethnicity is a socially created concept with fluid boundaries is well-accepted in ethnicity theory, but there has not been any dataset suitable for testing predictive theories of ethnic construction and change over time. This is the first dataset to contain demographic and socioeconomic information on large groups that are defined by shared ascriptive attributes, whether or not groups such are deemed ethnicities. This allows testing of theories that attempt to predict the relative salience of different attributes in determining how a society defines ethicity.

Publications

Note: Works are sole-authored unless otherwise noted in parentheses after title.

Books

Choosing an Identity: A General Model of Preference and Belief Formation (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001). Praise for book and back cover summary and comments. Reviews in Contemporary Sociology and American Journal of Sociology.

Advances in Social Computing (Sun-Ki Chai, John Salerno, and Patricia Mabry, eds.). (New York: Springer, 2010).

Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling and Prediction (John Salerno, Shanchieh Jay Yang, Dana Nau, Sun-Ki Chai, eds.) (new York: Springer, 2011).

Culture and Social Theory, (Sun-Ki Chai and Brendon Swedlow eds., collected writings by the late Aaron Wildavsky and associates). (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1998).

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

"Cultural Values and Behavior in Dictator, Ultimatum and Trust Games: An Experimental Study" (Sun-Ki Chai, Dolgorsuren Dorj, and Katerina Sherstyuk) Research in Experimental Economics, conditional acceptance with minor revisions, expected publication Fall 2018.

"Real-World Behavior Analysis through a Social Media Lens" (Mohammad-Ali Abbasi, Sun-Ki Chai, Huan Liu, and Kiran Sagoo) in Shanchieh Jay Yang, Ariel M. Greenberg, and Mica Endsley, Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling and Prediction V (New York: Springer-Verlag, 2012), 18-26.

"The Role of Culture in Public Goods and Other Experiments". (Sun-Ki Chai, Dolgorsuren Dorj, Kyle Hampton, and Ming Liu). PS: Political Science & Politics 44:4 (American Political Science Association, 2011), 740-744.

"Criminal Conflict as Collective Punishment" (Keisuke Nakao and Sun-Ki Chai), Economics of Peace and Security Journal 6:1 (January 2011), 4-11.

"Theories of Culture, Cognition and Action" in Ian Jarvie and Jesús Zamora-Bonilla (ed.), The Sage Handbook Of The Philosophy Of Social Science (London, Sage Publications, 2011), 487-496.

"Confucian Capitalism and the Paradox of Structural Holes in Asia" (Sun-Ki Chai and Mooweon Rhee), Management and Organization Review 6:1 (March 2010), 5-29.

"The Coherence Model of Preference and Belief Change" in Huan Liu (ed.), Social Computing, Behavioral Modeling, and Prediction II (New York: Springer-Verlag, 2009), 67-75.

"Cultural Comparisons of Beliefs and Values: Applying the Grid-Group Approach to the World Values Survey" (Sun-Ki Chai, Ming Liu, and Min Sun Kim), Beliefs and Values 1:2 (September 2009), 193-208.

"Social Computing: An Opportunity for Mathematical Sociologists". Mathematical Sociologist 12:2 (June 2009).

"Rational Choice Theory: A Forum for Exchange of Ideas between the Hard and Social Sciences in Predictive Behavioral Modeling" in Huan Liu, John J. Salerno, Michael J. Young (ed.), Social Computing, Behavioral Modeling, and Prediction (New York: Springer-Verlag, 2008), 1-9.

"Seperatism and Regionalist Movements during the Post-Colonial Period", in David H. Kaplan and Guntram H. Herb (ed.), Nations and Nationalism in Global Perspective: An Encyclopedia of Origins, Development, and Contemporary Transitions Vol. 4 (Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO, 2008), 1450-1462.

"Predicting Ethnic Boundaries", European Sociological Review 21:4 (September 2005), 375-391.

"Artificial Intelligence and Social Theory: A One-Way Street?", Perspectives 27:4 (American Sociological Association, October/November 2004), 11-12.

"A Theory of the State and Social Order" (Sun-Ki Chai and Michael Hechter), in Patrick Doreian and Thomas J. Fararo (ed.), The Problem of Solidarity: Theories and Models (New York: Gordon and Breach, 1998). Republished in the journal Homo Oeconomicus 15:1 (1998), 1-26.

"Cultural Change, Party Ideology and Electoral Outcomes" (Sun-Ki Chai and Aaron Wildavsky). In Chai and Swedlow (eds.), Culture and Social Theory (New Brunkswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers 1998), 299-316.

"Endogenous Ideology Formation and Economic Policy in Former Colonies", Economic Development and Cultural Change 46:2 (January 1998), 263-90.

"Entrenching the Yoshida Defense Doctrine: Three Techniques for Institutionalization", International Organization 51:3 (Summer 1997), 389-412.

"Rational Choice and Culture: Clashing Perspectives or Complementary Modes of Analysis?" in Richard Ellis and Michael Thompson (eds.), Culture Matters (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997), 45-56.

"A Theory of Ethnic Group Boundaries", Nations and Nationalism 2:2 (1996), 281-307.

"Culture, Rationality and Violence" (Sun-Ki Chai and Aaron Wildavsky). In Dennis J. Coyle and Richard J. Ellis (eds.), Politics, Culture and Policy: Applications of Cultural Theory (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994). Reprinted in Chai and Swedlow (ed.), Culture and Social Theory, 281-98.

"An Organizational Economics Theory of Anti-Government Violence", Comparative Politics 26:1 (October 1993), 99-110.

"Unsupervised Construction of Decision Networks for Pattern Classification" (R.G. Casey, S.K. Chai, and K.Y. Wong), Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Pattern Recognition, Montreal, Canada, July 1984.

Book Reviews

Erin K. Jenne, Ethnic Bargaining: The Paradox Of Minority Empowerment, Ethnic and Racial Studies 31:2 (February 2008), 435-436.

Susan Olzak, The Global Dynamics of Racial and Ethnic Mobilization, Contemporary Sociology 36:5 (September 2007), 489-491.

"Paradigms of Nationalism", a review of Anthony D. Smith, The Nation in History: Historiographical Debates about Ethnicity and Nationalism and The Antiquity of Nations, Review of Politics 69:2 (2007), 309-312.

Lucy M. Long (ed.), Culinary Tourism, Gastronomica 5:4 (November 2005), 121-122.

Ray Taras, Liberal and Illiberal Nationalisms and Andreas Wimmer, Nationalist Exclusion and Ethnic Conflict, Perspectives on Politics 2:1 (March 2004), 186-187.

Raymond Boudon, The Origin of Values, Contemporary Sociology 32:1 (January 2003), 116- 7.

Hans Joas, The Genesis of Values, Social Forces, 81:2 (December 2002), 683-4.

Jack Knight and Itai Sened, Understanding Social Institutions, Contemporary Sociology 29:2 (March 2000), 370-1.

Gerald Marwell and Pamela Oliver, The Critical Mass in Collective Action, Social Forces 75:1 (September 1996), 343-4.

Russell Hardin, One for All, and Mark Lichbach, The Rebel's Dilemma, Contemporary Sociology 25:3 (May 1996), 345-7.

Working Papers

"Does Religion and Ethnic Identity Influence Social Preferences? Evidence from Field Experiments in the Philippines" (Sun-Ki Chai, Katerina Sherstyuk, Catherine Eckel, and Rick Wilson).

"Endogenous Preference Change and Group Behavior In Experiments" (Sun-Ki Chai, Dolgorsuren Dorj, and Katerina Sherstyuk).

"Grid-Group Cultural Theory and Behavior in Voluntary Contributions Public Goods Experiments" (Sun-Ki Chai, Dolgorsuren Dorj, and Katerina Sherstyuk).

"Predicting Cultural Values via Analysis of User-Generated Online Content" (Sun-Ki Chai, Dolgorsuren Dorj, and Ming Liu).

"Cultural Indicators of Economic Development: Comparison between Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions and the Grid/Group Index" (Ming Liu, Sun-Ki Chai, and Min-Sun Kim).

"Explaining Social Order and Norms of Cooperation: Nested Hierarchies".

"Culture, Rationality and Economic Institutions in East Asia: The Chinese Family Firm" (Sun-Ki Chai and Ming Liu).

"Searching for Web Communities Through Social Dependence and Mimesis-based Link and Content Analysis" (Kar-Hai Chu, David Chin, and Sun-Ki Chai).

"Social Norms: Their Creation, Deliberation, and Internalization in Light of Coherence Theory".

"Rational Choice: Positive, Normative, and Interpretive".

"The Varieties of Rational Choice Theory and the Future of Sociology".

Textbook Prospectus and Outline

Theories of Social Change and Development: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Prospectus, extensive outline and notes (approx. 180 pages) for fundamentally new approach to upper-division undergraduate social change, development, and globalization studies that organizes areas of study across academic disciplines by foci on common causal and outcome variables.

Policy Working Paper

"Diversifying Hawai`i's Economy". Describes how the current disillusionment over prospects for economic diversification can be overcome by a shift in paradigm from short-term solutions to a long-term vision of Hawaii's dynamic comparative advantages, with a special focus on human capital, preemptive leveraging of social change, and awareness of forward and backward linkages in the economy.

Invited Lectures, Keynotes, Tutorials, Panels, Presentations

Panel Presentation, "Development of the Discipline: Political Science in the Next 20 Years", Workshop on the Development of Political Science, Waseda University School of Political Science and Economics, Yokohama, Japan, February 16, 2016.

Lecture, Social Media And Anti-government Social Movements in East and Southeast Asia 2013-2015: Application of Four Innovations in Social Media Analysis and Behavioral Prediction", School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering, Arizona State University, December 15, 2015.

Keynote, Predicting Cultural Values via Analysis of User-Generated Online Conten (Sun-Ki Chai, Min-Sun Kim, Dolgosuren Dorj, Ming Liu), IEEE International Conference on Cyber, Physical, and Social Computing (CPSCom), Dalian, China, October 21, 2011.

Panel, Research Directions and Opportunities in Cyber, Physical, and Social Computing, IEEE International Conference on Cyber, Physical, and Social Computing, (CPSCom-2011), Hangzhou, China, December 19, 2010.

Lecture, "Online Content Analysis: Faster, Cheaper, and Less Intrusive Alternative to Surveys", Department of Public Affairs, Government of Singapore, Singapore, October 22, 2010.

Lecture, "Integrating Social Theories to find Information on Virtual Communities", Temasek Labs, Singapore National University, Singapore, October 21, 2010.

Panel, "Mathematical Sociology and Social Computing: Is the Marriage Possible?", Panel on The Next Steps in Mathematical Sociology, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, August 17, 2010.

Lecture, "The CLASSIC Web Crawler", Social Network Mining Research Center, Singapore Management University, Singapore, June 29, 2010. Representatives from Singapore Department of Defense, National

Lecture, The CLASSIC Social Web Crawler", Graduate School of Convergent Science and Technology, Seoul National University, Suwon, Korea, June 17, 2010.

Keynote, "Hawaii Sociology: Past, Present, and Future", Hawai`i Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Honolulu HI, February 13, 2010.

Tutorial, "The Social Science Approach to Web Mining" (Sun-Ki Chai, David Chin, Scott Robertson, Kar-Hai Chu, and Aaron Herres), IEEE Social Computing Conference, Vancouver, British Columbia, August 29-31, 2009.

Presentation, "Web Analyst: Software for Solving Real-World Problems by Understanding Virtual Communities", Workshop on Trustworthy Social Computing, Davis, California, July 20-21, 2009.

Presentation, "Software for Locating and Analyzing Virtual Communities, with Ethnic and Health-Related Case Studies" (Sun-Ki Chai and Mooweon Rhee), Inter-University Mathematical Sociology Association, Seoul, June 6, 2009.

Presentation, "A Coherence Model of Preference and Belief Change", International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral Modeling and Prediction, Phoenix, Arizona, March 31-April 1, 2009.

Lecture, ""Using Software to Model Cultural Change and Political Violence", Task Force Against Political Violence, Department of Justice of Republic of the Philippines, Manila, November 14, 2008. Representatives from the embassies of Malaysia, Indonesia, US, Australia, and Japan in attendance.

Lecture, "Addressing Political Violence through Computer Modeling", National Defense College of the Philippines, Quezon City, November 15, 2008. Co-sponsored by the Philippine Council on Islam and Democracy.

Keynote, "Rational Choice Theory: A Forum for Exchange of Ideas between the Hard and Social Sciences in Predictive Behavioral Modeling"", International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral Modeling and Prediction, Phoenix, May 1-2, 2008.

Refereed Conference Presentations

"Social Theory, Intentionality, Machine Learning, and Predicting Human Action", SBP-BRiMS 2017, Washington DC, July 5-8, 2017.

"Cultural Values and Behavior in Dictator, Ultimatum Bargaining and Trust Games", with Dolgorsuren Dorj, Min Sun Kim, Ming Liu, Katerina Sherstyuk, Economic Science Association Annual Meeting, Washington D.C., June 25-28, 2009.

"Grid/Group Cultural Theory and Behavior in Computer-Mediated Experiments", Fourth Joint Japan-North America Mathematical Sociology Conference, Redondo Beach, California, May 29-June 1, 2008.

"A Formal Cultural Model of the Structural-Hole Thesis", with Mooweon Rhee, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, New York, August 11-14, 2007.

"Nested Hierarchies and Norms of Cooperation in Organizations", Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics Annual Meeting, Trier, Germany, June 30-July 2, 2006.

"Rational Choice: Positive, Normative, and Interpretive", Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics Annual Meeting, Trier, Germany, June 30-July 2, 2006.

"Formal Modeling and Simulation of Cultural Differences", International Communication Association Annual Conference, Dresden, Germany, June 19-23, 2006.

"Rational Choice: Positive, Normative, and Interpretive", American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, August 13-16, 2005.

"Culture, Rationality. and the Generation of Economic Cooperation in East Asia", with Ming Liu, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, August 13-16, 2005.

"Mathematical Models of Culture and Rational Action: An Integrated Software System", Third Joint Japan-North America Mathematical Sociology Conference, Sapporo, Japan, June 24-26, 2005.

"Web Analyst: Algorithms for Locating and Analyzing Virtual Social Networks on the World Wide Web", Third Joint Japan-North America Mathematical Sociology Conference, Sapporo, Japan, June 24-26, 2005.

"A New Network Analysis of the Web", Mathematical Sociology / Rationality and Society American Sociological Association Section Joint Conference, San Francisco, August 18, 2004.

"A General Theory of Social Norms: Their Creation, Deliberation, and Internalization", American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, August 14-17, 2004.

"A Grid-Group Model of Intercultural Health Communication", International Communication Association Annual Conference, New Orleans, May 27-31, 2004.

"Culturally Sensitive Modeling" (with Alexander Stoyen), United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Workshop on Culture and Personality in Models of Adversarial Decision-Making, McLean, Virginia, November 13-14, 2003.

"The Many Flavors Of Rational Choice And The Fate Of Sociology", ASA Section on Rationality and Society Conference on The Social Aspect of Rationality, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, August 16-19, 2003.

"Measuring a Virtual Community: Applying a New Empirical Technology to the World Wide Web", American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, August 16-19, 2003.

"A Positive Theory of Ethnic Boundaries", American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, August 16-19, 2003.

"The Many Flavors Of Rational Choice And The Fate Of Sociology", Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics Annual Meeting, Aix-en-Provence, France, June 26-28, 2003.

"Culture, Rationality and Economic Institutions in East Asia", Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics Annual Meeting, Aix-en-Provence, France, June 26-28, 2003.

"Network Ties in a Virtual Community: A Study of Korean Culture Web Sites", Asian Studies Association - Pacific Coast Annual Meeting, Honolulu, June 19-22, 2003.

"Applying a General Model of Preference and Belief Formation," Conference on Preferences, Choice and Uncertainty, UC Davis, Davis, California, May 18-19, 2001.

"Explaining Norms of Cooperation," American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Washington DC, August 12-16, 2000.

"Rationality, Culture, and the Formation of Economic Institutions in East Asia: The Case of the Chinese Family Firm," American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, August 6-10, 1999.

"Predicting Ethnic Group Boundaries," American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, August 21-25, 1998.

Panel Discussion on "Comparative Politics and Rational Choice Theory", Western Political Science Assocation Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, March 19-21, 1998.

"Culture, Rationality and the Formation of Economic Institutions," World Congress of the International Political Science Association, Seoul, Aug. 17-21, 1997.

"Cultural Theory, Rational Choice and Political Analysis," American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 1996.

"Nested Hierarchy, Dependence and Institutions of Cooperation" (Sun-Ki Chai and Michael Hechter), American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, Aug. 31-Sept. 3, 1995.

"A Theory of Social Order" (Sun-Ki Chai and Michael Hechter), American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Washington DC, August 19-23, 1995.

"A Regret-Dissonance Model of Preference and Belief Formation," American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Washington DC, August 19-23, 1995.

"The Origins of Relationally-Based Cooperative Capitalism in the China Circle." Conference on the China Circle: Regional Consequences of Evolving Relations among the PRC, Taiwan and the Hong Kong-Macao, held in Hong Kong, December 8-10, 1994.

"Institutionalizing the Yoshida Defense Doctrine: The Role of Structure, Focal Points and Ideology," Workshop on Conflict, Cooperation and Multilateralism in Asia and the Pacific Rim, held at Institute of Asian Research, University of British Columbia, March 18-20, 1994.

"The Origins of Ethnic Group Identification," American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Washington DC, September 2-5, 1993.

"The Origin of Economic Policy in Ex-Colonies: A Cognitive-Rational Theory" American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, September 3-6, 1992.

"An Organizational Theory of Underground Revolutionary Violence," American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, September 3-6, 1992.

Service

Professional Service

Academic Conferences and Workshops

Organizing Committee Chair and Steering Committee Member, IEEE International Conference Social Computing (SocialCom2011), Honolulu, July 28-31, 2011.

Organizing Committee Co-Chair and Steering Committee Member, Social Computing, Behavioral Modeling, and Prediction Conference (SBP11), College Park, MD, April 28-31, 2011.

Program Committee Co-Chair, ACM/IEEE Conference on Cyber, Physical and Social Computing (CPSCom2010), Hangzhou, China, Oct. 31-Nov. 2, 2010.

Workshops Chair and Organizing Committee Member, IEEE Internatioanl Conference on Social Computing (SocialCom2010), Minneapolis, August 20-22, 2010.

Organizer of Workshop on Social Science and Social Computing: Steps to Integration, Honolulu, May 22-23, 2010.

Program Committee Co-Chair and Steering Committee Member, Social Computing, Behavioral Modeling, and Prediction Conference (SBP10), Washington DC, April 28-May 1, 2010. Steering and Program Committee member, SBP09, Phoenix, March 31-April 1, 2009. Program Committee member, SBP08, Phoenix, April 1-2, 2008.

Organizating Committee and Panel/Tutorial Committee Chair, IEEE Conference on Social Computing (SocialCom2009), Vancouver, August 29-31, 2009. Workshop/Panel/Tutorial Co-chair, SocialCom2010, Minneapolis, August 19-22, 2010.

Co-organizer of Workshop on Theoretical Frontiers in Modeling Identity and Conflict, Honolulu, November 8-9, 2008.

Session Organizer for regular session on Nations and Nationalism at the American Sociological Association Meeting, San Francisco, August 14-17, 2004.

Member of Program Committee for the Pacific Sociological Association Meeting, San Francisco, April 16-18, 1998. Organizer, Chair and Discussant of Panel on Sociology in Development Theory and Practice.

Organized Panel on Political and Economic Reform in East Asia for meeting of the Northern California Political Scientists Association, Santa Clara, California, May 14-15, 1994.

Journal Refereeing


American Sociological Review (nine times)
American Political Science Review (two times)
American Journal of Sociology (two times)
Journal of Mathematical Sociology (once)
Comparative Studies in Society and History (once)
Korean Studies (twice)
Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory (once)
IEEE Intelligent Systems (once + r/r)
Management and Organization Review (twice + r/r)
User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction (once)

Grant Referee Panels


NSF Cyber-enabled Discovery and Innovation, Arlington, Virginia, May 6-7, 2010.
NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates, Arlington, Virginia, November 19-20, 2009.

Other Professional Service

Member, International Advisory Committee, Experimental Social Science Laboratory, National Chengchi University, Taiwan, Fall 2009-present.

Member of the Awards Commitee of the Pacific Sociological Association, 2005-2008.

University Service

Student Guidance

Cumulative from Fall 2001-present: Member 39 PhD committees, chair of 8. Member of 17 MA committees, chair of 9. Of those 14 PhDs completed degrees, chair of one. 13 MAs completed their degrees chair of 7.

Departmental

Sociology Department Personnel Committee Chair, Fall 2015-present.

Sociology Department Graduate Studies Chair, Fall 2005-Spring 2008. Wrote department's first comprehensive graduate program document: integrated, reconciled, and clarified existing policy documents; codified unwritten de facto department norms; removed outdated policy statements from old documents; met with faculty and graduate students to establish consensus on contents of program document; placed on website in hyperlinked section-divided format as as a single downloadable document. Designed general-track terminal MA Plan B degree, codifying requirements for MA for those not moving on to PhD track. Wrote first formal set of requirements for transfer from , initiated changes in qualifying review committee and research paper requirements.

Sociology Department East Asia Studies Group. Made the following presentations: "Software for Locating and Analyzing Virtual Communities, with a Korean-American Case Study", April 8, 2009; "Is the Structural Hole Thesis Culturally Parochial? A Choice-Theoretic Formal Approach" (paper with Mooweon Rhee), October 10, 2008; "Solving the problem of East Asian Economic Distinctiveness", February 22, 2006.

Sociology Department Undergraduate Studies Committee, Fall 2004-Spring 2005.

Supervisor, Undergraduate Individual Tutoring Project, Fall 2004. Hired and supervising two undergraduate tutors for use in assisting students in introductory sociology course. Interface with instructors of introductory sociology courses to identify at-risk students and to direct them to tutoring resources.

Online Course Development, Sociology Department, Fall 2003-Spring 2005. Moved large Sociology 100 unit mastery course to online format; supervised transition of course to web-based examination system. Supervised further efforts to move course completely online, hired part-time graders for post.

Advisor, Undergraduate Sociology Club and Alpha Kappa Delta honor society, Fall 2003-Spring 2005. Fall 2009-Present. Organized student workshop on Careers in Sociology, November 21, 2003. Organizing student leadership group for Fall 2004.

Sociology Department Website Committee Chair and Webmaster, Fall 2003-Spring 2008. Primary responsibility for programming, design, and writing of content for department website.

Sociology Department Graduate Studies Committee, Fall 2002-Spring 2008 (Fall 2005-Spring 2008 as Graduate Chair), Fall 2013-present.

Organized Sociology Department colloquium on Recently Published Books, September 10, 2001.

Extradeparmental

Member/Alternate, Social Sciences Panel, Institutional Review Board (Committee on Human Studies), Summer 2009-Present.

Member, Asian Languages Faculty Search Committee, Spring 2010.

Member, Excellence in Research Award Screening Committee, College of Social Sciences, Spring 2008.

Member, Excellence in Teaching Award Screening Committee, College of Social Sciences, Spring 2006, Spring 2007.

Member, College of Social Science Research Council, Social Science Research Institute, Fall 2005-present.

Member, Manoa Academic Assessment Council, Office of Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Fall 2005-Fall 2006.

Associate Member, Center for Korean Studies, School of Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific Studies, Fall 2004-present. Member of Outreach Committee, Fall 2006-present.

President, Korean Faculty Association, Fall 2007-Spring 2008. Co-Secretary/Treasurer, Fall 2004-Spring 2007.

Coordinator, Website Development Commitee, Public Policy Center, April 2003-May 2005. Engaged in planning and implementation; devised ideas and provided content for "Sustainable Hawaii" general-purpose resource site on Hawai`i public policy issues. Founded and maintain State of Hawai`i's only online forum devoted to the discussion of public policy issues.

Co-coordinator (with Judith Inazu), Professional Development Committee, Public Policy Center, College of Social Sciences, Fall 2003-present. Organized interdisciplinary workshops for Social Science faculty on special interest areas. Presented a PPC workshop on finding academic information on the internet, Feburary 26, 2003.

Interview Committee for Program Coordinator, Office of Multicultural Student Services, January 2005.

Interview Committee for Grant Specialist, Social Science Research Institute, March 2004.

Public Policy Center, First Annual Conference. Sustainable Policies: Developing Policy Issues and Program Actions for a Sustainable Hawai`i, April 24-25, 2003. Helped to organize and wrote issue paper for session on Hawai`i's Economy.

Global Studies Program, Sustainable Communities: Policies and Practices to Ensure Sustainability in a Globalizing World, November 21, 2003. Participated in panel discussion that filmed for broadcast via the internet.

Presider, Panel on Refugee And People Mobility at 4th East-West Center International Graduate Student Conference, February 17-19, 2005.

Moderator, Panel on Social Movements in Asia at Hawaii Sociological Association Conference, Honolulu, February 12, 2005.

Moderator, Panel on Democratization and Electoral Competition in Taiwan, North American Taiwan Studies Association 10th Annual Conference, East-West Center, Honolulu, June 17-20, 2004.

Guest Lecturer on Building Research Agendas, HON 495, Introduction to Research, October 21, 2003.

Presider, Panel on The Colonial Encounter at joint 2nd East-West Center International Graduate Student Conference and 14th Annual SHAPS Graduate Student Conference, February 20-22, 2003.

Discussant, East West-Center Conference on Institutional Change in Japan: Why it Happens, Why it Doesn't, East-West Center, Honolulu, January 5-6, 2003.

Community Service

Presentation, "Web Analyst: Software for Solving Real-World Problems by Understanding Virtual Communities" (Sun-Ki Chai, David Chin, Aaron Herres, Dong-Wan Kang), UH Office of Technology Transfer and Economic Development Showcase, July 2nd, 2009, Banker's Club, Honolulu.

Presentation, "Web Analysis Research at the University of Hawaii" (Sun-Ki Chai, Aaron Herres, Dong-Wan Kang), UH Business Plan and Technology Showcase, April 30, 2009. The Plaza Club, Honolulu.

Presentation, "Is The Structural-Hole Thesis Culturally Parochial?" (Sun-Ki Chai and Mooweon Rhee), 2005-2007 Center for International Business Education Research Projects, February 28, 2008, Shidler Business College.

Participant in panel on "The Digital Divide" in Hawaii at Telecom 2005, the annual conference of the Hawaii Telecommunications Association, October 27, 2005, Sheraton Waikiki Hotel, Oahu. Described sociocultural aspects of digital divide that go beyond access to technology.

Participant in panel on "Social Networking Hawaiian Style" in 2nd Annual Online Conference on Social Networks, February 14-23, 2005. Convened by Group Jazz and Rheingold Associates, the two most prominent private companies devoted to research on the social implications of internet.

Participation, The Manoa Forum, October 1-3, 2004, Turtle Bay Resort, Oahu. Three-day retreat designed to bring together University Scholars with leading members of the local community to discuss important issues of interest to Hawai`i's society.

Presentation, UoP High Technology Speaker Series: Using Computers to Model Culture - Is It Possible? Wednesday, September 29, 2004, 12-1 PM, University of Phoenix Honolulu Campus. Part of a highly popular speaker series designed to bring together community members and representatives of the high technology world in business and government.

Guest Interview, Roughtake radio program, KORL Radio. September 21, 2004, 6-7pm. Free-form discussion of society, culture, and food in Hawai`i.

"Finding New Perspectives for a Sustainable Hawai`i Economy", University of Hawai`i Public Policy Center and Global Studies Program Joint Panel on Sustatinable Community: Politics and Practice to Ensure Sustainability in a Globablizing World, November 7, 2003. Reconvened for videotaping November 17, 2003.

Coordinator, eGullet.com Hawai`i Forum. Local branch of the world's largest food-related website and online community. November 2003-June 2005. Featured in March 2, 2004 issue of Honolulu Advertiser ("Bytemarks" column). Named "perhaps Hawai`i's best food blog" by Honolulu Weekly.

Other Employment

Summer 1989 Analyst, Strategic Research Branch, Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, California. Research on semiconductor policy in East Asian newly industrializing countries.
Summer 1988 Researcher, Communications Research Laboratory, Korea Advanced Institute for Science and Technology, Seoul, Korea. Wrote algorithms for speech recognition system.
June 1986-Feb. 1987Newspaper Reporter, West Hawaii Today, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. Covered politics and business, occasional editorials.
July 1985-June 1986Educational Media Specialist, Kapiolani Community College, Honolulu, Hawaii. Helped to develop computer-based curriculum for courses. Half-time position.
Dec. 1984-June 1985Systems Programmer, Straub Clinic, Honolulu, Hawaii. Helped to maintain medical records database.
June 1982-June 1984Researcher, IBM Research Center, San Jose, California. Wrote algorithms for optical character recognition system, including primary algorithm for two publications listed in previous section. Part-time during school year and full-time during summer.