Meredith Weiss

Making Sense of the Myanmar and Thai Elections: Complicated Processes, Fraught Results — Southeast Asia Consortium ONLINE WEBINAR via Zoom Date: Monday, February 23, 2026 Time: 05:00PM - 06:30PM EST Speakers: Joel Sawat Selway (Ph.D. 2009, University of Michigan ) is a Thai-British ass...

Interested in expert takes on the recent, confounding Thai and Myanmar elections? Kyaw Yin Hlaing and @joelselway.bsky.social will help make sense of what's happened and what's ahead.

Monday, 23 February, 5-6:30pm ET (Zoom)

www.sunycunysoutheastasiaconsortium.org/events-1/swf...

Politics in a Pandemic Cambridge Core - South-East Asian Government, Politics and Policy - Politics in a Pandemic

A bit of a Covid-time detour ... but happy to welcome to the world Politics in a Pandemic: Governance and Crisis Management in Southeast Asia. (Free download through 19 Dec.) My take on what attributes best equipped SE Asian states to govern in the "hard times" of the pandemic.
tinyurl.com/5drjhphk

New event! In conversation with Prof @merweiss.bsky.social

Weiss, @albany.edu & founding director of SUNY Southeast Asia Consortium discusses the state of politics in Malaysia & SE Asia with @wjhurst.bsky.social

🗓️ Next Mon 8 Dec! 16:00-17:30
🗺️ FAMES Building, CB3 9DA
✒️ Reg and info: bit.ly/4pMY11t

2 Dec Scapegoating queers: Pink-blocking as state strategy Jointly hosted by the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre and the Department of Gender Studies LSE Centre Building, Sumeet Valrani Lecture Theatre (CBG Sumeet Valrani) Tuesday 2 December 2025 5.30pm - 7pm

New event!
📆2nd Dec
🕠5:30pm UK Time

LSE Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre and the Department of Gender Studies host @merweiss.bsky.social for talk "Scapegoating queers: Pink-blocking as state strategy" discussing how queer identities continue to be targeted & scapegoated in Malaysian politics

Sustainable Development and the Environment in Southeast Asia Cambridge Core - South-East Asian Government, Politics and Policy - Sustainable Development and the Environment in Southeast Asia

Latest in the Politics & Society in SE Asia Elements series: Pamela McElwee's Sustainable Development and the Environment in Southeast Asia. How can SEA best address environmental costs of development, beyond SDGs?
Free to download for the next 2 weeks! @pammcelwee.bsky.social
tinyurl.com/5cx83knt

Malaysia confronts the realities of MAGA diplomacy and Trump’s brash ambassadorial pick For decades, Malaysia and the US have enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship. Could that be changing?

Nick Adams, Trump's pick for US ambassador to Malaysia, has raised eyebrows with his brash persona and lack of diplomatic experience.

His nomination marks a turning point in U.S.-Malaysian relations, according to a political science professor. buff.ly/X65WHRs
By @merweiss.bsky.social @albany.edu

Malaysia confronts the realities of MAGA diplomacy and Trump’s brash ambassadorial pick For decades, Malaysia and the US have enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship. Could that be changing?

Crazy events occasionally compel me to venture out of my usual cozy niche in comparative politics and into foreign policy ... And few recent events (at least in my world) have been quite so crazy as this nomination.
theconversation.com/malaysia-con...

New article, with Ibrahim Suffian and Ted Lee: "Malaysia’s Democratic Deficit: Why Youth May Not Be the Answer." (Abbreviated abstract: not all youth are politically "progressive.") This piece was looong in coming – so all the happier to see it finally in print!
www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....

Doing a "Bangkok after Dark" book talk at Book Culture (Manhattan location) on July 9, with Rianne Subijanto who also has a new book.

Details/register: www.bookculture.com/event/112th-...

Thanks to @sunycunyseac.bsky.social for setting it up!

New working paper, with @a2hicken.bsky.social and @edwardaspinall.bsky.social: "New Patterns of Urban Political Reform in SE Asia." What can 18 SE Asian cities tell us about the likelihood and character of urban reform? We dive in here. Thanks to our fab research team and GLD!
tinyurl.com/3eur93v5

People’s Action Party prevails in Singapore Singapore’s election result signals the population’s widespread desire for stability and consistency.

A bit delayed in posting, but my recap of Singapore's less-than-shocking general elections last month: eastasiaforum.org/2025/06/03/p...

From Mary Callahan, whose judgment one can trust, on Myanmar earthquake relief: support on-the-ground efforts with "track records of working entirely with local organizations and of moving money with minimal overhead via the informal hundi system IMMEDIATELY." She recommends tinyurl.com/4xatjvvz

Rethinking Colonial Legacies across Southeast Asia Cambridge Core - Asian Studies - Rethinking Colonial Legacies across Southeast Asia

The latest Element in Politics & Society in SE Asia is out: Diana Kim's "Rethinking Colonial Legacies across SE Asia"! Kim explores the significance & legacies of Japan's WWII occupation of SE Asia for understanding colonial legacies. Download FREE through 2 April.
www.cambridge.org/core/element...

Upcoming webinar (3/11, 7-8:30pm ET), trying to make sense of (or at least, get a better grasp on) the implications of shifting/collapsing US policy and aid in Myanmar. Germane to that fraught context, but also to the rest of SE Asia and globally.
www.sunycunysoutheastasiaconsortium.org/events

Social Media and Politics in Southeast Asia Cambridge Core - South-East Asian Government, Politics and Policy - Social Media and Politics in Southeast Asia

Fantastic new volume in CUP Elements SE Asia series: @merlyna.bsky.social's "Social Media & Politics in Southeast Asia." FREE download through 17 Feb! A nuanced, astute take on character & implications of rise & amplification of social-media platforms across SE Asia (& beyond). tinyurl.com/yeykd4ee

The Roots of Resilience by Meredith L. Weiss | Paperback | Cornell University Press In The Roots of Resilience Meredith L. Weiss examines governance from the ground up in the world's two most enduring electoral authoritarian or "hybrid" regimes—Singapore and Malaysia—where politicall...

Launching 5 Jan, from Cornell UP: the paperback version of The Roots of Resilience! My book is born again ... 😅 Available for pre-order now!
www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...

State and Sub-State Nationalism in Southeast Asia Cambridge Core - East Asian Government, Politics and Policy - State and Sub-State Nationalism in Southeast Asia

Happy to announce the latest volume in the CUP Elements series on SE Asia, Jacques Bertrand's ambitious and astute, "State and Sub-State Nationalism in Southeast Asia"! Just in time to include on your spring-semester course syllabi! 😃
FREE to download for 4 weeks: www.cambridge.org/core/element...

An honor ... and a lot of fun! :D

Youth Movements in Asia, Past and Present: The Transnational Side of the

Giving a talk previewing the Milk Tea Alliance book at Stanford on December 3, so glad to have @merweiss.bsky.social commenting & Gi-Wook Shin moderating fsi.stanford.edu/events/youth...

Jfc cis people, we really fucking need you on this one. Barring people from accessing bathroom facilities is barring people from public life, and if they succeed here they’re going to move on to barring them from every other possible place.

Call your reps please.

Scapegoating queers: Pink-blocking as state strategy - Meredith L Weiss, 2023 Malaysia’s ‘democratic transition’ in May 2018, when a challenger coalition ousted the long-dominant incumbent coalition, raised hopes of a new political climat...

Reposted this elsewhere while watching the election returns come in, as it became clear how much perverse pull transphobia has had in MAGAland. Seems apropos for a first post on this new platform ... SE Asia-focused – or so I thought.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Call for Submissions: ASEAS 2025 Conference “Global Southeast Asia: Continuity and Change” St John’s College, University of Cambridge, 15–17 September 2025 The conference organising committee of the Association of Southeast Asian Studies (AS…

#CFP “Global Southeast Asia: Continuity and Change,” Association of Southeast Asian Studies conference at St John’s College, University of Cambridge, September 15-17, 2025. Submit paper and panel abstracts by April 30 for consideration.