Thomas Pepinsky is a political scientist who studies the interaction of political and economic systems, mostly in emerging market economies. His current research examines how social institutions structure identities; democratic backsliding in Europe, Asia, and the United States; and social science research methods.  

Professor Pepinsky has a special interest in Southeast Asia, and is Director of the Southeast Asia Program at Cornell (SEAP) and Nonresident Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Program at the Brookings Institution. He is co-founder and member of the Executive Board of the Southeast Asia Research Group (SEAREG), past president of the American Institute for Indonesian Studies (AIFIS), and holds leadership roles in the Association for Analytical Learning about Islam and Muslim Societies (AALIMS) and the International Political Economy Society (IPES).

Professor Pepinsky received his undergraduate degree in linguistics and international relations from Brown University, and his Ph.D. from Yale.

About Thomas Pepinsky