School of Social and Political Science

Research interests

In my PhD research, I analyse gendered portrayals of the Japanese Military and how it draws on popular culture and subcultural elements (otaku culture) to craft a new, postmodern form of de-politicised militarism. I consider the Japanese military to be an avant-garde case for a culturally-centred kind of militarism that turns militaries into cultural entrepreneurs and speaks to relatively narrow military subcultures rather than larger society. For my post-PhD research, I'm looking to pursue this further by looking at cases beyond Japan to see if the pattern identified in my PhD can be seen elsewhere too.

Outside of my current project, the general research themes I'm interested in are:

• Gender in International Relations
• East Asian Politics
• Critical Military Studies
• Japan
• International Security
• Postmodernism