David Thang Moe

David Thang Moe, Ph.D., is a Research Scholar in Southeast Asian Studies at Yale University and Co-chair of the Religion in Southeast Asia Unit at the American Academy of Religion. He holds additional positions as an Associate at the Harvard University Asia Center, a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University, a Research Scholar Affiliate at MIT Center for International Studies, a CURA Fellow at Boston University, and an Adjunct Professor of Asian Studies at the University of Connecticut. His research focuses on religion and identity politics, Buddhist nationalism, ethnic conflict, reconciliation, and decentralized resistance in Southeast Asia and its diasporas. His popular course, Religion, Politics, and Identity in Asia, is widely praised by Yale students as “their favorite class.” He is the author of Beyond the Academy: Lived Asian Public Theology of Religions (Princeton Theological Monograph Series, Wipf & Stock, 2024), currently being translated into some Asian languages, including Japanese. His forthcoming Oxford University Press monograph, Beyond Buddhist Nationalism: The Politics of Interreligious and Decentralized Resistance After the Coup, is part of the Religion and Global Politics series. A sought-after speaker on religion and politics, Moe has delivered talks at several leading universities across the world, and has met with U.S. Senators in Washington D.C., to advocate for Myanmar’s democracy. His work has appeared in prominent outlets such as Voice of America (VOA), The Straits Times (Singapore), and the Yale Journal of Politics, among others.