Aim Sinpeng

Lecturer in Government and International Relations
University of Sydney

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.

From this author

Inclusive and workplace acceptance of refugees
Partnering for refugee employment

When considering their talent pipelines, few companies think outside-of-the-box. Most refugees flourish in the workplace, and so do the businesses that hire them.

SDG 16
Institutional investors demand a more sustainable capitalism

Honey gathering is a solitary job in Indigenous communities. The collector then shares the honey with their community but refrains from joining in the honey feast themself. The idea is that the gathering is not about their gratification, it’s about their contribution to the collective.  

SDG15 Bushfires
Optimisation model as a guide to burning forests to save forests

Setting fire to parts of a forest to save it might seem counterintuitive to urban communities. There is no equivalent of torching a few streets to protect a suburb. However, amongst First Nations people in Australia, hazard reduction burning is a well-established practice.

SDG13 - coal mining
Net zero now – it’s the economy AND the planet

In Australia, as elsewhere, the climate wars have focused on the climate versus jobs dichotomy. Yet while Australia remains highly dependent on fossil fuel extraction for its national economic prosperity it has also become increasingly unequal in its distribution of that wealth.