My research interests fall in the intersection of contemporary Chinese politics and international relations, broadly conceived, and critical theories of global politics. I am particularly interested in the contemporary deployment of concepts drawn from Chinese history, such as harmony (hexie), friendship (youyi), hegemony (baquan), or All-under-heaven (Tianxia). I have written on alternative conceptions of time, space and world order; relational theorising and the 'Chinese school' of IR; Chinese foreign policy; Chinese censorship and resistance throughout history; Chinese discourses of online resistance and wordplay; the policy concepts of 'harmonious world' (hexie shijie) and 'harmonious society' (hexie shehui); soft power; the politics of mega events; and the Belt and Road Initiative.

I am Founding Director of Lancaster University China Centre, Senior Fellow of the Institute for Social Futures, and Research Fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs.

I am interested in supervising doctoral candidates in the following broad areas:
- Chinese politics, philosophy and international relations
- East Asian international relations
- Cultural governance
- Continental philosophy and poststructuralist thought
- Concepts of time, space and multiplicity in international relations
- The politics of mega events
- Censorship and resistance, particularly online
- Language and authority
- Harmony