Associate ProfessorAim Sinpeng

BA Connecticut College, MA University of Toronto, PhD University of British Columbia.

Aim is Associate Professor in Comparative Politics in the Discipline of Government and International Relations. She is currently a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA)fellow for her project on 'Cyber Repression and Political Protests in Thailand.' Her research interests centre on the relationships between digital media, AI, and political participation in Southeast Asia. She is particularly interested in the issues of social media campaigning, disinformation, online harassment and AI bias. Aim was a recipient of the inaugural Research Impact Award from the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre in 2025. Aim also won the FASS Early Career Research Excellence Award in 2022.

She is the co-founder of the Sydney Cyber Security Network and a Thailand country coordinator for the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre. An award-winning educator, Aim was named an 'Emerging Female Leader' in 2018 by the University of Sydney. In 2019, Aim became one of the first Australian researchers to win an award fromFacebook to study hate speech in the Asia Pacific. Aim has served as the Expert Contributor for Varieties of Democracy(V-Dem) and BartelsmannTransformation Index(BTI), which measure degrees and types of democracy, and continued to consult for a number of international agencies.

Her books include Opposing Democracy in the Digital Age: the Yellow Shirts in Thailand (University of Michigan Press, 2021), which won the Early Career Book Prize from the Asian Studies Association of Australia (2022) and From Grassroots Activism to Disinformation: Social Media in Southeast Asia, with Ross Tapsell (ISEAS, 2021). Her articles have appeared in journals such as Electoral Studies, Pacific Affairs, Journal of East Asian Studies, Media, Culture & Society and Journal of Information, Politics and Society. Prior to her academic career she has worked for the World Bank, a Toronto-based investment bank, governments of Thailand and the Czech Republic and the New York State Democrat Party. Aim is also a regular commentator on Southeast Asian politics for the ABC, SBS, CBC, Channel News Asia, Al Jazeera, Nikkei Asia, CNBC and the Guardian.