Research

Research Overview

As a political scientist, my research examines how political and economic life is organised at the margins of the state and the market, with a particular focus on borderlands, illicit economies, and the transnational reach of Chinese capital. It is grounded in a long-standing engagement with borderlands as sites where sovereignty, mobility, and economic life are continuously negotiated. Over time, this broad interest developed into a more focused concern with the China–Myanmar borderland, where armed politics, illicit economies, and the transnational reach of Chinese capital converge in particularly concentrated form.

Grants and Awards

• British International Studies Association (BISA) Early Career Grant (PI), 2026.
• SOAS Researcher-led Call Top Winner, £10,000 (PI), 2025.
• Cross-border Conflict Evidence, Policy and Trends (XCEPT), FCDO-funded, £15,000, 2025.
• Enhancing Research Culture Flexible Fund, SOAS (PI), 2025.
• Doctoral Fellowship Award, Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, EUR 16,800, 2024.
• Founder’s Grant, British International Studies Association, 2023.
• Sino-British Fellowship, Sino-British Fellowship Trust, 2022.
• Travel Grant, Universities’ China Committee in London, 2021.
• BAME Researcher Seedcorn Grant, SOAS, 2021.