Dani Shahzada

I joined as a Research Facilitation Officer in January 2026. Before joining DPIR, I worked previously as a Programme Coordinator at the Agile Initiative at Oxford Martin School, where I helped manage the financial and programme administration for a £10 million UKRI grant, and Administrative Officer at Young Lives at the Oxford Department of International Development. I hold a BSc in International Development and have prior experience with Non-Governmental Organisations.

Chinese Buddhist Ethics of Belief: An Introduction to Sanlun Philosophy

Is it ethical to believe? Does believing necessarily entail ethically suspect metaphysical commitments? And if so, can one suspend all one’s beliefs? This talk explores these and related questions by reconstructing what is a hitherto largely unstudied yet highly original philosophical conception of how belief relates to ethical action. Substantively, it focuses on the foundationally important Sanlun 三論 or Three Treatises school of Chinese Buddhist philosophy.

Emotions in the Politics of Water: China–India Tensions over Tibetan Rivers

In the era of accelerating global climate change, freshwater is increasingly becoming a strategic and contested resource. Few regions illustrate this more clearly than Tibet: the source of some of the world’s most important rivers that sustain nearly half of the global population. This lecture will explore the emotional dimensions of water politics in China–India relations, focusing on the narratives of pride, anger, fear, and national identity regarding the Himalayan region and shared river systems.

Tifa as Discursive Infrastructure: Silkroadism and the Commercialisation of Authoritarian Governance

In this project, Dr Sciorati treats Silkroadism itself as a tifa (提法) - a fixed political formulation that organises and stabilises meaning across China’s external narratives. Building on previous scholarship, Dr Sciorati conceptualises tifa as discursive infrastructures: patterned, state-sanctioned formulations that make China’s governance model coherent and exportable.

From Politics to People? Changing Protagonists and the Transformation of NHK Television News

As digital transformation, political pressure, and audience fragmentation reshape contemporary media environments, public service media face growing challenges in maintaining their democratic role. This talk examines how these pressures are reflected in everyday editorial choices by focusing on changes in television news at NHK, one of the world’s largest public broadcasters. Taking NHK’s flagship evening news programme as its starting point, the talk looks at how television news has changed over time at the level of topics, narrative styles, and the portrayal of political and social actors.

Symposium: From Economic Security to Economic Statecraft: Insights from Japan, Europe, and the United States

This symposium brings together leading experts on economic security and economic statecraft to share views on how debates and policies on these issues are evolving in different regions of the world. Over the past decade, economic relations have become highly politicized—and in some cases, securitized—due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the rise of economic coercion, and the return of trade war.

Valedictory Lecture: Technology Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Governance: A Retrospective of 40 years

From microelectronics in the 1980s to AI in the 2020s, technological innovation has played a major role in reshaping economies and employment. As have financialization and its ideological partner neoliberalism. Reflecting on 40 years of research focused especially on Japan, this presentation will also consider possible futures.

With commentaries from Simon Deakin (Cambridge), Mari Sako (Oxford) and Tim Sturgeon (MIT).

Japan's Spongy-Middle Revolution

In 1961, Thomas C. Smith published a short essay entitled “Japan’s Aristocratic Revolution.” In his characteristically clear and economical prose, he begins, “There was no democratic revolution in Japan because none was necessary: the aristocracy itself was revolutionary.” The essay goes on to make an argument now so familiar as to feel self-evident: low-ranking samurai carried out the revolution we call the Meiji Restoration without much help from either the peasant masses or the bourgeoisie.

The Right-wing Shift towards Immigrant Exclusion in Japan and Beyond

Extreme right populism is on the rise worldwide, enforcing the exclusion of immigrants and foreigners. Why does the trend towards immigrant exclusion occur? To approach this quiz, I will focus on the case of Japan, where the Sansei party became the first right-wing populist party to enter mainstream politics in the 20 July 2025 Upper House election. Through the Japanese case, I will pursue mechanisms of the emergence of right-wing populism and the exclusion of immigrants and foreigners.

Anarchist Association: Knowledge, Language, and the History of the Modern World

This seminar analyzes the idea of association as developed among anarchists in imperial Japan during the early twentieth century. In doing so, it proposes anarchist association as both subject and analytical lens to develop a critical approach in global history. It emphasizes viewing the modern world from peripheral positions as well as acknowledging the concept of association as both a socio-political practice and a methodological tool, thus using anarchist traditions to uncover and integrate overlooked actors, archives, and epistemologies.
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