His research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of comparative politics and history of East Asia, with a focus on colonialism and its legacies. His current book project, based on several years of archival research in multiple countries, examines variation in institution-building outcomes within colonial occupations, particularly in the areas of police and education. At the heart of his investigation is a comparison of two historic cases of state-building—the Japanese occupation of Taiwan (1895-1945) and the U.S. occupation of the Philippines (1898-1942)—which resulted in contrasting state-building outcomes despite the existence of comparable starting conditions. Prior to coming to Trinity, Matsuzaki was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, where he managed a project examining the issue of governance in China.