Research

My research broadly sits at the intersection of IR theory, critical security studies and foreign policy analysis. I am principally interested in questions of identity in world politics – in particular, the construction and contestation of identities through discursive practices and the relationship between these identities and foreign policy and transnational interactions. Within this, I am currently especially interested in memory – the role of practices of remembering and forgetting in constructions of national identity that shape international politics.

My work in this area combines with my deep regional expertise in East Asia – especially Japan and the Koreas – to result in the focus of my current research: the so-called ‘history problem’ in Japan-South Korea relations. My PhD thesis uses poststructuralist theory and discourse analytical methods to provide a novel account of the history problem, by examining it as a site of the discursive construction of relational identities through mnemonic practices. I do this by analysing a vast range of original-language texts across politics, media and culture so as to establish and deconstruct dominant and alternative identity discourses in each of Japan and South Korea vis-à-vis the other. In doing so, I theorise the production and reproduction of the history problem in this relationship, as well as the possibility of its transformation.

In addition to my thesis research, I have also published and continue to work on research that aims to build theory in the areas of ontological security and inter/transnational conflict concerning the past.

You can read more about my published work in these areas of research on the Publications page.