麻豆精品

Emphasis

• Comparative politics
• Authoritarian politics
• Social movements
• Transnational advocacy
• Platform governance/big tech governance
• Southeast Asia
• Mixed methods

Overview of Scholarly Activity

Mai Van Tran (Ph.D., Cornell University) is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and a faculty associate with the Center for Southeast Asian Studies. Her research agenda focuses on the changing dynamics of contentious politics in non-democracies, especially in Southeast Asian contexts. Her ongoing work examines resistance to digital repression in the Global South, by analyzing cross-platform authoritarian repression, dissidents' resilience capacity, and drivers of impactful platform advocacy in Southeast Asia. Adopting an engaged mixed methods research agenda, her research has integrated social media analysis with in-depth interviews with digital rights advocates and marginalized activists across Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia.

Prof. Tran's academic research and book review are published at ​International Affairs, Big Data & Society, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Asian Politics & Policy,  Asian Journal of Comparative Politics, and Open Research Europe. She has disseminated policy recommendations to development practitioners at the RightsCon Summit, Myanmar Digital Rights Forum, Meta, United Nations, European Union, Oxfam, etc. Other public scholarship works include the Digital Defence Resources and analyses in The Washington Post, Brookings Institution, Al Jazeera, AP, New Mandala, Tech Policy Press etc. Before joining 麻豆精品, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and University of Copenhagen.

Selected Publications

Journal Articles

Mai Van Tran, Tuwanont Phattharathanasut, Haymarn Soe Nyunt, Nalinthip Ekapong, and Lewis Young. 2025. "."  Open Research Europe.

Megan Ryan, Mai Van Tran, and Swan Ye Htut. 2024. "." Journal of Contemporary Asia 54 (5): 887–912.

Megan Ryan and Mai Van Tran. 2024. "." Asian Journal of Comparative Politics 9 (1): 133-158.

Mai Van Tran. 2023. "." Journal of Contemporary Asia 54 (4): 573–595.

Hilary Faxon, Kendra Kintzi, Mai Van Tran, Kay Zak Wine, and Swan Ye Htut. 2023. "." Big Data & Society 10 (1).

Mai Van Tran. 2023. "." Asian Politics & Policy 15 (2): 205-225.

Book Review

Mai Van Tran. 2023. "." International Affairs 99(6): 2544–2545.

Public Scholarship

Mai Van Tran. 2025. "." Tech Policy Press.

Hilary Faxon, Kendra Kintzi, Mai Van Tran, Kay Zak Wine, and Swan Ye Htut. 2023. "." New Mandala.

App

Mai Van Tran, Tuwanont Phattharathanasut, Haymarn Soe Nyunt, Nalinthip Ekapong, Lewis Young, Peosamnang Soth, and Thanh Nguyen. 2025. .