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Seungah Sarah LEE

Assistant Professor (Doha Campus)

Management & Human Resources

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Biography

Seungah Sarah Lee is an Assistant Professor of Management and Human Resources at HEC Paris. Her research broadly explores how organizations adapt global ideas and institutional norms to address complex challenges and drive sustainable development, social impact, and entrepreneurial growth. Her work examines how governments, corporations, and social-sector organizations navigate broader social, economic, and technological change, and how they build the leadership and organizational capacity needed to foster entrepreneurship and innovation in diverse local contexts. 

She also has a secondary interest in the organization of higher education. In this line of work, she studies organizational change and expanding actorhood of higher education institutions in response to globalization, social movements, and changing labor market demands from global, comparative perspectives.

Her work has been funded by the Fulbright-Hayes Fellowship, Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi Foundation for Policy Research, and the Stanford Abbasi Program on Islamic Studies and published in journals such as Organization Studies, Social Forces, World Development, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Scientific Reports, in numerous book chapters, as well as policy research reports. 

Prior to joining HEC Paris, Seungah was a Visiting Senior Lecturer at New York University Abu Dhabi. Prior to academia, she led organizational strategy and design for newly established education nonprofits and provided policy research and advisory services. She also worked as the interim director of a corporate philanthropic foundation, overseeing foundation strategy, board governance, and development of grant projects. She now serves the foundation as a Board Member.

She received her PhD in Organization Studies from Stanford University. 

Scientific articles

The “Gospel” of Entrepreneurship? Entrepreneurialism, Development, and the Youth Enterprise

Academy of Management Perspectives, Forthcoming,

Dreams, dollars, and donors: organizational actorhood and the rising development orientation of global higher education

Social Forces, Forthcoming, n° soag024, (in coll. with N. A. SKINNER, F. O. RAMIREZ)

In the name of internationalization: Varied organizational actorhood of universities in the global higher education arena

Organization Studies, Forthcoming, n° Special Is, (in coll. with J. Song)

Politicizing Mobility in the COVID-19 Pandemic: International Student Mobility in Israel, China, and the United Arab Emirates

Social Justice Research, June 2025, vol. 38, pp 290-311, (in coll. with A. Bamberger, M. J. Kim, F. Yan)

To STEM or not to STEM: A cross-national analysis of gender and tertiary graduates in science, technology, engineering, and math, 1998–2018

International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 2025, vol. 66, n° 1, pp 25-49, (in coll. with C. M. Wotipka, F. O. Ramirez, J. Song)

“Outroduction”: A Research Agenda on Collegiality In university Settings

Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 2023, vol. 87, n° Revitalizi, pp 181-211, (in coll. with N. Cloete, N. Côté, L. Crace, R. Delbridge, J.-L. Denis, ET AL.)

Perception, performance, and detectability of conversational artificial intelligence across 32 university courses

Scientific Reports, August 2023, vol. 13, n° 12187, (in coll. with H. Ibrahim, F. Liu, R. Asim, B. Battu, ET AL.)

Entrepreneurship for all? The rise of a global “entrepreneurship for development” agenda, 1950–2021

World Development, June 2023, vol. 166, n° 106226,

Globalization of Universities as Organizational Actors?

Research in the Sociology of Organizations, November 2023, vol. 86, pp 87-104, (in coll. with F. O. Ramirez)

Applying Global Models of Teacher Development to Improve Student Outcomes: Insights from a Teacher Development & Leadership Program in Qatar

Gulf Education and Social Policy Review, 2021, vol. 14, n° 1, pp 46-68, (in coll. with L. Zahir)

Chapters in edited books

Globalizing Nation States and National Education Projects

The Oxford Handbook Of Education And Globalization, Paola Mattei, Xavier Dumay, Eric Mangez, Jacqueline Behrend, Oxford University Press, 1 , 29-50

A Cross-National Analysis of Women Graduates with Tertiary Degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, 1998-2018: Commonalties and Variations

Gender Equity In Stem In Higher Education, H. Ro, F. Fernandez, and B. House, Francis & Taylor Publishing, 2

Portrayal of Religion Against the Backdrop of Progress and Modernity in the US and Canadian Social Science Textbooks from 1850 to 2010

Comparative Perspectives On School Textbooks, Dobrochna Hildebrandt-Wypych, Alexander W. Wiseman, Springer International Publishing, 265-288

Pursuing innovation as a strategy for improving quality of higher education

Higher Education In The Gulf, Reynaldo Gacho Segumpan, John McAlaney, Routledge, London, 16-31

Scientific articles

Politicizing Mobility in the COVID-19 Pandemic: International Student Mobility in Israel, China, and the United Arab Emirates

Social Justice Research, June 2025, vol. 38, pp 290-311, (in coll. with A. Bamberger, M. J. Kim, F. Yan)

To STEM or not to STEM: A cross-national analysis of gender and tertiary graduates in science, technology, engineering, and math, 1998–2018

International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 2025, vol. 66, n° 1, pp 25-49, (in coll. with C. M. Wotipka, F. O. Ramirez, J. Song)

“Outroduction”: A Research Agenda on Collegiality In university Settings

Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 2023, vol. 87, n° Revitalizi, pp 181-211, (in coll. with N. Cloete, N. Côté, L. Crace, R. Delbridge, J.-L. Denis, ET AL.)

Entrepreneurship for all? The rise of a global “entrepreneurship for development” agenda, 1950–2021

World Development, June 2023, vol. 166, n° 106226,

Chapters in edited books

Globalizing Nation States and National Education Projects

The Oxford Handbook Of Education And Globalization, Paola Mattei, Xavier Dumay, Eric Mangez, Jacqueline Behrend, Oxford University Press, 1 , 29-50

A Cross-National Analysis of Women Graduates with Tertiary Degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, 1998-2018: Commonalties and Variations

Gender Equity In Stem In Higher Education, H. Ro, F. Fernandez, and B. House, Francis & Taylor Publishing, 2

Portrayal of Religion Against the Backdrop of Progress and Modernity in the US and Canadian Social Science Textbooks from 1850 to 2010

Comparative Perspectives On School Textbooks, Dobrochna Hildebrandt-Wypych, Alexander W. Wiseman, Springer International Publishing, 265-288

Pursuing innovation as a strategy for improving quality of higher education

Higher Education In The Gulf, Reynaldo Gacho Segumpan, John McAlaney, Routledge, London, 16-31

Education

  • Ph.D., Organization Studies International Comparative Education, Stanford University - USA
  • Master, Social sciences, Other, Harvard University - USA

Academic appointments

Academic Responsibilities at HEC

  • 2024- Assistant Professor (Doha Campus), Management and Human Resources HEC Paris
  • 2024- Member of GREGHEC, the joint research laboratory CNRS-HEC Paris, GREGHEC HEC Paris

External Academic Responsibilities

  • 2022-2024 Visiting Senior Lecturer, Social Research and Public Policy New York University Abu Dhabi_NYUAD

Scientific Activities

Membership in Academic or Professional Organisation

  • Member : Academy of Management European Group of Organization Studies American Sociological Association Comparative International Education Society

Editorial activities

  • Editorial Board Member