Research

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

I specialize 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 collectivization and politicization of emotions in guiding political discourses and actions. Secondly, I intend to understand specific historical and political contexts that enable particular emotional interactions between elites and everyday actors rather than building generalizable theories. 

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 (R&R) 

What is the role of 'trauma time' in understanding the traumatic entanglement of with the past in the context of Gender-Based Violence (GBV)? While scholars have examined the non-linear temporal experiences of traumatized individuals such as flashbacks and timelessness, the political potential of 'trauma time' (Edkins 2003) has been underexplored in relation to GBV. Trauma time destabilizes linear time and narratives enforced by sovereign power that seeks to close trauma and restore social order. Enacting trauma time opens a space for multiple narratives and resistance, challenging the normalization of trauma within linear time. I build upon existing scholarship on the interplay between time and trauma, particularly regarding the inseparability of the past and present. The article extends and complicates the concept of trauma time by investigating empirical contexts of GBV. GBV serves as a site for contestation where sovereign practices produce bodies to be controlled and/or protected. I explore the debates over the Gender Recognition Reform Bill and GBV in Scotland and the UK, which rely on trauma time of cisgender women. I argue that trauma time offers valuable insights into the questions of whose suffering can be remembered and how traumatic memory shapes the present.

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 recognized 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

This paper examines the methodological potentials and challenges in investigating anger within feminist and trans activism against Gender-Based Violence (GBV). Feminist and queer scholarship on affect has highlighted anger's role in communicating injustices from various gendered oppression. The nuanced working of anger in trans activism, often known as 'trans rage' (Stryker 1994; Malatino 2021; Rosenberg et al 2024), have gained increasing attention. Building upon these insights, this paper addresses how researchers methodologically approach how trans activists' anger functions as both a resistant and mobilizing force in building a transfeminist coalition. To illustrate this, I analyse the affective resonance of anger in trans activism in Scotland, focusing on the debate over the debate over Gender Recognition Reform (GRR). Using 'affective discursive approach' (Wetherell 2012), I examine texts and interviews in 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 interpreted as mediated forms of anger and emotion norms as singular affective practices. I will reflect on the ethical complexities of interpreting actors' affective practices within socio-discursive contexts while negotiating researchers' affective biases and positionalities. This paper contributes to ongoing methodological discussions of interrogating affective manifestations in activism through discourse with reflexivity. By doing so, it problematizes universalistic interpretations of affective dynamics in global politics and highlights the nuanced intersections of gender and anger in building trans-inclusive feminist solidarity.

Presented at the Workshop, 'Methodological Approaches to Studying Emotions and Social Movements: Insights, Challenges, and New Research Avenues' 

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 militarized 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 emotionalizing 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. Analyzing 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