Growing up in a highly unequal society in the Philippines it has become my advocacy to dedicate my research works to providing a more holistic, nuanced and useful understanding of security and insecurity both from the perspectives and experiences of state units and human societies. As such, my research sits at the intersection of International Security, Conflict, Development, and Foreign Policy Studies with a specialist focus on East and Southeast Asia.

These are categorised into three research strands, namely:

• (In)Security and Conflict (strand 1)
• (In)Security and World Trade Politics (strand 2)
• (In)Security and Foreign Policy (strand 3)

At the core of each strand are three fundamental questions that tie them together: For whom is security? What does it mean to be secure? And how should security be pursued? My goal is to contribute to the theoretical development and empirical advancement of a critical, inclusive, and postcolonial view of security and insecurity.

I am keen on supervising prospective PhD students who are interested in doing research on the following thematic subjects (with specialist focus on East and Southeast Asia):

• Ethnoreliogious Otherings, Violent Conflicts, and Affective Peacebuilding
• The Security Politics and Political Economy of International Trade
• Emotions, Populism, and Foreign Policy
• Religion and Nationalism

I am currently (co)convening the following modudes at HyPIR Leicester:

• PL7168 Security Studies (MA, co-covenor)
• PL3151 East Asian International Relations (BA Year 3, lead covenor)
• PL2018 International Security Studies (BA Year 2, lead convenor)