Richard Haddock, MA Asian Studies, Class of 2017, #ElliottProud Alumni
Richard J. Haddock is the Program Associate for the East Asia National Resource Center (NRC), where he manages a multi-year U.S. Department of Education grant project designed to enhance learning resources on contemporary issues in East Asia. In this role, Richard manages the strategic and day-to-day activities of the NRC. He holds an M.A. in Asian Studies from the Elliott School of International Affairs, and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Central Florida. With a strong interest in cultural exchange and public service, Richard has worked with the U.S. Department of State in several different capacities, including at the American Institute in Taiwan, and has studied abroad in China and Taiwan throughout his academic career.
Describe your current position and what have you learned since being in the position?
I am currently serving as the Program Associate for GW’s East Asia National Resource Center – a grant-based project supported by the U.S. Department of Education (ED). I serve as the lead program manager in my current role, and am responsible for shaping the strategic outlook of our project, designing and overseeing the implementation of our project’s activities, creating our project’s monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, and submitting our annual reports to ED. I also manage our team’s digital deliverables such as our podcast, host public seminars, and travel to related conferences.
One of the most important lessons I have learned (and still am learning) is how to learn when managing a project. I find that it is seldom the case that a grant project does not have to change or adapt from its original proposal, and our team is no exception. Being able to adapt to a variety of circumstances and stakeholder needs while still carrying out the spirit of the grant has had its challenges, but also its rewarding moments. It is important for project teams not to lose sight of what was the original goal of a project and the intended outcomes, and what type of changes are necessary along the way to fulfill that purpose. Within that frame of reference, I am also learning how to build up a supportive and creative atmosphere for team members to feel confident in their work and distribute leadership horizontally.
I also have the chance to continue learning about foreign affairs and current issues in East Asia through my work. My academic focus throughout undergraduate and graduate study has been comparative politics in East Asia, so I am quite fortunate that my current job allows me to tap into my academic interests. Because of the nature of our work, I am able to interact with and learn from scholars and experts from around the world on all sorts of interesting subjects. For example, our team hosts a podcast on current issues in East Asia, and we were lucky enough to interview Taiwan’s Digital Minister Audrey Tang for a conversation about digital democracy globally and in the Taiwan context. I am indeed quite fortunate that I work in a place where I can still actively learn about many different subjects.
What professional organization, websites, or events would you recommend for students interested in your field, and why?
I would describe my field to be at the intersection of research and policymaking with a focus on East Asia, and the DC area fortunately has an abundance of organizations that are involved in that space. There are several prominent think tanks that became important learning resources for me as a student, and still are resources to me today. For students who are interested in this space, I would suggest looking into the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR), the Center for International and Strategic Studies (CSIS) – I follow its China Power Project quite often – and the Brookings Institution. The Congressional Research Service is also a great resource and their publications are made free and available to the public. As I am most specifically interested in Taiwan affairs, there are also some think tanks in addition to the ones mentioned above that I actively follow, including the Global Taiwan Institute (GTI) and the Project 2049 Institute. The think tanks mentioned above regularly produce written content and reports on subjects pertaining to international affairs in East Asia that are typically available digitally and for free, and they also host or are involved in public events around town. They are still producing content and learning opportunities even amidst the ongoing health crisis. In fact, the Hudson Institute hosted a livestream event about Taiwan’s responses to COVID-19 that featured remarks from Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, definitely worth checking out if you are interested.
I would also be remiss if I did not highlight some of the resources based at Elliott School that helped me as a student. The Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the GW Institute for Korean Studies constitute the Elliott School’s center of gravity for East Asian studies. Both host regular events for the public, and sometimes events exclusively for students, on a myriad of subjects related to Asia. For those Taiwan watchers out there, the Sigur Center hosts two Taiwan Conferences and two Taiwan Roundtables each year (usually two in the spring and two in the fall) to bring together scholars, experts, and public officials to discuss Taiwan-related topics. Lastly, my own team at the East Asia National Resource Center also conducts public events, and as mentioned above a new podcast series specially on current issues in East Asia. All of our centers also regularly post work and scholarship opportunities for students, so stay tune to our website and subscribe to our mailing lists to stay updated.
What was your favorite Elliott School course and why?
It is incredibly difficult to select a single favorite course, because honestly all of the content courses that caught my attention have been fulfilling in distinct ways, and the East Asia faculty at the Elliott School is quite strong. One of the most memorable courses to me was Robert Sutter’s course on Taiwan: Internal Developments and Foreign Policy. His course immediately caught my attention even as I was applying to the Elliott School, and his work was one reason why I became motivated to dive more deeply into Taiwan affairs through graduate study. His course was the first class I signed up for when I was admitted into the Elliott School, so it became the foundation on which I conceptualized my graduate experience. The readings were substantial, and work required for the course had its unique rigor, but I was exposed to an incredible amount of new knowledge. Professor Sutter also facilitates an in-class simulation in which he divides the course into teams representing various groups involved in Taiwan’s domestic and foreign policy to engage in a series of public statements and policy formulations about a particular crisis or issue. He encouraged me to dive deep into my role, and I thought that the simulation was one of the most memorable activities in all of my academic experience. That course confirmed to me that I chose well in coming to the Elliott School.
What part of your career do you find most challenging and how do you stay motivated?
The team I am a part of is quite new – we started our work in early 2019 – so it has somewhat of a startup work culture. As such, many of the challenges we have faced as a group are related to establishing our project, perhaps described as the “growing pains” of a new project team. Sometimes we did not have a clear idea about what activities in our grant would look like, or how best should we go about conducting outreach to our target stakeholders. This aspect of “brand development” can be stressful, because we may think we are producing interesting content but if we have no followers or vested stakeholders, our work would go unnoticed. So our team finds itself having to be advocates in addition to content specialists, and having to divide our bandwidth in such a way can be taxing. Combined with the current health situation, which has curtailed many of our planned activities, it can feel sometimes as if our work does not have the reach or impact that we would like to see. What keep me motivated are my passion for the project, and the colleagues that I work with.
Having a strong interest and motivation for one’s work is a crucial professional asset in my view, because it helps maintain your drive and rhythm despite hardships. My work resonates with my professional and personal interests, such as improving accessibility of East Asian resources and career opportunities in international affairs for historically marginalized communities, and encouraging critical discourse in schools and across the general public about world affairs. Being able to share that motivation with a group of colleagues who feel similarly driven to see the project through helps make facing the challenges worthwhile. One example of how we face such challenges is how we are dealing with the current health situation. Despite our team moving to remote work and cancelling several events, we are thinking of ways to create virtual engagement opportunities to carry out our project, including this webinar we conducted with UC Berkeley on global responses to COVID-19.
If someone wrote a book about you 10 years from now, what would it be called?
Walking the Jedi Path: A Scholar’s Journey to Create DC’s First GeekTank
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The #ElliottProud profile series is managed by the Elliott School Office of Graduate Admissions and highlights graduate program alumni to answer common questions posed by prospective, incoming, and current students. For more information on this series or to submit questions, e-mail the Office of Graduate Admissions at esiagrad@gwu.edu.
The views expressed by students profiled do not necessarily represent those of organizations they work for, are affiliated with, or the Elliott School of International Affairs.
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