Michael Magcamit is Lecturer in Security Studies in the School of History, Politics, and International Relations (HyPIR) at the University of Leicester. Before joining HyPIR in June 2021, he was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Queen Mary University of London (2019-2021) and where he is also currently a Visiting Research Fellow (2021-2023). Prior to moving to the UK in 2019, he was an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Musashi University in Tokyo, Japan (2016-2019) on a joint program between the University of London (LSE) and Musashi. He is the author of Ethnoreligious Otherings and Passionate Conflicts (OUP, forthcoming) and Small Powers and Trading Security (Palgrave/Springer, 2016). His works on (non)traditional security issues have also appeared (or is forthcoming) in the International Studies Quarterly, International Politics, Political Science, and International Relations of the Asia-Pacific among others.

His research investigates the three-way linkages between security, religion, and nationalism, exploring how relations between dominant and minority religions influence the formation of national security policies in the predominantly Catholic Philippines, Islamic Indonesia, and Buddhist Myanmar. His recent work is an extension and expansion of his overarching goal to provide a better and more nuanced understanding of (in)security, both from the perspectives and experiences of states and human societies across the world. He has also examined the contexts, motives, and outcomes that were driving powers in Southeast and East Asia to link their security interests and free trade policies, including Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

His EASG seminar on Ethnoreligious Otherings and Passionate Conflicts in Southeast Asia explores his recent research on the interconnection between security, religion and nationalism in Southeast Asia.