Research

My current projects focus on pedagogy and student resilience, as well as sports history in the postcolonial Southeast Asian world.

My 2020 dissertation, “Modern Mandala: A Transnational History of Southeast Asian Youth from Burma, Malaya and Thailand, 1950-1970″ explores transnational spaces, cultural exchanges, and migrations were critical in processes of decolonization and nation-building for Southeast Asians. I examines how Southeast Asian states and their citizens negotiated with each other, and with foreign states and their agendas to establish a place for themselves in the modern world. I examine how these transnational processes took place through sports, higher education, and tourism. The project is transnational in perspective, feminist in its frameworks, and a blend of cultural, political, and diplomatic history in content. I used multiple methodologies and methods in my analysis. The foundation of this analysis is grounded in archival sources but, it is also drawn from visual and other cultural material.