My research examines Cambodia’s post-conflict reconstruction politics since the 1993 reintroduction of multi-party elections until present.

For my PhD research at the University of Cambridge, I explored the role of nationalist imaginings, discourses and narratives in Cambodia’s new political order. Based on this research, I published the monograph Cambodia’s Second Kingdom: Nation, Imagination, and Democracy (Cornell SEAP, 2016). For my postdoctoral research, I shifted to analyse Cambodia's political trajectory through the lens of citizenship. As part of the KITLV research project “From clients to citizens?”, I examined popular ideas of provision, political gift-giving, and citizen rights in the aftermath of the contested 2013 elections.

At Lund, I participated in the VR-funded research project "Civil Society Elites: New Perspectives on Civil Society in Cambodia and Indonesia" (2018-2020). I am currently the PI of a research project which looks at the impact of the pandemic on political developments in Cambodia (2022-24).  

Astrid supervises doctoral and masters' theses.