Michael Magcamit

Hello! I’m Michael Magcamit, Lecturer in Global Politics at the University of Manchester in the UK. Before joining Manchester, I was a Lecturer in Security Studies at the University of Leicester and a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at Queen Mary University of London. Prior to moving to the UK, I was an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Musashi University in Tokyo, Japan, where I convened International Relations modules on a joint programme between the University of London and Musashi.

My research and teaching interests sit at the intersections of Critical International Security, Peace and Conflict Studies, International Political Economy, and Populism and Foreign Policy Studies with a specialist focus on Southeast/East Asia. 

My research projects on ethnoreligious conflicts and the security politics of international trade have been funded by the European Commission Horizon 2020 Program and the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, respectively. These projects led to the publication of my two books, Ethnoreligious Otherings and Passionate Conflicts (Oxford University Press 2022) and Small Powers and Trading Security (Palgrave/Springer 2016). 

My work probing the (non)traditional dimensions of international security has also been published or is forthcoming in journals such as the International Studies Quarterly, International Affairs, International Politics, Political Science, World Affairs, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, Japanese Journal of Political Science, Asian Journal of Political Science, and Critical Studies of Security, among others. 

Beginning 1 June 2024, I will be working on a research project, entitled, 'Decolonizing Japanese Peacebuilding through the Affective Peace Framework', that is being funded by the Leverhulme Trust (Ref: IF-2024-004). Working in collaboration with the IDEC Institute at Hiroshima University, the project will explore the potential utility and function of an affect-based approach towards decolonizing Japan’s traditional peacebuilding efforts in conflict-affected communities in Southeast Asia. 

I currently lead/co-convene the following courses at Manchester:

(PGT) POLI70401 Graduate Seminar in IR Theory

(PGT) POLI70461 Security Studies

(UG) POLI20521 Questions in Global Politics

(UG) POLI20902 How to Conduct Politics Research