• 2025   Surak, Kristin. “Myths at Work: Taming Imperial Histories with Tea.” Contemporary Japan.  Forthcoming.

• 2024   Surak, Kristin. “Do Passports Pay Off?  Assessing the Economic Outcomes of Citizenship by Investment Programs.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. DOI 10.1080/1369183X.2024.2332825 

• 2024   Surak, Kristin. “Citoyenneté à vendre: Stratégies de marchandisation de l’État.” Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales (ARSS). 251(1): 50-73.

• 2024   Ruseishvili, Svetlana and Kristin Surak. “Mercantilização da Cidadania e Desigualdades Globais.”Revista Interdisciplinar da Mobilidade Humana. Vol. 32, pp. 1-14. 

  • Translated into English, “Commodification of Citizenship and Global Inequalities: A Conversation with Kristin Surak.”

• 2021   Surak, Kristin. “Marketizing Sovereign Prerogatives: How to Sell Citizenship.” European Journal of Sociology. 62(2): 275-308.

• 2021   Surak, Kristin and Yusuke Tsuzuki. “Are Golden Visas a Golden Opportunity? Assessing the Economic Outcomes of Residence by Investment Programs in the EU.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. 47(15): 3367-89.

• 2021   Surak, Kristin. “Mythic Tea.” TUFS Japan Studies Review, No. 1. 23-33.

• 2020   Surak, Kristin.  “Who Wants to Buy a Visa? Comparing the Uptake of Residence by Investment Programs in the EU.” Journal of Contemporary European Studies. 30(1): 151-69.

• 2020   Surak, Kristin. “Millionaire Mobility and the Sale of Citizenship.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. 47(1): 166-89.

  • Winner of the Best Article Award, Global and Transnational Sociology Section, American Sociological Association

• 2020   Centeno, Miguel, Christopher Chase-Dunn, Nitsan Chorev, Marilyn Grell-Brysk, Hiroko Inoue, Paul Larcey, Victoria Reyes, and Kristin Surak. “For a Global Social Science.” Global Perspectives. 1(1). DOI: 10.1525/001c.11649

• 2018   Surak, Kristin.  “Migration Industries and the State: Guestwork Programs in East Asia.”International Migration Review. 52(2): 487-523.

• 2017   Surak, Kristin.  “Rupture and Rhythm: Toward a Phenomenology of National Experiences.” Sociological Theory. 35(4): 312-33.

• 2017   Surak, Kristin. “At the Margins of Multiculturalism: Assessing Kymlicka’s Liberal Multiculturalism in Japan.” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. 23(2): 227-39.

• 2014   Surak, Kristin. “Re-Selling Japan.”  New Left Review. (88): 139-49.

  • Translated into Korean (“Ilbonŭl Tashi P'anda,” Nyurep'ŭt'ŭ Ribyu. (6) 2015: 409-27)

• 2013    Surak, Kristin. “Guestwork Regimes: A Taxonomy.”  New Left Review. (84): 84-102.

  • Translated into Spanish (“Gastarbeiter: Una Taxonomía,” NLR Secunda Época. (84) 2014: 94-114)

  • Translated into Swedish (“Gästarbetare: en klassificering,” Marxistarkiv) 

• 2013    Surak, Kristin. “Die Gastarbeiter” (Guestworkers).  Merkur: Zeitschrift für europäisches Denken (Sonderheft). 9/10: 1024-35.

• 2012    Surak, Kristin. “Nation-Work: A Praxeology of Making and Maintaining Nations.” European Journal of Sociology. 53(2): 171-204.

  • Editors’ highlight article for 2012

• 2011   Surak, Kristin. “From Selling Tea to Selling Japaneseness: Symbolic Power and the Nationalization of Cultural Practices.”  European Journal of Sociology. 52(2): 175-208.

  • Lead article

• 2010   Surak, Kristin. “The Business of Belonging.”  New Left Review. (63): 151- 9.

  • Translated into Spanish (“El Negocio de la Pertenencia,” NLR Secunda Época. (63) 2010: 149-58.)

• 2008   Surak, Kristin. “Convergence in Foreigners' Rights and Citizenship Policy? A Look at  Japan.”  International Migration Review. 42(3):550-75.

• 2006   Surak, Kristin. “‘Ethnic Practices’ in Translation: Tea in Japan and the US.”  Ethnic and Racial Studies. 29(5): 828-54.

• 2024   Surak, Kristin. “The Misuse of Citizenship and Residence by Investment: Going Beyond the OECD/FATF Report to Assess Key Risks.”  Social Policy Working Paper 02-14. London School of Economics and Political Science.

• 2021   Surak, Kristin. “Citizenship and Residence by Investment Schemes: State of Play and Avenues for EU Action.”  European Added Value Assessment (EAVA) commissioned by the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS). Brussels: European Union.

  • Cited by the OECD’s Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) report, “Misuse of Citizenship and Residency by Investment Programmes.” November 2023.

• 2021   Surak, Kristin. “The Economics of Investment Migration: The Citizenship Industry and Economic Outcomes.” COMPAS: Center on Migration, Policy, and Society. Working paper nr. 159. University of Oxford.

• 2021   Surak, Kristin. “Investment Migration Globally: The Dynamics of Supply and Demand.” COMPAS: Center on Migration, Policy, and Society. Working paper nr. 159. University of Oxford.

• 2016   Surak, Kristin. “Global Citizenship 2.0: The Growth of Citizenship by Investment Programs.” Investment Migration Working Papers, IMC-RP 2016/3.

• 2003   Recchi, Ettore, Damian Tambini, Emiliana Baldoni, David Williams, Kristin Surak, and Adrian Favell. “Intra-EU Migration: A Socio-Demographic Overview.” PIONEUR Working Paper No. 3.

• 2025   Surak, Kristin. “The Misuse of Citizenship and Residence by Investment: Going Beyond the Status Quo to Assess Real Risks.” In Investment Migration in Europe and the World: Current Issues. Dimitry Kochenov, Madeleine Sumption, Martijn van den Brink, editors. Oxford: Hart Publishing.

• 2023   Surak, Kristin. “Investment Migration:  Empirical Developments in the Field and Methodological Issues in its Study.” In Citizenship and Residence Sales: Rethinking the Boundaries of Belonging.  Dimitry Kochenov and Kristin Surak, editors. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 25-69.

• 2023   Kochenov, Dimitry and Kristin Surak. “Learning from Investment Migration.” In Citizenship and Residence Sales: Rethinking the Boundaries of Belonging. Dimitry Kochenov and Kristin Surak, editors. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  1-21.

• 2021   Surak, Kristin. “Millionaires and Mobility: Inequality and Investment Migration Programs.” In Money Matters in Migration. Tesseltje de Lange and Willem Maas, editors. Cambridge University Press.

• 2020   Surak, Kristin.  “Japan, Land of the Rising Right.” In The Emergence of Illiberalism. Boris Vormann and Michael Weinman, editors. London: Routledge.

• 2020   Surak, Kristin. “What Money Can Buy: Citizenship by Investment on a Global Scale.” In Deepening Divides: How Borders and Boundaries Drive Our World Apart. Didier Fassin, editor.  London: Pluto Press.  21-38.

• 2017   Surak, Kristin.  “Engaging Objects: A Phenomenology of the Tea Ceremony and Japaneseness.” In National Matters: Materiality, Culture, and Nationalism. Genevieve Zubrzycki, editor. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 173-92.

• 2017   Surak, Kristin. “Tea Flows: A Praxeological Perspective on Rituals.”  In (Extra-)Ordinary Presence:  Social Configurations and Cultural Repertoires,            Markus Gottwald, Kay Kirchmann, and Heike Paul, editors.  Bielefeld: Transcript-Verlag. 175-87.

• 2015   Surak, Kristin. “Guestworkers Globally.”  In The Handbook of the Political Economy of Migration, Simon McMahon, editor.  Surrey: Edward Elgar.  167-83.

• 2012   Surak, Kristin. “Migration Industries and Developmental States in East Asia.” In The Migration Industry and the Commercialization of International Migration, Ninna Nyberg Sørensen and Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen, editors. London: Routledge.  89-110.

• 2010   Surak, Kristin. “Making Tea Japanese.” In Making Japanese Heritage, Rupert Cox and Christoph Brumann, editors. London: Routledge. 21-30.

• 2022 - 2026     Lead PI: “Taxing Ghosts: Closing Residency Loopholes to Fund Post-Pandemic Recovery Efforts,” Transatlantic Platform and the ESRC (ES/X001342/1) (€540,000)

• 2018 - 2019     Fung Global Fellow, Princeton University ($105,000)

• 2017 - 2018     Leverhulme Research Fellowship, Leverhulme Trust (£50,000)

• 2015 - 2016     Richard B. Fisher Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton ($60,000)

• 2013                Participating Scientist in the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) grant for the In-East School of Advanced Studies (€4,600,000)

• 2010 - 2013     Participating Scientist in the German Science Foundation (DFG) grant for the Graduate College 1613, Risk and East Asia (€3,300,000)

• 2025   Honorable Mention for The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires. ENIMSA Distinguished Book Award of the International Studies Association.

• 2022   Best Article Award for “Millionaire Mobility and the Sale of Citizenship,” American Sociological Association’s Section on Global and Transnational Sociology

• 2014   Outstanding Book Award for Making Tea, Making Japan: Cultural Nationalism in Practice, American Sociological Association’s Section on Asia and Asian America

• 2014   Finalist for the Hans Maier-Leibnitz Prize for research excellence (ten awards in all disciplines across Germany)

• 2008   International Award for the Best Young Scholar of East Asia, Frankfurt University Center for East Asian Studies

• 2007   American Academy of Political and Social Science Graduate Fellow

• 2001   University of California Chancellor’s Fellow

“The Geopolitics of the Global Market in Golden Passports.”

• 2024     Keynote speech at the workshop “The Geopolitics of Global Migration.” SOAS University of London, UK. June. 

“A Future of Resilience? Exploring the Development Potential for Regional CBI Programs.” 

• 2024     Keynote speech at the Caribbean Investment Summit 2024. St. George’s, Grenada. May.

“Golden Passports: Trends and Transformations in the Global Market for Citizenship by Investment”

• 2023     Keynote speech at the Freedom Business Summit. Dubai, UAE. December.

“Investment Migration in a Changing Landscape.”

• 2023     Keynote speech at the Government of Grenada Investment Migration Annual Round Table Conference. Saint George’s, Grenada. November.

“Investment Migration in a Deglobalizing World?”

• 2023     Keynote speech at the Investment Migration Council annual conference. London, UK. April.

“Making Japanese Tea.”

• 2016     Keynote speech for the opening of the Global Tea Initiative, University of California at Davis, US. May.

“Outlaw Tea.”

• 2015     Keynote speech at the international symposium “The Culture of Tea in Japan.” Ca’Foscari University, Italy. October.

“A Praxeological Perspective on Rituals.”

• 2013     Keynote speech at the conference “Pathos, Ritual, and Public Feeling: Social and Cultural Economies of Presence,” University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany. November.

“Why Hide? Trends in Masking Property Ownership in the UK.”

• 2024     Offshore Workshop, Institute of International Relations, Athens, Greece. June.

“The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires”

• 2024     Sciences Po, Paris. June.

• 2024     New York University, US. April.

• 2024     University of Michigan, US. April.

• 2024     University of Southern California, US. April.

• 2024     University of California, Los Angeles, US. April.

• 2024     Watson Institute, Brown University, US. March.

• 2023     American University in Dubai, UAE. December.

“Migration Industries in the World of Golden Passports.”

• 2023     Migration Industry Workshop. University of Gothenburg, Sweden. November.

“Do Passports Pay Off?  Assessing the Economic Outcomes of Citizenship by Investment Programs.”

• 2023     “Offshore Finance in the International Political Economy” Free University, Germany. September.

“Uncovering the Offshore World”

• 2023     Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, UK. June.

“Interdependence”

• 2023     Fung Global Fellows Tenth Anniversary. Princeton University, US. May.

“Investment Migration: Empirical Developments in the Field.” Program in Contemporary

• 2023     Opening Conference of the Research Training Group on Standards of Governance. University of Darmstadt, Germany. November.

• 2023     Program in Contemporary European Politics and Society. Princeton University, US. May.

“The Citizenship Industry: How the Market in Golden Passports Works”

• 2022     Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies and Sussex Center for Migration Research Annual Conference, Sussex University, UK. October.

“Citizenship by Investment Globally: Assessing Economic Impacts and Outcomes.”

• 2022     What’s in Nationality? Citizenship by Investment and Beyond, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg. April.“Outlaw Tea”

•  2021     Asian Food Studies Conference, Hangzhou, China. December.

“Citizenship 4 Sale” 

• 2021     Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US. March.

“Residence and Citizenship by Investment: Understanding Recent Trends”

• 2021     Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), Oxford University, January.

“American Illiberalism Viewed from Abroad”

• 2020     Deutsches Haus at NYU, Berlin, Germany. October.

“茶道建国” [The Tea Ceremony and Nation-Building]

• 2020     Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan. January.

• 2018     Kyoto University, Japan. November.

 “The Marketization of Citizenship: How to Sell a Quasi-Sacred Status”

• 2019     Hitotsubashi University, Japan. November.

• 2019     University of Michigan, US. February.

• 2019     University of California at Los Angeles, US. January.

• 2017     Clare Hall, Cambridge, UK. November.

“Organizing Guestwork: Public-Private Partnerships in East Asia”

• 2019     Nippon Foundation, Japan. December.

• 2019     German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ), Japan. October.

• 2019     Department of Sociology, Hosei University, Japan. October. 

“The Rhythm of Hospitality: Organizing Interaction in the Tea Room”

• 2018     MIASU, Cambridge University, UK. June.

“Making Tea, Making Japan: Cultural Nationalism in Practice”

• 2018     University of British Columbia, Canada. October.

• 2016     University of Mainz, Germany. July.

• 2016     University of Washington, Seattle, US. May.

• 2016     University of California, San Diego, US. February.

• 2015     University of Zurich, Switzerland. May.

• 2015     Columbia University, US. April

• 2015     Princeton University, US. April.

• 2015     Northwestern University, US. March

• 2015     University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, US. March.

• 2015     Cambridge University, UK. February.

• 2014     University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, US. November

• 2014     Tokyo University, Japan. July.

• 2014     Foreign Correspondents’ Club Japan, Tokyo, Japan.  July.

• 2014     University of Edinburgh, UK. March.

• 2013     Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan. December.

“Beyond Blood and Soil: Jus Pecuniae and the Rise of Citizenship by Investment”

• 2017     , Graduate Center, CUNY, US. April.

• 2016     Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, US. April.

• 2016     Department of Sociology, Princeton University, US. April.

• 2016     NYU Abu Dhabi Institute. NYU Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. March.

“Migration Industries and the State”

• 2016     University of Trondheim, Norway. October.

“Guestwork Regimes: A Global Comparison”

• 2016     Department of Sociology. NYU Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. March.

• 2015     Institute of Labor Relations. Cornell University, US.  October.

• 2015     Center for Indian Studies in Africa. University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. August.

“Engaging Objects: A Phenomenology of the Tea Ceremony and Japaneseness”

• 2016     University of Hamburg, Germany. June.

“Immigration in the UK and Japan Today”

• 2015     Daiwa Foundation, London, UK. June.

“Why Japan Doesn’t Have Guestworkers”

• 2015     Japan Society, London, UK. March.

• 2013     London Migration Research Group, London, UK. April.

• 2012     Free University of Berlin, Germany. December.

“Beyond ‘Peacefulness Through a Bowl of Tea’”

• 2015     Japan Foundation, New York, US. April.

• 2015     School of Anthropology, Oxford University, UK. February.

• 2015     Diploma in East Asian Art, SOAS, University of London, UK. February.

“The Political Sociology of Regional Variation: Family Immigration in North America, Europe, and East Asia”

• 2014     Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB). Berlin, Germany, January.

“Sensing the Nation: A Phenomenology of the Tea Ceremony”

• 2014     Department of Anthropology, SOAS, University of London, UK. November.

“From Selling Tea to Selling Japaneseness: The Iemoto System”

• 2014     Japan Foundation, Tokyo, Japan. July.

“お茶をたてる、日本をたてる：文化ナショナリズムの実践“ (Making Tea, Making Japan: Cultural Nationalism in Practice). 

• 2013     Ochanomizu University, Tokyo, Japan. December.

“Traditions Beyond Invention: Outlaw Tea”

• 2013     Workshop on Japanese Traditions Beyond Invention, Düsseldorf University, Germany. November.

“Migrationsregime: Die Gastarbeiter”  (Migration Regimes: Guestworkers)

• 2013     Inaugural Lecture (Antrittsvorlesung).  University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. January.  

“Social Science Research Methods for the Study of East Asia”

• 2012     Asia and Africa Institute, University of Hamburg, Germany. June.

“Migration Industries in East Asia”

• 2012     East Asia Net, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. October.

“At the Margins of Multiculturalism: Others in Japan.” 

• 2012     University of Lyon, France.  January

• 2011     Nissan Institute, St. Anthony’s College, Oxford University, UK. June. 

“Tea Ceremony and the Production of National Culture.”

• 2012     Asia and Africa Institute, University of Hamburg, Germany. June.

• 2010     Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures Lecture Series, University of East Anglia, UK. March.

• 2009     It’s a Matter of Taste: Food in World History and Cultures Lecture Series, UCLA, US. July.

“Gendering the Tea Ceremony.”

• 2011     Research Colloquium for Gender and Cultural History.  Bochum University, Germany. November.

“Nation-Work: Towards a Praxeology of Cultural Nationalism.” 

• 2011     Centre for Postcolonial Studies, Goldsmiths College, UK. March. 

• 2010     Nissan Institute, St. Anthony’s College, Oxford University, UK. February.

“Re-Making Japanese Tea: A Look at Institutions.”

• 2013     Research Colloquium for the Study of Social Organizations. Technical University Berlin, Germany. May.

• 2011       Ferdinand Braudel Series, Department of History and Civilization, European           University Institute, Italy. January.

• 2009        Japan Research Centre, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK. February.

“Using Culture for Nation-Work.” 

• 2010     Department of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Denmark. February.

• 2008     Cultural Power Asia – Producing Culture, Building Identities, Frankfurt University, Germany. November.

茶道とジェンダーとエスニシティー(Tea Ceremony, Gender, and Ethnicity)

• 2007     Japanese Society for Studies of Chanoyu, Tokyo Gakugei University, Japan. September.

日本の文化とは？アメリカの文化とは？ (Japanese Culture? American Culture?)

• 2005     Wakō University, Japan. June.

• 2025   “The Future of Citizenship by Investment.”  Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development

  Office. Wilton Park, UK. January.

• 2024   “Western Sanctions on Russia and the Rise of the Non-Western Offshore World.” Institute of International Relations. Athens, Greece. June.

• 2024   “Unpicking the FATF/OECD Report on Investment Migration.” Investment Migration Council annual conference. Dubai, UAE. April.

• 2024   “Why Hide? The Dynamics of Secrecy and Tax in UK Property Holdings.” With Johnathan Inkley.  Symposium on Systems of Financial Secrecy, Open Ownership and the LSE International Inequalities Institute. London, UK. February.

• 2024   “Golden Visas and Golden Passports: Uses, Misuses, and Alternatives.” Anti-Corruption Action Network. Washington, DC. February.

• 2021   “Citizenship and Residence by Investment Schemes.” Briefing for the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice, and Home Affairs (LIBE), European Parliament, Brussels. November.

• 2020   “Migration, mobility, and Coronavirus.” Chatham House, Queen Elizabeth II Academy, London. November.

• 2019   “Labor Migration and the Future of Japan.”  Nippon Foundation, Tokyo. December.

• 2018   “At the Crossroads: International Migration and Investment Migration Trends in Europe.” Investment Migration Summit, Dubai, UAE. February.

• 2018   “Shifts in the Status Quo: International Migration and Investment Migration Trends in the Caribbean.”  Caribbean Investment Summit, Frigate Bay, Saint Kitts. May.

• 2017   “Scenarios for Japan’s Energy Future.” Shell Corporation, London. January.

• 2017   “Nationalism, National Identity, and the Interregnum.” Asakusa Laboratory #1, Asakusa Gallery, Tokyo. January.

• 2017   “International Migration Today.”  Investment Migration Summit, Dubai, UAE. February.

• 2017   “Global Trends in International Migration.”  Investment Migration Summit, Hong Kong, China. November.

• 2016   “The Role of Cities in Global Migration.”  United Nations Alliance of Civilization (UNAOC) Global Forum. Baku, Azerbaijan. April.

• 2016   “Migration Beyond Japan.”  Terasaki Center Global Japan Forum. University of California, Los Angeles. May.