I am a DPhil Politics student at the DPIR and a Research Fellow at the Institute of Asian Studies at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies in Hamburg. I am interested in the formation of democratic parties in authoritarian states, their subsequent institutionalisation process, and the role they play in hybrid regimes. My research focuses on the development of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar.
I have worked in and on Myanmar for several years and am the Chairman of the Initiative Austausch e.V. (Exchange Initiative), a registered, independent non-profit organisation focusing on political education in Myanmar and exchange between Myanmar and Germany. The Initiative Austausch organises the Political Education Programme for Junior Politicians, the leading political education programme for junior politicians in Myanmar, in cooperation with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
I also organised the conference Shaping Past, Present and Future: Political Parties and State Transformation in Myanmar in Yangon, bringing together leading academics to illuminate the role of political parties in Myanmar (for the first time). The conference inspired a special issue in the Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs.
Research
My research interests include:
- Government,
- Democracy and Democratisation,
- Political Parties
Teaching
I have taught courses on qualitative methodology and regime change in Southeast Asia at the Yangon School of Political Science and regularly prepare briefs on Myanmar politics.
