ABOUT ME

Welcome!

I am Duong Thi Thuy Pham, a PhD Candidate in Political Science at the University of California, San Diego and a Dissertation Fellow at UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC). My research interests revolve around the puzzle of authoritarian survival and autocratization in the 21st century. I focus primarily on how autocratic regimes deploy propaganda and information control tactics to win the hearts and minds of people, both at home and abroad. 

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My dissertation tackles an understudied angle of modern authoritarianism: autocrats' construction of alternative meanings of democracy that challenge the Western liberal model. What motivates autocrats to redefine democracy? How do they do so? And can they exploit this rhetoric to stabilize their rule? To answer these questions, I take Vietnam as my primary case, drawing on a diverse set of methods, including mixed-methods text analysis, archival research, original survey experiments, and semi-structured interviews. I offer a comprehensive portrait of how one-party rule sustains itself through the politics of meaning-making. A compact version of my argument is available in this piece published by UCIGCC.

 

My regional expertise spans Southeast and Northeast Asia, with a substantive focus on Vietnam and China. I am also pursuing research on the international relations of the Asia-Pacific, ASEAN, LGBT politics in Vietnam, and applications of AI to qualitative research methods.

 

Originally from Da Lat, Vietnam, I received a B.A. in International Relations and Peace Studies from Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University. I later earned an M.A. in Law (Politics and International Relations) from Peking University as a Yenching Scholar at the Yenching Academy of Peking University and a Baixian Scholar affiliated with the Baixian Asia Institute.
 

Alongside my academic research, I contribute commentary and analysis to public-facing outlets including The Diplomat and East Asia Forum.