Mai Nguyen

I am a PhD candidate and MacCracken Fellow in the Wilf Family Department of Politics at New York University. I primarily study issues relating to state formation, ethnic politics and the political economy of development.

My current research focuses on state integration of ethnic minority groups in Southeast Asia. Specifically, my work aims to answer three related but distinct questions: 1) why do states choose to extend their reach into some peripheral areas and not others, 2) how do states integrate peripheral groups, and finally, 3) what are the long term consequences of different state incorporation policies.    

In addition to being a PhD candidate, I am a data analyst at Astoria Analytics and the quantitative editor for FiveThirtyEight.