Lauren Richardson is Director of Studies and Lecturer at the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy. Previously she taught Northeast Asian Relations at the University of Edinburgh and Keio University (Japan). Her research focuses on the role of non-state actors in shaping diplomatic interactions in Northeast Asia, particularly Japan-Korea relations. Her publications have focused on the South Korean anti-nuclear movement; the role of Buddhists in Sino-Japanese rapprochement (with G A. Scott); the ascension of “comfort women” in South Korean memory of Japanese imperialism, with a counterfactual analysis of Chinese “comfort women” in national memory (forthcoming); and Japan’s evolving defence policy (forthcoming). She is currently completing a book manuscript provisionally entitled Reshaping Japan-Korea Relations: Transnational Advocacy Networks and the Politics of Redress.

Dr Richardson obtained Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Asian Studies from Monash University and spent several years studying Japanese and Korean language as part of these programs. She then completed a Master’s in Political Science at Keio University in Tokyo, where she wrote a dissertation in Japanese on the “history problems” in Japan-ROK relations. Her PhD at ANU entailed one year of field work in both Japan and South Korea. She has been a visiting fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs and Keio University, a recipient of the Prime Minister’s Australia-Asia Award (2011), and a participant in the US-Korea NextGen Scholars Program (2015-16) and the German Marshall Fund’s Young Strategist Forum (2019). She is currently a member of the Australian Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (AUS-CSCAP) and a Board Member of the ANU Korea Institute.