Please feel free to call me “Samphoas” or “Dr. Im.”

I am a trained political scientist and interdisciplinary social scientist specializing in Cambodia and Southeast Asia. My research engages comparative politics, authoritarian governance, political strategies, social welfare policy, Cambodia–China relations, and mainland Southeast Asian political economy. My current work examines how Cambodia’s long-ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) has deployed selective reforms to reshape its governing image, bolster regime legitimacy, and consolidate autocratic control.

I currently serve as Associate Director of the Asian Studies Center at Michigan State University and as an Affiliated Scholar at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan. Previously, I was a 2023–24 Lee Kong Chian NUS–Stanford Fellow on Southeast Asia and Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and the National University of Singapore. During this fellowship, I advanced my book manuscript, Empowering the State: Unveiling Cambodia’s Policy Impact on Governance, produced peer-reviewed publications, and delivered guest lectures.

My research has been supported by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) through The Asia Foundation and the Center for Khmer Studies, the Open Society Foundations, the American Association of University Women, the East-West Center, and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute.

My scholarship has appeared in 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, as well as in the Routledge Handbook of Autocratization in Southeast Asia. I also regularly contribute to international media outlets including Asia Times, South China Morning Post, Voice of America, Deutsche Welle (DW) News, Southeast Asia Globe, Kiri Post, Anadolu Agency, China Global South Project, and 9DashLine.

I hold a Ph.D. and M.A. in Political Science (Comparative Politics, Social Policy, and Southeast Asian Studies) from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, 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).