Projects
Borderland Capitalism: the Chinese-run online scam industry in Southeast Asia
This project examines the online scam industry and the wider political economy of digital illicit economies across Southeast Asia. It explores how scam operations are embedded in borderland governance, logistical systems, labour regimes, and cross-border infrastructures, and how they endure through adaptation, mobility, and regional reorganisation.
This broader research programme also informs my ongoing book project on the politics of digital illicit economies, logistics, and centre–periphery relations at the margins.
Female Scholars in Conflict Studies
SOAS University of London and International Partnerships
- Beyond the Field: Borderland Knowledge, Public Engagement and the Politics of Translation, in collaboration with Chulalongkorn University, May 2026.
- Care, Emotions and Knowledge Production in Hostile Research Settings, in collaboration with Chiang Mai University, May 2026.
- Researching the Digital Illicit Economy: Methods, Ethics, and Access, March 2026.
- Doing Ethnography in Hostile Contexts: A Conversation with Professor Ching Kwan Lee, February 2026.
- Female Scholars in Conflict Studies: Research Methods Reflections, July 2025.
Borderland Statecraft: Armed Politics in Southeast Asia’s Contested Borderlands
Growing out of my PhD research, this project examines how armed organisations such as the Wa and Kokang have navigated between the Myanmar state and China, and how China has shaped their trajectories not only as a neighbouring power but also as a political model, institutional influence, and historical force. By tracing how non-state armed actors selectively adapted forms of party organisation, territorial administration, and governance, this project explains why political authority in the China–Myanmar borderlands has developed along divergent paths.