Cardiff University
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Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
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Welcome to my academic webpage. I am a sociologist specializing in martial arts and popular culture, with a specific focus on Japan and Okinawa.
Currently, I am a Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Journalism, Media & Culture at Cardiff University, and a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Department of East Asian Studies at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Previously, I have been a Japan Foundation Fellow (2021-2022) at the Faculty of Global and Regional Studies at the University of The Ryukyus, a visiting scholar at The Center for Research on North America at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (2021), a visiting scholar at The Center for Asian and African Studies at El Colegio de México (2020-2021), and a Francisco Ayala Foundation Fellow (2017).
I am also a member of the Research Project “The Japanese and South Korean Cultural Boom in Spain: Cultural, Political and Socioeconomic Aspects” funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Spanish State Agency of Research, and the European Union (ref: PID2021-122897NB-I00), member of the Research Group GREGAL (Cultural Circulation Japan-Korea-Catalonia/Spain) at the UAB, and member of the academic collective PopMEC: The US Representation in Popular Media and Culture.
My current research delves into the history of martial arts, particularly karate, in the popular culture of Japan, Spain and Mexico, with approaches ranging from historical sociology to media and visual studies. As a result of my advance on karate, I have developed a particular interest in Okinawan studies. An additional line in my research focuses on early boxing fiction literature in Spain and the American continent. You can find more about my work here.
I hold a Ph.D. in Intercultural and East Asian Studies from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (2020), obtained with cum laude and for which thesis I won the “Best Doctoral Dissertation Award” of the Spanish Association of East Asian Studies (AEEAO).