Research

Research Theme 1: Emotions in Global Politics and international relations of East Asia 

I specialise in the role of emotions in global politics and East Asian international relations by seeking the intersection between history and theory. I am particualrly interested in how political actors' emotional displays shape their political actions and discourses such as political activism. The emotional dynamics between global actors such as the rise of populism and historical disputes have challenged conventional rationalist paradigms and mainstream theories in the field of International Relations (IR). My research on emotions distinguishes itself from existing emotion studies in two aspects. First, I focus less on the impact of decision-makers' emotions on policymaking, but on the process of collectivisation and politicisation of emotions in guiding political discourses and actions. Secondly, I intend to investigate specific historical and political contexts that enable particular emotional interaction and contestations  between elites and everyday actors. 

PhD Thesis and Book Project: The Dynamics of Anger in Social Protests and Security Debates in Japan 

This book explores the role of anger as an affective practice in shaping social protests. It demonstrates anger plays a pivotal role in shaping popular protests against foreign policy towards the US in post-WWII Japan. It makes a theoretical contribution to emotion studies by conceptualising anger as an emotional practice that communicates perceived injustices, rather than as a destructive force that creates social conflict. By employing the framing theories and discourse analysis, the books analyses how protesters use injustice frames to justify their rationales of their expressions of anger. It provides insights to IR studies by highlighting emotions such as anger and humiliation may facilitate civil society actors to communicate their security concerns to decisionmakers, thereby influencing diplomatic negotiations. 

 Trauma Time and Memory in Understanding Gender-Based Violence (forthcoming in Millennium) 

This article draws upon Jenny Edkins' notion of 'trauma time' and asks how it helps us to better understand entanglement with past trauma in the context of Gender-Based Violence (GBV). Edkins argues that enacting trauma time allows for multiple narratives and resistance, challenging the normalisation of traumas by sovereign power within linear time. I propose that trauma time offers valuable insights into better understanding GBV by highlighting the socio-political nature of trauma and critiquing the linear narrative of healing and restoring social order. Through an analysis of debates over the Gender Recognition Reform Bill (GRR) in the United Kingdom, this article unpacks how social actors enact trauma time surrounding various forms of GBV, especially gendered violence against trans people. I argue that while sharing some similarities with gender critical feminists' invocation of trauma time, the enactment of trauma time by trans rights activists troubles and challenges the reproduction of the linear narratives that hide multiple sites of violence. Going beyond examining individual temporal experiences of trauma, this article interrogates how different ways of enacting trauma time, originating from systemic sources of GBV, reveal non-linear and multiple temporalities. It also contributes to a deeper understanding of societal contestations over negotiating and challenging temporal order.

Presented at EISA 2023 Potsdam, BISA 2024 Birmingham, ISA 2024 San Francisco, and Millennium 2024 Symposium

Anger Unveiled: Navigating Colonial Legacies Through Affective Solidarity in the Context of Gender-Based Violence (under review) 

This paper explores the role of anger in unravelling and disrupting the emotional legacies of gender injustices. Anger not only reveals the enduring presence of coloniality and trauma but also serves as a catalyst for solidarity in addressing structural injustices and fostering change. Anger has been recognised as an affective force that challenges the logics of coloniality from postcolonial and feminist perspectives. Anger can also be entangled with the logics of coloniality that perpetuate oppression. It examines how contemporary affective practices of anger create spaces for acknowledging the ongoing affective resonance of deep-rooted trauma. This paper empirically investigates how colonial practices are configured through circulation of anger among various actors by analysing discourses surrounding gender-based violence in Afghanistan, especially after the Taliban's return in 2021. This examines how the affective practices of anger in the present, stemming from trauma, create a space for acknowledging the ongoing affective resonance of the past connected to coloniality. 

Presented at EISA Workshop 2024 'Affective logics of Coloniality'

Navigating Injury and Trauma in Addressing Gender Injustices (working paper) 

This paper explores how trauma reveals the enduring impact of injury from gender injustices. Trauma uncovers a sense of betrayal, injury, and harm by exposing the illusion of security. Narrating traumatic injury may also serve as a catalyst for agency in addressing structural injustices. This paper builds upon theoretical explorations of the interplay between injury and trauma, especially from postcolonial and feminist perspectives. It examines how the enactment of trauma may create spaces for acknowledging deep-rooted injury on postcolonial subjects' bodies and colonial legacies. The paper empirically investigates trauma stories surrounding gender-based violence in Afghanistan. This research seeks to contribute to the ongoing conversation on the implications of traumatic memory and injury in fostering community agency within a framework of global justice.

Presented at the Symposium on 'Injury, Global Justice, and the Political', BISA 2025 Belfast

Methodological Complexities of Interpretating Anger and Affective Practices in Gender-Based Violence (working paper) 

This paper examines the potentials and challenges of investigating anger within feminist and trans activism against gender-based violence, particularly violence against trans people. Queer and feminist scholarship on affect has highlighted the role of anger in communicating injustices arising from various forms of gendered oppression. Trans studies have explored the nuanced working of anger of trans subjects, often conceptualised as 'trans rage'. Building upon these insights, I address how researchers might approach the ways in which trans activists' anger functions as a resistant and mobilising force in building a transfeminist coalition. I also reflect on the ethical complexities of interpreting actors' affective practices within socio-discursive contexts while negotiating researchers' affective biases and positionalities. To illustrate this, I trace the affective resonance of anger in trans activism in Scotland, focusing on the debate over Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) Bill. Using affective-discursive approach, I analyse texts and interviews from online media and trans rights advocacy website. Displays of anger tell distinct stories of injustices and amplify one another. I argue that trans activists' anger practices should be understood as mediated forms of anger shaped by certain feeling rules. This paper contributes to ongoing discussions on affective manifestations in activism through discourse. In doing so, it problematises universalistic interpretations of affective dynamics and highlights the nuanced intersections of gender and anger in building trans feminist solidarity.

Presented at the Workshop, 'Methodological Approaches to Studying Emotions and Social Movements: Insights, Challenges, and New Research Avenues', 'Affective Societies' Research Cluster, Freie Universität Berlin 

Research Theme 3: The Role of Narratives and Memory 

Another research project questions how the formation and reception of emotional narratives about past wars impacts on foreign policy. By exploring the context of post-WWII Japan, I look at the Japanese societal actors' role in shaping narratives of traumatic memories of WWII and empire-building in circulating the fear of militarised wars as well as the fear of the revival of non-liberal self. It seeks to highlight domestic contestations and negotiations over the dominant liberal narrative of war disseminated by the Japanese leadership and the US, which had an emotionalising effect. 

Strategic Narratives and Assisting Foreign Conflict: The Case of Japan's Commitment to the Korean War (in progress) 

By employing a theoretical framework that examines the role of strategic narratives in justifying military support for conflicts abroad, this study examines the formulation of strategic narratives and their impact on Japan's commitment to the Korean War (1950-1953). Japan's official strategic narrative presented the country as a 'democratic' and 'peaceful' actor within liberal narrative, justifying its commitment to support the US/UN-led fight against communism while balancing public concerns and resisting extensive military commitment as demanded by the US. This study highlights the Japanese government's agency in shaping their narratives, which did not entirely mimic American Cold War narratives on the Korean War, despite the US's communicative power. The opposition's pacifist counter-narrative, which offered alternative policy options, provided an important context for Japanese policymakers in exercising the agency. This research employs qualitative analysis of official and non-official sources to reconstruct multiple narratives. Analysing how states adapt narratives to align with domestic and international constraints regarding assistance in conflicts contributes to existing studies on narratives in IR.

Presented at Brookings Institution Workshop on 'Narratives, Strategy, and Asian Order' and BISA 2024 Birmingham