When Ilya Kim, BA Global Affairs '23, arrived at George Mason University’s Fairfax Campus after three years as an undergraduate student at Mason Korea, he already knew he wanted to pursue his master’s degree in sociology.
Luckily for him, Shannon Davis, Mason Korea’s associate dean for faculty and academic affairs, had worked in George Mason’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology for more than 15 years. She pointed him toward John Dale, associate professor of sociology and director of Movement Engaged, the social movement research hub of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences’ (CHSS) Center for Social Science Research (CSSR).
Now a sociology graduate student, Kim received the 2025 CHSS Dean’s Challenge Scholarship, which recognizes exceptional students who have demonstrated academic excellence, a commitment to education as a powerful tool for change, and commitment to leadership and community engagement. It is among the most competitive and prestigious scholarships that the college offers and is open to all CHSS students.
“(Dale) was really the guy who got me to where I am in my graduate studies,” Kim said. “He is a very well-known professor in the field. I thought if I get to at least meet him and take a class from him at least I’ll learn. It turns out, professors at Mason are very nice and very welcoming.”
Indeed, it didn’t take long for Dale to be equally impressed by Kim, who he first met in his CONF-399 Sociology of Human Rights course in fall 2022.
“It quickly became apparent to me, and his classmates, that he was the brightest kid in the class,” Dale said. “I gave him an A-plus and I never give an A-plus. I’ve given an A-plus five times in 20 years at George Mason. More of a marker to me of ‘Wow, you’ve very much exceeded what I have expected of a student who did everything I put into this course.’
“I learned a lot from him.”
Abroad, Kim served as Mason Korea’s student council president, along with working as a resident advisor and University Life office intern.
He hit the ground running when he arrived in the states, joining the President-Student Advisory Board and serving as a community assistant for the university’s Office of Housing and Residential Life. In 2022, he received the Volunteer of the Year Award from the Virginia Association of College and University Housing Officers.
“Ilya is a shining example of how George Mason students can make a global impact,” CHSS Dean Ann Ardis said. “In addition to his research and collaborations with Movement Engaged, he has shown his commitment to improving the student experience on campus for Mason Korea and international students making the transition to Fairfax.”
After finishing his bachelor’s degree in global affairs in 2023, Kim applied and was accepted into the sociology graduate program. He learned from sociology assistant professor Ben Manski, who directs the Next System Studies, an initiative at CSSR. In the graduate program, he built on his head start as an undergraduate student working in Movement Engaged, learning under Dale and rubbing elbows with PhD students.
“That exposure to high level learning and people who are about to defend their thesis, it almost made me work harder because I wanted to be at their level to contribute to the discussion,” Kim said.
Kim’s unique background has aided him in his research and proved beneficial to his peers. Kim grew up as ethnic minority in Russia, living in the country until his family moved to South Korea in 2008 when he was 8 years old. From afar, he has kept a “vested interest in Russia being successful.”
He worked with the Free Russia Foundation to help set up and facilitate the Washington Dialogue Event, which was hosted by the United States Institute of Peace in 2024.
“It is very hard to find someone with the background Ilya has in Russia who also has perfect English, who can write well, do that translation and research in Russia,” Dale said. “But (someone) who also would be seeing it from the perspective of an ethnic minority position inside Russia. And so have more of a critical history of the formation of their constitution, which is what brought new insight to the possibilities for reform.”
Kim is on track to finish his master’s degree from George Mason in fall of 2026 and continues to expand on his research for his capstone project: “Sakhalin Island: Nexus of Transnational Movements.”
The project examines the small Russian island of Sakhalin, which is more than 4,000 miles east of Moscow and sits in the Pacific Ocean just north of Japan. The island is inhabited by half a million people, including Russians, indigenous peoples, Koreans and even Americans. Kim has a close connection to the island, as his grandparents used to live there and distant relatives still reside there. Dale called it a fascinating case study of globalization and transnational politics that could turn into PhD dissertation.
“It is almost a little wildlife reserve of many of these identities trapped there but somehow they are all co-existing,” Kim said. “But there are also tensions. So I argue that people on that specific island are interesting to study because of how unique their identity and perspective is… If we can understand what Russia is and what type of identity it projects, then it kind of gives us a blueprint of how can we work with those groups to forge something more democratic? Not just on paper but in reality.”
July 29, 2025