Kasira Cheeppensook (Assistant Professor, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, HYI Visiting Scholar, 2023-24)
“Security Community in Southeast Asia: A Postcolonial study”
What got you interested in your research topic?
I studied International Relations (IR) for all my degrees with special interests in norms and international organizations, and continued to teach the subject area in higher education. The longer I do this, the more I am interested in how power structure in knowledge production of the discipline shaped the research and world views of those who studied IR; how particular ideas originated in specific context for specific phenomenon became universal; how the “international” in international norms were invented. During my time at Harvard-Yenching Institute, my research tried to unpack the coloniality of knowledge embedded in one of IR’s enduring and popular concept, security community, and its implications towards regional organization in Southeast Asia: ASEAN.
Outside of work, where can we find you?
On sunny days, Charles River Esplanade since it is near where I live. I also like Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum. On rainy days, used book stores. My favorites include Rodney’s and Harvard Book Store’s discount section. You can also find me at Jenny’s cafe inside Harvard Art museum.
What would you want to do most as a career if you were not in academia?
I still think I would like to do something involving researching and writing anyway. I would like to write about what I studied for the general audience to make the subject area more accessible as well as spotlight less well-known topics at the margin of the recognized boundary of the discipline.
Read Prof. Cheeppensook’s bio on our website