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...

SEAREG Pre-Dissertation Fellowship | Duke Center for International Development

The SEAREG Pre-Dissertation Fellowship assists social science Ph.D. students engaged in exploratory research who must travel to Southeast Asia in order to obtain the adva

dcid.sanford.duke.edu

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/...

Founding Leaders and National Narratives: Anthropomorphism and the Roots of Founding Leader Personality Cults in Three East Asian Cases - Paul Schuler, Trung-Anh Nguyen, Yongfeng Tang, Mohammad Khan, ...

Founding leader personality cults are crucial components of national narratives. Yet, relatively little research examines how they emerge. A small political sci...

journals.sagepub.com

🚨 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...

SEAREG Thematic Sessions | Duke Center for International Development

SEAREG Thematic Sessions - Duke Center for International Development

dcid.sanford.duke.edu

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...

Trump Administration Halts Harvard’s Ability to Enroll International Students

nytimes.com

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 Venezuelan Is Missing. The U.S. Deported Him. But to Where? (Gift Article)

The immigrant does not appear on a list of people sent to a prison in El Salvador, and his family and friends have no idea of his whereabouts. He has essentially disappeared.

nytimes.com

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.

Brown University advises all international community members to postpone, reconsider travel

One week before spring break, Brown advised international community members, including green card holders and permanent residents, to postpone international travel in a campus-wide email sent on Sunda...

browndailyherald.com

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...

Analysis: White House denies ignoring court order halting Venezuelan deportations | CNN Politics

The White House is denying that it violated a judge’s order Saturday to halt the deportations of Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador, which, if it did occur, would take legal showdowns over the adm...

cnn.com

Authoritarianism warning:

Alex Wild@alexwild.bsky.social · last yr.

Texas legislators considering a bill that would put all public university course curricula and faculty hiring in the hands of ruling party political appointees and politicians, effectively ending academic freedom.

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

Jameel Jaffer@jameeljaffer.bsky.social · last yr.

I’m told this is a real letter. It basically says, “We’ll destroy Columbia unless you destroy it first.”

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.

Mehdi Hasan@mehdirhasan.bsky.social · last yr.

Breaking: DHS detains Palestinian student from Columbia.

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...

United Front: Projecting Solidarity through Deliberation in Vietnam’s Single-Party Legislature (Studies of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center)

United Front: Projecting Solidarity through Deliberation in Vietnam’s Single-Party Legislature (Studies of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center) [Schuler, Paul] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. United Front: Projecting Solidarity through Deliberation in Vietnam’s Single-Party Legislature (Studies of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center)

amazon.com

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...

SEAREG Pre-Dissertation Fellowship | Duke Center for International Development

The Fellowship assists social science Ph.D. students engaged in exploratory research who must travel to Southeast Asia in order to obtain the advanced contextual knowledg

dcid.sanford.duke.edu

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-...

2024 Winter SEAREG Conference | Duke Center for International Development

2024 Winter SEAREG Conference - Duke Center for International Development

dcid.sanford.duke.edu

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.