I am a DPhil in International Relations candidate at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. I am interested in social theories in the study of International Relations, the history of international organisations and the history of modern China. My doctoral research is generously funded by the Clarendon Scholarship and Nuffield College.
I am from Toronto, Canada. Prior to the DPhil, I graduated from the MPhil in International Relations with distinction at Oxford. Before coming to Oxford, I received a BA in International Relations and in History, summa cum laude and with distinction in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania in the United States, where I was a Phi Beta Kappa inductee. I am professionally proficient in Mandarin.
DPhil topic
Despite International Relations and international history’s renewed interests in examining non-Western actors’ historical engagement with international institutions, China’s diplomacy in the League of Nations’ technical domains in the early twentieth century remains understudied compared to the League of Nations’ activities in other parts of the world. My research conceptualizes the League of Nations’ technical, social and humanitarian domains as sites of contestation where non-Western political actors contested global governance norms. In particular, I examine the ways in which the League of Nations’ technical and humanitarian work in China contributed to state formation processes in China in the early twentieth century.
