For Ph.D students in social sciences studying Southeast Asia, consider applying for the SEAREG Predissertation Fellowship. The fellowship provides up top $5k in funding for fieldwork. dcid.sanford.duke.edu/seareg-pre-d...

Today we will return to the articles from Issue 14 of 2024, a special issue focusing on the topic of Gender and Authoritarian Politics. Please enjoy! #polisky #socialscience #ComparativePolitics #academicsky

We have a new article in @cpsjournal.bsky.social theorizing founding leader personality cult emergence in Vietnam, China and Indonesia. It'll be part of a special issue "Imagining Nations" w/ @eunajo.bsky.social, @deandulay.bsky.social, @jiyoungko.bsky.social journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

🚨 Call for Papers: 2026 WPSA Mini-Conference on Authoritarian Politics 🚨 Jun Sudduth, @paulschuler.bsky.social, and I are excited to see y’all in San Diego! We welcome formal and empirical papers on a broad range of topics. 📌 Apply here. Share with colleagues & students: forms.gle/Dv2SBEduFxSh...

For all Southeast Asianist scholars, please consider submitting a paper proposal for SEAREG at UC-San Diego in December. dcid.sanford.duke.edu/seareg-thema...

In today’s thread, we will revisit the articles published in Issue 2 of our 2024 volume. We hope you find them insightful!

Cuts have consequences, illustrated. As seen on TV 📺

If this stands, and if it spreads, it would be a crushing blow to higher education in America -- and also a major new contributor to our trade deficits. Higher ed is one of the most reliable surplus drivers that our country can offer. Free link www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/u...

muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... We started this project nearly five years ago, when we were both graduate students — I had just begun my third year of the PhD program at the University of Arizona. It's incredibly rewarding to see how far this work has come!

“He has simply disappeared,” said a friend. “I have not heard of a disappearance like this in my 40-plus years of practicing and teaching immigration law.,” said one law prof. “This case represents a black hole where due process no longer exists." www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/u...

A fantastically important postscript to this piece: David Graham asks Jeffrey Goldberg about possible retaliation, and Goldberg gives a perfect answer — with perfect swipes. www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

Letter to leadership of universities being targeted, to run in Chronicle tomorrow. Academic friends, pls sign if you are a US citizen and tenured (ie it’s safe for you to do so) “We Must Leverage the Strength of Our Institutions and Stand Together” Text in replies docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Chilling report from Brown University. Administration advises all foreign students, staff, and faculty to postpone or reconsider (ie cancel) international travel, due to federal government's crackdown on universities. Brown also warns against *domestic travel* -since it's unclear what ICE will do.

Backsliding in the US may be worse than other global cases. Hungary, Poland, and India at least followed Scheppele's "authoritarian legalism" model where laws were manipulated, but followed. Here, the laws are flouted flagrantly. This is more unapologetic and blatant. www.cnn.com/2025/03/17/p...

Authoritarianism warning:

If the government can do this to universities, we don't live in a free society. Five alarm fire.

Ok I know this is old-man irritability but I don’t care if Mahmoud Khalil has a pregnant wife, I don’t care if he and his wife are childfree, I don’t care if he’s in a fucking polycule with a hedgehog and a jar of mayonnaise, NOBODY should be detained for protected speech, including singletons.

The White House, not even DHS, the White House itself apparently, is directly deciding which permanent residents should be detained and deported based on their political speech. If this doesn’t scare you about the state of our democracy and liberties, I don’t know what will.

Nice piece by @thiembui.bsky.social on the reduced role of the Vietnam National Assembly. thediplomat.com/2025/03/the-... For context, my work on the relationship between the party, gov't and VNA helps explain why it's happening www.amazon.com/United-Front... journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

REMINDER: Cutting IRS spending is not a “cost-cutting” move. Cutting the IRS lowers revenue. It’s a move to protect the wealthy, like Elon Musk. Auditing the rich returns $12 for every $1 spent. www.nber.org/papers/w31376

Tesla paid $0 in federal income tax last year. 2022: $0 2021: $0 2020: $0 2019: $0 2018: $0 Tesla reported $6.7 billion in profit in those years.

I’ve been studying civil rights protests for 20 years. With new mobilization against Trump’s agenda, I’m sharing a thread summarizing my research on how nonviolent & violent actions by 1960s activists and police influenced media, elites, public opinion & voters. 1/ www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

If you are a Ph.D student studying SE Asia developing your prospectus, please consider this pre dissertation grant for fieldwork. The grant is up to $5000 and sponsored by the Southeast Asia Research Group (SEAREG). Feel free to contact me with any questions. dcid.sanford.duke.edu/seareg-pre-d...

New summer reading:) Congrats @scottrw630.bsky.social! An awesome achievement 🥳👏

If you are near Boston from December 5-7, consider attending the Southeast Asia Research Group Annual Meeting (SEAREG). It features five outstanding fellows and cutting edge SEA research from top-SEA scholars. To attend, register here: dcid.sanford.duke.edu/seareg-2024-...

Inya Institute announces 2024 CAORC-INYA Scholars Fellowship for post-PhD Myanmar / Burma scholars. $4,000-4,400, application 5 January 2024. Polisky // SEAsiaSky

I am excited to share my new article in Government and Opposition! In this article, I first categorize protests under authoritarianism as either policy- or democracy-focused, based on (1) their primary goals or demands and (2) the specific solutions protesters seek to achieve these goals.

Tune in virtually or in-person on Thursday (Oct. 24 6pm PST) for our University of Arizona expert forecast for the 2024 Election results in Arizona. We have three great experts Drs. Samara Klar, Chris Weber, and Lisa Sanchez reviewing fresh polling data from AZ. See below for registration details.

my newest @goodauth.bsky.social piece with Caroline Soler documents how pollsters are weighting polls differently now compared to 2016 and what that means for numbers they are putting out there goodauthority.org/news/pollste...

Anyone researching authoritarian politics -- Masaaki Higashijima and I are reviving the "Un-Democratic Politics" Mini-Conference April 17-19, 2025 at WPSA. If you have an abstract, please email if you're interested in joining!

If you are a US citizen interested in studying an East Asian language, consider applying for the Blakemore Fellowship. I used the fellowship in grad school to study Vietnamese. It's a fantastic program. blakemorefoundation.communityforce.com/Funds/Search...

For those interested in Southeast Asian politics, I have two announcements. First, SEAREG is hosting its annual conference December 6-8 at Boston University. Second, consider nominating an outstanding junior scholar as a SEAREG fellow. Details here: dcid.sanford.duke.edu/seareg/

In 1943, Arthur Koestler wrote that: "In this war we are fighting against a total lie in the name of a half-truth." What a turn of phrase. (Nazism was the "total lie," whereas the idea that the Allies were fighting against racism and for democracy is the "half-truth.")

Please submit nominations for APSA's Experiments Section's best book award! We will consider books that either use or are about experimental research methods in the study of politics. (Reposting because there has been a change in the committee.) Polisky

Reminder that we are hiring in international law or international organization polisky psjminfo

Please find my new paper on gender and clientelism in @cpsjournal.bsky.social. (journals.sagepub.com/eprint/H9VXS...) It's in an upcoming special issue on authoritarianism and gender edited by Marwa Shalaby and Lena Wängnerud

Are you/do you know an early career researcher (ABD/postdoc) interested in conflict forecasting, maritime security, and climate change? We're looking for you! Fantastic opportunity to work with the World Wildlife Fund on a cool project – PM me to learn more. And yes, we pay :-) Spread the word.

We are hiring at the University of Arizona for Asst. Prof position in International Law and/or Organization. Please share. arizona.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Excited to share that our (@bcastanho.bsky.social & @jwaeckerle.bsky.social) paper will be out soon in AJPS! We investigate how women MPs adapt to their environment, finding that over time women speak in more masculine ways, particularly women in progressive parties.  s.gwdg.de/ecTNEN