Mori Nao Divorces Her Samurai Husband and His Family Puts Him in a Cage

In 1824 a young newlywed samurai woman of Kōchi castle town in southwestern Japan named Mori Nao wanted to divorce her samurai husband because she did not like him. Nao's husband adamantly refused to give her a divorce and the legal system said that only a man had the right and privilege to do so. After overcoming some resistance from her own family, she was able to get them on her side, and then her husband's family on her side and finally even the government of her domain allied with her and pressured him to divorce her.

Feminism in International Security Discourses - How we argue for participation matters

Marking the 25th anniversary of the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda in 2025, this lecture examines the integration of feminist perspectives into international security. It explores feminist critiques of traditional security paradigms and analyzes discursive strategies in United Nations debates, highlighting the dominance of instrumentalist arguments and their limitations.

Searching for Zan: A More-Than-Human Ethnography of Extinction, Militarism, and Protest in Okinawa

Dr Marius Palz’s talk examines the socio-ecological entanglements of humans and dugongs in the Ryukyu Archipelago in the past and present, and how the dugong’s state on the verge of regional extinction affects the discourse and practices around a military base construction in the waters of Henoko/Ōura Bay, Okinawa Main Island. Based on ten months of ethnographic fieldwork, it aims to contribute to the fields of environmental anthropology and Japanese studies during times of increasing environmental crisis.

Navigating Narratives: Tsurayuki's Tosa Diary as History and Fiction

This talk will outline several unique insights into Heian Japan provided by Ki no Tsurayuki's Tosa nikki (Tosa Diary), which is ostensibly the record of an ex-governor's voyage back to the capital kept by an anonymous woman in his entourage. The resulting split between fictional female narrator and historical male author has usually led Tosa nikki to be viewed as either the first Heian woman's memoir or the last aesthetic manifesto of one of the Japanese poetic tradition's foremost figures.

Balancing Commerce and Diplomacy: Japan's Strategy for Economic Security

At a time of global confrontation between China, the United States, and Europe on trade, climate change, and digital governance, Japan has emerged as a leader in defining economic security, advancing critical industries, and forging strategic partnerships. Despite a history of intra-bureaucratic rivalry, Japan now presents a united front in supporting free trade agreements like the CPTPP, shaping the G20 agenda on AI, and promoting the Free and Open Indo-Pacific initiative.

Meritocracy’s Children: Coming of Age and Senses of Injustice in Seoul and Tokyo

Millennials are meritocracy’s children. They are more educated than any previous generations and deeply believe in the promise of meritocracy. Their belief in meritocracy, however, is betrayed by the actual social condition of our times—the rise of income inequality, precarity among the young and women, and a polarisation of the middle class, to name a few.

Religion at the margins: Fear and belonging in minority religious communities in Japan

Professor Erica Baffelli’s talk will discuss how it feels to belong to a religious organization that inspires fear and, in some cases, has been at the centre of a moral panic. The analytical focus is on the tensions produced by belonging to a group that is perceived by external society as a threat or potentially dangerous and on emotions and emotional practices. While these emotional practices are shared among members, they also differentiate members from external society, reinforcing processes of minoritization and marginalization.

Edward Anders

Edward Anders is a first-year MPhil candidate reading Comparative Government at the DPIR. His research investigates the effects of AI-generated content on political attitudes and perceptions of trust in democracy. Supervised by Professor Rachel Bernhard, his research employs experimental designs, along with quantitative and computational methods, to inform policies on regulating, highlighting, or restricting AI-generated news — whether accurate or not.

Baltazar Dydensborg

I am a DPhil student in Political Theory.  My research interests centre on questions in the history of political thought, especially as they relate to the emergence and consolidation of modern political and economic institutions and norms, as well as the history and historiography of liberalism.

Subscribe to

QS WORLD RANKINGS FOR POLITICS & INT’L STUDIES: 2

BEST UK UNIVERSITIES FOR POLITICS – THE GUARDIAN: 1

THE WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS FOR POLITICS AND INT’L STUDIES: 1 IN THE UK