Thousands of miles from Seattle, Ian Oates puts his Jackson School training to work every day in the U.S. Embassy in Dili, Timor-Leste. Oates earned his M.A. in International Studies – Korea in 2021 and now serves as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Foreign Service.
“The Jackson School provided a competitive environment of intellectual expression and diverse experience, which sharpened my abilities to work with multinational teams in intense situations,” Oates, who joined the Foreign Service in 2024, said. “My M.A. refined my analytical skills to succeed within the demanding environment of the Department of State and the field of diplomacy more broadly.”
Before coming to Seattle, Oates taught English in North Chungcheong, South Korea. He returned to the U.S. ready to understand the region at a deeper level and to build a career working across cultures.
“Teaching English in Korea sparked my interest in furthering my own education, and more deeply understanding the environment in which I had been teaching,” he said, adding that he decided to come to the Jackson School since it “offer[ed] the academic rigor I was in search of.”
At the Jackson School, Oates dove into the history and political economy of East Asia with a focus on the Korean Peninsula. He coordinated research under Center for Korea Studies Director and Professor Yong-Chool Ha, helped run the 2019 and 2020 Korea Peninsula Forums, and stepped into scholarly debates as a discussant on wartime sexual slavery in the Pacific.
“You may not arrive at the Jackson School with a personally-defined course of study, but it will bring out the best in your intellectual exploration, honing your curiosities and guiding you towards success,” Oates said.
Oates then returned to the Jackson School in 2022, where he served as interim associate director of the Center for Korea Studies and the program coordinator for the Taiwan Studies Program until he joined the Foreign Service.
“Much like the histories and peoples studied at the Jackson School, being a part of its legacy is heartening and complex,” Oates said. “Like the scholars who work within the Jackson School’s halls past and present, I can only hope to build upon the positive foundation established before me.”
Applications for the Jackson School’s M.A. programs are due January 31, 2027. The six open programs include:
- (NEW THIS YEAR) European, Russian and Eurasian Studies
- Comparative Religion
- East Asia Studies (China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan tracks)
- International Studies
- South Asia Studies
- Southeast Asian Studies
Questions? Email jsisma@uw.edu.
