Prof. THOMPSON Mark Richard

M.A. and Ph.D., honours (Yale University), M.A. and B.A. (Cambridge University), B.A., magna cum laude (Brown University)

A chair professor in the Department of Public and International Affairs, his research is in the field of comparative politics, with a regional focus on Southeast Asia. He is among the world’s top 2% most-cited scientists in the subfield of “Political Science & Public Administration” according to the 2024 Stanford/Elsevier annual report. His research - cited over 4,000 times with an H-index of 33 according to Google Scholar - has been featured in the popular media (e.g., Time Magazine, The Washington Post, Le Monde, CNBC, RTHK and Wired Magazine, etc.). He is the author or editor of 11 books and has published over 150 articles and chapters - many in leading journals. His books include The Philippines: From “People Power” to Democratic Backsliding (Cambridge, 2023), Presidentialism and Democracy in Southeast and East Asia (co-editor, Routledge, 2022), China’s “Singapore Model” and Authoritarian Learning (co-editor, Routledge, 2020), Authoritarian Modernism in East Asia (Palgrave, 2019), Routledge Handbook on the Contemporary Philippines (co-editor, Routledge, 2018), Dynasties and Female Political Leaders in Asia (co-editor, LIT Verlag, 2013), Democratic Revolutions: Asia and Eastern Europe (Routledge, 2004) and The Anti-Marcos Struggle (Yale, 1995). He is the co-editor of the Routledge/City University of Hong Kong Southeast Asia Series. His research has been funded through external grants worth over one million USD, with five awarded by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council General Research Fund (GRF). He lends his expertise to government, private, and non-profit organizations. After teaching at the Dresden University of Technology, Glasgow University and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, he came to the City University of Hong Kong in 2010 where he was director of the Southeast Asia Research Centre 2011-2024 and head of the Department of Asian and International Studies 2015-2022. A past president of the Hong Kong Political Science Association and the Asian Political and International Studies Association, he was Lee Kong Chian Distinguished Fellow for Southeast Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore (2008) and Stanford University (2009) as well as a visiting fellow at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS), Kyoto University in winter/spring 2024. He received his BA from Brown University, a MA from Cambridge University, and his PhD in political science from Yale University where he was mentored by Juan J. Linz and James C. Scott.

• State and Society in East Asia
• US Politics and Society
• Political Economy and Comparative Politics

• Pushback against democratic backsliding in Southeast Asia
• Authoritarian modernism in East Asia
• Presidentialism in Asia
• Dynastic Female Leaders in Asia