I did my BA at SOAS, University of London, before conducting postgraduate work in Japan. I received  my PhD from Hokkaido University in March 2018, where my research training was in IR, comparative politics, and Japanese intellectual history. My thesis on “Ezo as relational territory: mapping and bordering Japan’s north” emphasized the effects of cartographic and border practices on political and popular culture.  From 2015, I was assistant professor at the Faculty of Law, Kyushu University, were I undertook projects on Japan’s ongoing territorial disputes, maritime politics, and regional security in East Asia in order to examine the ideas and institutions used to legitimate Japan’s borders today. 

I teach both under- and graduate courses. Since 2018 I have developed and taught several graduate courses, including “Borders and Development in Asia” and a two-part course examining “Japan's Development in Context”, which have enabled me to share the research results of my JSPS grant and the Borders in Globalization project.