Broadly, my scholarship is situated at the intersection of aesthetics, resistance, and diaspora politics. My doctoral research explores these themes alongside notions of exile, where I focus on the work and experiences of dissident artists and cultural producers displaced from Myanmar. I’m interested in how notions of ‘resistance’ are mediated, curated, and programmed through visual culture in the diaspora. I explore the aesthetic interventions themselves, my interlocutors’ experiences of ‘exile’ and displacement, the political economy of the NGO-art world nexus, and the interrelations between these aspects. Theoretically, I predominantly work with postcolonial theory, anticolonial (surrealist) thought, diaspora studies, and cultural studies. I draw on feminist methods, ethnographic approaches, interviewing, and other qualitative interpretive methods in my study. My doctoral research also has a curatorial component, for which I curated 'Not another protest exhibition' at the LSE's Atrium Gallery in February 2024.

Currently, I’m a PhD Candidate in the LSE’s Department of International Relations and supported by the AHRC’s London Arts and Humanities Partnership (LAHP). I’m also a visiting scholar in the Department of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University from 2024 - 2025. I hold an MSc in Development Studies from SOAS, University of London and a BA in Political Science from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

Academic publications

“Towards an anticolonial aesthetic politics: surrealist praxis & epistemic refusal”. Accepted by the Review International Studies. Winner of BISA’s Colonial, Postcolonial and Decolonial 2024 ECR Runner up prize.

“Revisiting positionality & reflexivity: Trinh T. Minh-ha’s anti-ethnography & affective situatedness’ in “Intersections of Relation, Affect and Futurity: Methods, Archives, Registers” for International Studies Review with Ritu Vij, Maja Zehfuss, Aya Nassar, Louiza Odysseos, and Quỳnh N. Phạm. Forthcoming invited forum contribution, under review.

“Ghosts in the Gallery”, Decolonisation, Language and the Politics of Aesthetics eds. Reiko Shindo & Aoileann Ní Mhurchú (Rowman & Littlefield, Creative Interventions in Global Politics series). Forthcoming invited chapter in edited book volume, under internal review.

Other publications (including RA & previous work)

"Reflecting on ‘Impact’ in Artist–Academic Collaborations in Times of Conflict." Journal of Humanitarian Affairs 4, no. 2 (2022): 32-39. Solo-authored practice-based article.

"Describing adolescents with disabilities’ experiences of COVID-19 and other humanitarian emergencies in low- and middle-income countries: a scoping review." Global Health Action 15, no. 1 (2022): 2107350. Co-authored article.

“Graphic Lives, Visual Stories: Reflections on Practice, Participation, and the Potentials of Creative Engagement.” a/b: Auto/Biography Studies 35, no. 2 (2020): 311-329. Co-authored practice-based article.

Blogs

LSE blog (2024): Weaving Art and Resistance in Myanmar

Broken Frontier Blog (2021): Inside Look: I Am a Leader of My House – PositiveNegatives’ New Webcomic with The New Humanitarian and Fahmida Azim Tells the Stories of Two Rohingya Women in Their Fight for Equality

BMJ Blog (2021): Beyond health: Connecting art, COVID-19 and the Sustainable Development Goals in the rural plains of Nepal (Co-author)

SOAS Blog (2018): Engaged learning in Myanmar’s borderlands