Brief Biography

Bridget Welsh is an Assistant Professor in the Southeast Asia Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University- SAIS in Washington D.C where she teaches courses on Southeast Asian history, violence and political conflict, Malaysian/Singaporean/Brunei politics, development and regional international relations and democratization. She received her doctorate from the Department of Political Science at Columbia University, her MA from Columbia University, language training (FALCON) from Cornell University and BA from Colgate University.

Her primary research interest focuses on 20th century Southeast Asian politics. In 2004 she edited a volume entitled Reflections: The Mahathir Years. She has also written about attitudes toward democracy in Malaysia in the 1990s, the effects of globalization on contemporary political conflicts, human rights, US-Southeast Asia relations, and Malaysian politics. She is currently completing an analysis of Malaysian voting behavior and the electoral system during the last ten years and a project examining the local dynamics in elections. She is also working on ongoing projects examining vigilante and gangster violence in Indonesia, and political developments in Burma. Her dissertation examined the relationship between state power, political rights and revenue extraction in colonial Malaya. These projects reflect a keen interest in democracy in Southeast Asia and the response of leaders/states to the changing international environment.

Bridget Welsh is the Chair of the Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei Studies Group, a member of the Southeast Asia policy survey team at Georgetown University, and a consultant to Freedom House. In Fall 2004 she was a Southeast Asian Studies Fellow sponsored by the Henry Luce Foundation at the Australian National University. She has organized conferences on Malaysia (2001), Singapore (2002), Democracy and Elections (2004) while at SAIS.