Aim Sinpeng

Aim is a Brown Fellow and an award-winning educator whose research interests centre on the relationships between digital media and political participation in Southeast Asia. She is particularly interested in the issues of social media campaigning, disinformation, online public opinion manipulation and electoral interference. She is the co-founder of the Sydney Cyber Security Network and a Thailand country coordinator for the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre. Aim received a Teaching Excellence Award in 2017 and was named an 'Emerging Female Leader' in 2018 by the University of Sydney. In 2019, Aim won a research award from Facebook to study hate speech in the Asia Pacific. Aim has served as the Expert Contributor for Varieties of Democracy and Bartelsmann Transformation Index, 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, 2020) and From Grassroots Activism to Disinformation: Social Media in Southeast Asia, with Ross Tapsell (ISEAS, 2020). Her articles have appeared in journals such as 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, CNBC and Sky News.