PhD East Asian Studies

The School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies is an interdisciplinary scholarly environment. We produce leading research with an international focus that is relevant to the changing circumstances of an increasingly interconnected world.

We are committed to rigorous conceptual and empirical research that is politically and socially relevant and problem-orientated. We aim to advance theory, knowledge and methods at the interface between sociology, politics and international relations. The questions addressed recognise that political structures are related in complex ways to the social conditions that underlie them; likewise, social conditions are affected in complex ways by political structures. Our aim is not just to monitor the global condition but to contribute to ways that might improve it.

Our research activity is guided by focusing on key themes:

• critical security
• political economy
• global knowledge (including expertise, ignorance, secrecy)
• ethnicity, migration and citizenship
• gender and sexuality
• race, colonialism, postcolonialism, and decolonialism
• the climate crisis, green political theory
• political and social inequalities
• social, cultural, political and international theory
• socio-technical systems and their politics
• popular culture and (global) politics
• Europe, Europeanisation
• the Americas, politics and sociology
• African regional and state politics
• south and east Asian regional and state politics.

All researchers across the school identify with one or more of the themes. This enables collective identification over themes within the school and aims to generate further collaboration and interdisciplinarity in our research activities. In addition, the themes provide a basis for internal and external recognition of the main questions and topics that our research addresses.