Saadia Pekkanen

Contact
- smp1@uw.edu
- (206) 543-6148
- (206) 685-0668
- Thomson Hall 437
- https://saadiapekkanen.com
About
Saadia M. Pekkanen is the Job and Gertrud Tamaki Endowed Professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. She earned Master’s degrees from Columbia University and Yale Law School, and a doctorate from Harvard University in political science. She is the founding Co-director of the Space Policy and Research Center (SPARC); and the founding Director of the Qualitative Multi-Methods Program (QUAL).
She works at the intersection of international relations and international law, specializing in the commercial, legal, and security policies shaping outer space affairs. She also investigates contemporary geopolitical change through the lens of infrastructure investment in maritime ports. Her regional expertise is in the foreign affairs of Japan and Asia, engaging broader themes of states, strategy, and governance in the world order. She is interested in the teaching and practice of qualitative methods, and in leveraging their significance for big data studies in the social sciences.
Education
- Yale Law School, Master of Studies in Law (M.S.L.), 2004
- Harvard University, Department of Government, Ph.D. in Political Science, 1996
- University of Michigan, Summer Training Program, Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), Diploma in Quantitative Methods of Social Research, 1995
- Inter-University Center for Japanese Language (IUC), Diploma in Japanese, Tokyo, Japan, 1993
- Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), Masters in International Affairs (M.I.A.), 1988
- Richmond University, B.A. (Honors), London, England, 1986
Selected Courses
- JSIS 310 Data ethnography and qualitative methods
- JSIS 495 Task Force: Preventing Disasters in Outer Space
- JSIS 598 Peace, Violence, and Security Seminar
- JSIS A 437 International Relations of Japan
- JSIS A 548 National Security of Japan
- JSIS B 444 Space Law And Policy
- LAW E 549 International Investment Law and Practice
Selected Publications
The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Politics
Publication type:
Book
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Publication Date:
2022
Asian Designs -Governance in the Contemporary World Order
Publication type:
Book
Publisher:
Cornell University Press
Publication Date:
2016
The Oxford Handbook of the International Relations of Asia
Publication type:
Book
Co-Editor(s):
John Ravenhill and Rosemary Foot
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Publication Date:
2014
In Defense of Japan -From the Market to the Military in Space Policy
Publication type:
Book
Co-Author(s):
Paul Kallender-Umezu
Publisher:
Stanford University Press
Publication Date:
2010
Japan’s Aggressive Legalism -Law and Foreign Trade Politics Beyond the WTO
Publication type:
Book
Publisher:
Stanford University Press
Publication Date:
2008
Japan and China in the World Political Economy
Publication type:
Book
Co-Editor(s):
Kellee Tsai
Publisher:
Routledge
Publication Date:
2005
Picking Winners? -From Technology Catch-up to the Space Race in Japan
Publication type:
Book
Publisher:
Stanford University Press
Publication Date:
2003