S. Samphoas Im, PhD

Welcome!

I am a trained political scientist and interdisciplinary social scientist, with a research focus on Cambodia and Southeast Asia. My interests encompass comparative politics, authoritarian regimes, political strategies, social welfare policies, and Cambodia-China relations. Currently, I am examining how the long-standing Cambodian People's Party (CPP) has enacted specific reforms to enhance its governmental image, thereby bolstering its legitimacy and reinforcing its autocratic rule.

I serve as the Associate Director at the Asian Studies Center (ASN) at Michigan State University and as an Affiliated Scholar at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) at the University of Michigan. Recently, I was a Visiting Scholar of the 2023-24 Lee Kong Chian NUS-Stanford Fellow on Southeast Asia at Stanford University's Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) and the National University of Singapore (NUS). During my time at these institutions, I worked on a book manuscript tentatively titled “Empowering the State: Unveiling Cambodia's Policy Impact on Governance.”

My research has received support from various organizations, including the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) through The Asia Foundation (TAF) and the Center for Khmer Studies (CKS), the Open Society Foundations (OSF), the American Association of University Women (AAUW), the East-West Center (EWC), and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute (RWI).

I have published works in several journals, including Research on Ageing and Social Policy, Journal of Industrial Relations, Asian Politics & Policy, Annals of Tourism Research Empirical Insights, Asian Studies Review, Politics & Policy, Southeast Asian Studies, Pacific Affairs, and Chinese Studies International, and a forthcoming chapter in the Routledge Handbook of Autocratization in Southeast Asia.

I hold a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Political Science specialized in Comparative Politics, Social Policy, and Southeast Asian Studies from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, an M.Sc. in Defense, Development, and Diplomacy from Durham University (UK), and a B.A. in International Relations from Pannasastra University of Cambodia and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium).