Khoo Ying Hooi, PhD, is an Associate Professor of International Relations and Human Rights at Universiti Malaya (UM), where her work sits at the intersection of human rights, democracy and Southeast Asian politics. Her research focuses particularly on civil society, social movements and protest, civic space, and the domestic politics of Malaysia and Timor-Leste. A growing strand of her work examines how shifting geopolitical dynamics in Southeast Asia shape domestic politics, rights discourses, civil society, institutional contestations and the conditions under which political and social actors operate. She also works extensively on academic freedom, human rights education and the politics of knowledge and higher education in Southeast Asia.

She is the author of Civic Reimagination: The Life and Death of Protests in Southeast Asia (Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming 2027), Between Giants and Grassroots: Geopolitics and Civil Society in Southeast Asia (Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming 2026), The Bersih Movement and Democratisation in Malaysia: Repression, Dissent and Opportunities (SIRD/ISEAS/Lexington Books, 2020), and Seeds of Dissent (Gerakbudaya, 2015). She has also co-edited several volumes, including Timor-Leste in ASEAN: Voices, Future and Imaginations from Within (Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming 2027), Social and Political Deglobalisation: Covid-19, Conflict and Uncertainties in Malaysia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023), Marginalisation and Human Rights in Southeast Asia (Routledge, 2022), and Rethinking Human Rights and Peace in Post-Independence Timor-Leste through Local Perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022). Her publications span human rights, democratisation, social movements, civic space, electoral reform, academic freedom, regional politics and the relationship between geopolitics and civil society.

Her interdisciplinary research has also received international recognition. The co-authored article “Digital Organising of a Global Social Movement: From Connective to Collective Action,” and published in Information and Organization, received the journal’s 2021 Best Research Paper Award and was Runner-Up for the 2021 Special Interest Group–Grounded Theory Methodology (SIG-GTM) Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Information Systems.

At Universiti Malaya, Ying Hooi leads the Research Group on Human Rights and has previously served as Head of the Department of International and Strategic Studies. She is Editor-in-Chief of the Malaysian Journal of International Relations (MJIR) and serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, the Journal of Southeast Asian Human Rights (JSEAHR), and the Indonesian Law Review (ILREV). In recognition of her work in teaching and academic mentorship, she received Universiti Malaya’s Excellent Teaching Award in the non-science category in 2024, following earlier university and faculty awards for teaching, supervision and service.

Her academic work is closely connected to regional institutions and policy communities. She was appointed by the Government of Timor-Leste to the International Advisory Council of Centro Nacional Chega! (CNC), a public institute dedicated to institutionalising memory, promoting human rights and advancing the legacy of truth and reconciliation in Timor-Leste. Currently, she is also a visiting lecturer at the National University of Timor-Leste (UNTL) and, between 2013 and 2016, contributed to the diplomatic training programme of the Institute of Diplomatic Studies under Timor-Leste’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. Her engagement with Timor-Leste has also extended beyond academic and institutional work into creative public engagement, including co-producing the music video Hakoi Lia Hoax (Bury the Hoax). Her sustained engagement with Timor-Leste spans research, teaching, human rights education, transitional justice and institution-building.

Academic freedom is another major strand of her regional work. Ying Hooi is a founding member and advisor of the Southeast Asian Coalition for Academic Freedom (SEACAF) and has been involved in research and advocacy on academic freedom and higher education across Southeast Asia. Her fellowships include the Mellon/Scholars at Risk Academic Freedom Fellowship and the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC) Curriculum Fellowship, as well as visiting fellowships at Kyushu University, Mahidol University, Humboldt University of Berlin and Beijing Foreign Studies University.

Beyond academia, she has contributed to regional and international human rights, governance and democracy initiatives in advisory, research and consultancy capacities. Her work has involved organisations and institutions including the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), the World Bank, the ASEAN Institute for Peace and Reconciliation (AIPR), the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), Foreign Service Institute-United States Department of State, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, CIVICUS Monitor, ASEAN University Network-Human Rights Education (AUN-HRE), the Democracy Academy of Malaysia, and Strengthening Human Rights and Peace Research and Education in Southeast Asia (SHAPE-SEA). 

Ying Hooi currently serves as Advisor to the Director-General of Broadcasting Malaysia on RTM World. She is regularly invited to contribute to public discussions on Malaysian and Southeast Asian politics, democracy, human rights, civil society, ASEAN and geopolitics, and her analysis has appeared across Malaysian, regional and international media. Ying Hooi has also served as a judge for national and international human rights awards, including the Amnesty International Philippines Ignite Awards and the SUARAM Human Rights Awards. 

Before entering academia, Ying Hooi worked in the corporate sector before moving into human rights practice. She subsequently served as Head of International Issues and Cooperation at the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM). Her work there included engagement with the process surrounding the establishment of ASEAN’s regional human rights mechanism, now the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), Malaysia’s Universal Periodic Review process at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, and the SUHAKAM Amendment Bill 2009.