Publications

Peer-reviewed articles

Mnemonic encounters: the construction and persistence of international ‘history wars’ and the case of Japan-South Korea relations. International Studies Quarterly (accepted/in press).

This article address puzzles surrounding why conflict over the past plays such an outsized role in (only) some international relationships and why such ‘history wars’ endure. To do so, it develops the concept of mnemonic encounters – sites of mutual national identity construction through practices of remembering and forgetting – to explicate the identity needs that history wars may serve, and illustrates this through the Japan-South Korea case.

Perpetual ontological crisis: national division, enduring anxieties and South Korea’s discursive relationship with Japan. European Journal of International Relations 29(4), 1041-1065. 2023.

This article furthers IR theorising of ontological security by developing the concept of perpetual ontological crisis to describe a fundamental, long-term crisis of Self-identity for states. I use this concept to theorise the implications of Korea’s continued national division and how this influences South Korea-Japan relations.

(Re)producing the ‘history problem’: memory, identity and the Japan-South Korea trade dispute. The Pacific Review 35(5), 789-820. 2022.

In this article, I critique rationalist and conventional constructivist accounts of Japan-South Korea relations, instead drawing on discursive approaches to identity construction to theorise the (re)production of the ‘history problem’ in this relationship through a case study of the 2019-20 trade dispute between these countries.

Book chapter

All the world’s a stage: herbivore boys and the performance of masculinity in contemporary Japan. In Brigitte Steger and Angelika Kock (eds.), Manga Girl Seeks Herbivore Boy: Studying Japanese Gender at Cambridge. Lit Verlag. 2013.

This book chapter is a published version of my undergraduate dissertation at Cambridge. It explores shifts in Japanese gender practices, particularly those of young men. Although my research interests have changed substantially since this time, I am grateful that the chapter has featured on reading lists at universities around the world and has been widely cited.

Works-in-progress

International history wars and everyday foreign policy: memory and Othering in South Korean and Japanese popular culture. (Shortly submitting to journal)

(In)significant Others: relational imbalance in international politics. (In preparation)

Opinion pieces

In addition to my academic writing, I also occasionally publish opinion pieces relevant to my research, such as this piece in 9DASHLINE on Japan’s war memory after Abe.

You can also find my publication and citation information on Google Scholar, Web of Science and ORCID.