The short story is that Jaehyun Lee is interested in philosophical questions. But there's a longer tale, too.

After growing up in South Korea, she took a gap year and visited her older sister, who was already studying in Türkiye, for a few months. Lee fell in love with the country and decided to follow her sibling there for undergrad.

"I originally wanted to study math," she says. "I ended up applying to a bunch of schools in Türkiye and then realized my top-choice school didn't admit international students in the math department."

She figured that philosophy might scratch a similar itch. "I've always enjoyed philosophical debates, so I just applied. And then I got in and ended up loving it." After finishing her bachelor's degree in philosophy at Boğaziçi University, in Istanbul, she knew she wanted to remain in academia, doing research and teaching at a college level.

To do so, it made the most sense to continue her studies in the U.S., but "there aren't many departments that provide this much focus in the area that I was interested in." UCI's Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science (LPS) was uniquely appropriate.

UCI has two philosophy departments that grant Ph.D.s: the Department of Philosophy, housed in the School of Humanities, and LPS, in the School of Social Sciences. While there is some overlap between the two departments, the 25 or so Ph.D. students in the highly ranked LPS department tend toward questions that have to do with the natural sciences, mathematics, and of course, logic. "These questions are philosophical, foundational, or theoretical in character," says Lauren N. Ross, Dean's Professor and Chancellor's Fellow in LPS. (The Philosophical Gourmet Report, which reviews English-language graduate philosophy programs, has ranked five of LPS's subfields as number one in their respective categories, and another four in the top five.)

In 2021, Lee started a Ph.D. with a specialization in general philosophy of science, a field that interrogates the process of scientific inquiry from a philosophical perspective. Broadly speaking, the field can cover ethical issues, as well as epistemology—the theory of knowledge—and metaphysics, which concerns the fundamental nature of reality and being. Lee's research centers on issues of explanation when it comes to social science: How do social structures explain various social phenomena?

One social phenomenon began to pique her interest while she was an international student living in Türkiye. As a person of Asian descent growing up in South Korea, Lee had never really experienced bias based on her racial identity. "Everyone's Asian, and being an Asian isn't a 'thing' there," she says. "Whereas living here or living in Türkiye, you begin to realize that this is a social category that's conferred to you by other people. And it becomes a real thing."

Social scientists refer to various social structures to explain inequities, she says. Her research zeros in on how different types of social structures might actually provide different kinds of explanations for those inequities. For example, one of her dissertation chapters focuses on social conventions such as racial stereotypes and gender norms and how they might provide insight into disparities in speech.

"Jaehyun is a good fit for LPS because her work captures clear principles behind scientific reasoning, and she uses these to provide guidance in challenging cases," says Ross, Lee's advisor. "She has an eye for identifying unique explanatory patterns and reasoning strategies."

Ross, whose areas of interest align with Lee's, has been the perfect mentor. "Lauren Ross has been very, very supportive of my work," says Lee. "She has been a great help at every stage. It was in her graduate seminar that I became interested in scientific explanations in the first place, and particularly explanations in social sciences. Many of my research ideas came from discussions with her, and she has helped me improve those ideas."

Lee has also worked with other professors within the department, who have provided feedback on her writing, given professional development advice, and provided teaching mentorship. They, too, have been extremely encouraging. "My experience with all the faculty has been amazing," she says.

In turn, Lee gives back to the department, helping to organize an annual development program the department runs. Directed by Ross, the weeklong summer program aims to attract a more diverse array of grad students.

Lee plans to defend her dissertation in the spring of 2027. After she does, she wants to stay the course. "I'm hoping to stay in academia and get a faculty position in philosophy. I'm really passionate about teaching, and I love researching."

-Alison Van Houten for UCI Social Sciences
-photo by Luis Fonseca, UCI Social Sciences