Visiting PhD fellows

Maaike van der Burg 

Maaike van der Burg is a doctoral research fellow at the Department of Culture, Religion, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oslo in Norway. Her doctoral research project is situated at the nexus of Japan Studies and the study of religion. It examines how university staff warns students of unwanted religious recruitment around the campus area. This is done through the distribution of flyers, videos, posting online bulletins and holding lectures. She is particularly interested in how this case affects the category of religion in the Japanese context. 

She holds a MSc in Asian Studies from Lund University from which she graduated in 2024. She has also spent several periods in Japan either studying, working, or doing research

Enyam Joel Agbesinyale

Joel is a PhD candidate with an interest in mineral extraction at the Department of Global Political Studies at Malmö University. His project focuses on the governance of Ghana's Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM) sector, and speaks to the Quality of Government (QoG) agenda. He particularly addresses how local, national, and international dynamics shape the politics of mineral extraction in Ghana and beyond.

He holds an MSc in Development Studies from Lund University, Sweden, and a BSc in Development Planning from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana. His research interests focus on the politics of natural resource governance, extractivism, energy transitions, and the political behaviours of parties in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Xarwana Nuermamate

is a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University. Her research focuses on cultural exchange between China and Sweden, Swedish scholarship on Xinjiang, and the work and documentary legacy of the Swedish scholar and Turkologist Gunnar Jarring. She has led two academic research projects, “Golden Armor and Servant’s Robe: Heroism and Transformation in Hecuba” and “Transmission of the Persian Epic Shahnameh in Chinese Folklore.” Her research has been published in The Journal of Asian Research and the International Journal of Asian Social Science Research. She has presented her research at numerous academic conferences and scholarly forums in China, including those hosted by Peking University, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, Renmin University of China, and Nankai University.

Maria Haro Sly

Is a Ph.D. candidate at Johns Hopkins University, where she’s a fellow of the Arrighi Center for Global Studies. She graduated in Sociology and Political Science from the Federal University for the Integration of Latin America (Brazil). She holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (Brazil) and an LLM in Contemporary China Studies from the Silk Road School at Renmin University of China. Haro Sly was executive coordinator at the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation of Argentina. She was a consultant at the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and Capital Continuum Advisers. Her research was published in Nature, SAGE, Routledge, UNESCO, and Palgrave, among others. Her research focuses on the political economy of China-U.S.-Latin America relations, tech innovation, green finance, and development policies.

Jessie Taieun Yoon

Jessie Taieun Yoon (they) is a PhD candidate in Performing and Media Arts, with a minor in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Cornell University, USA. Their research engages with Performance Studies, queer/trans of color critique, and studies of global Asias. Yoon's dissertation "Pretense: Performing Asia as Queerly Feminine in Transnational Artworlds" probes transnational queer East Asian contemporary art and its racial politics. Their written work can be found or forthcoming in GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, Theatre Journal, and Feral Feminisms. For more, please visit jessieyoon.com (new tab)

Yuchen Viveka Li

I am a visiting PhD researcher at the Centre and a doctoral researcher at the University of Jyväskylä. My doctoral project examines posthuman relationality through East Asian women’s science fiction, with a particular focus on how ethical and political imaginaries are articulated in contemporary cultural production. Drawing on feminism and posthumanism, my dissertation is structured as an article-based thesis that situates East Asian women’s science fiction within broader socio-cultural and philosophical contexts.

Beyond my doctoral project, I work at the intersection of cultural studies and sociology, drawing on a shared feminist theoretical framework. My broader research interests include feminist activism in China, China’s reproductive policies, and representations of gender and sexuality in animation and film. My more recent research interests engage with anarchist feminism, which I approach as a productive lens for rethinking family structures, modes of organisation, and political imaginaries in East Asian contexts. My work has appeared in journals such as Women’s Studies International Forum, Criticism, and Feminist Media Studies.

Danqi (Nancy) Lu

Danqi (Nancy) Lu is a PhD candidate at the School of Chinese, The University of Hong Kong. Trained in Chinese literature and film history, her research engages East Asian popular culture, gender and sexuality, as well as Hong Kong film history (1960s-1980s).

Danqi's doctoral project explores new trends of masculinities and digital feminisms in post-2020 China. She has also conducted research on Hong Kong cinema and culture for years, and has long self-identified as a "baby scholar" of wuxia auteur King Hu. Her writing, both in English and Chinese, appears or is forthcoming in Asian Studies Review, Neohelicon, Emerging Media, Contemporary Cinema (Dangdai dianying), Film Arts (Dianying yishu), Journal of Beijing Film Academy (Beijing dianying xueyuan xuebao), and Chung-Wai Literary Quarterly, among other venues. Outside of research, she loves reading, jogging, watching gymnastics, and calligraphy. For more, please see personal website (new tab)