Peter Banseok Kwon is an Assistant Professor in the Department of East Asian Studies at the University at Albany, SUNY. He previously held the Soon Young Kim Postdoctoral Fellowship in Korean Studies at Harvard University, where he also earned his Ph.D. in History and East Asian Languages (specializing in modern Korean history) and his Master's in Regional Studies-East Asia.

His research interests include the history of the Korean defense industry, military-civilian relations, and the dynamics between authoritarian politics and civil society in East Asia. His scholarly contributions have been featured in The Journal of Asian Studies, The Journal of Korean Studies, National Interest, East Asia Forum, Korea Journal, Seoul Journal of Korean Studies, and The Journal of Social History.

Dr. Kwon has held positions as an Associate Researcher at the Korea Institute at Harvard University and the Institute of Korean Studies at Yonsei University, as an adjunct policy researcher in the Department of Defense and Political Sciences at RAND Corporation, and as a visiting researcher at the Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies at Seoul National University.

His research has been supported by multiple grants and fellowships, including the 2023 Korean Studies Grant from the Academy of Korean Studies, the Publication Support Grant from the Association for Asian Studies, the FLAS Dissertation Overseas Grant from the US Department of Education, and the Junior Researcher Fellowship from the Academy of Korean Studies. As a Fulbright scholar, Dr. Kwon will serve as a visiting professor at Korea National Defense University in South Korea for the academic year 2024-2025.