Yang (韩阳) is a job market DPhil candidate in International Relations and Swire Scholar at St Antony’s College. Her doctoral research explores China's understanding of international hierarchy through its discourses on Africa and China-Africa relations. Yang’s research interests include hierarchies in international relations, critical security studies, and critical IR theory building through the case of China’s international relations. Yang holds an MSc degree in International Relations Research (Distinction) from LSE and a BA in International Politics (First Class; with a double major in Psychology) from Peking University. Yang has supervised dissertation projects for BA in Chinese Studies, on Chinese foreign policy discourses and China's FDI projects in Africa.
Since 2019, Yang has been advising UNIDO as a gender mainstreaming consultant for industrial transformation projects in developing countries. Yang's professional expertise lies in the nexus of gender equality, social welfare, and climate action.
Research
Yang's research interests include:
China and the World; Critical approaches to Hierarchies in International Relations; Critical Security Studies; Global IR theories; and International order
Teaching
PPE 214 International Relations core; PPE 213 International Relations during the Cold War; PPE 227 Politics in China; PPE 297 International Security and Conflict
Yang has also taught and convened undergraduate modules at Ruskin College, University of West London.
Awards
Swire Scholarship
Yang's research has been supported by various small grants, such as Sino-British Travel Grants, Oxford Project for Peace Studies Grant, Alastair Buchan Fund, Winchester Fund, and others
Publications
- Yang Han, “Banal Modernity: A Logic of Hierarchization in International Relations”, European Journal of International Relations, Accepted on 10th March 2025. [Impact Factor: 2.7 / 5-Year Impact Factor: 4.2] [Nominated by 2024 EWIS Workshop “Stigma in World Politics” for the EISA Best Graduate Paper Award]
- Yang Han, “Is Chinese IR Scholarship White?: A Non-Dichotomous Critique of ‘the International as Singular, Enlightened, and Sanitized’”, Millennium Journal of International Studies, 2024, 53(1), 163-190, https://doi.org/10.1177/03058298241289941 [Impact Factor: 2.5 / 5-Year Impact Factor: 3.1]
- Yang Han, Norm Entrepreneurship at the UN: Addressing Racial Equality Across Borders and the South-North Divide, In Mohsen Al Attar, Claire Smith, Emancipating International Law: Confronting the Violence of Racialised Boundaries, Oxford University Press [Forthcoming]
