Departmental homepageDr Larsson received a PhD in Government from Cornell University in 2007. Prior to his academic career, he worked as a freelance journalist based in Southeast Asia in teh 1990s. As an undergraduate, he studied East and Southeast Asian Studies and Thai at Lund University, Sweden.
Dr Larsson teaches courses on comparative politics, politics and religion, and Buddhism and politics in Southeast Asia in the Department of Politics and International Studies.
His research has touched upon a wide range of topics in the politics of modern Southeast Asia, with a particular focus on Thailand. These include but are not limited to processes of state formation, economic development and nation building. In recent years his research has mainly focused on the politics of Buddhism in Thailand.
Land and loyalty: Security and the development of property rights in Thailand (Cornell University Press, 2012).
'Monkish Politics in Southeast Asia: Religious disenfranchisement in comparative and theoretical perspective', Modern Asian Studies 49, no. 1 (2015) 40-82.
Larsson, Tomas and Stithorn Thananithichot. 'Who votes for virtue? Religion and party choice in Thailand’s 2019 election', Party Politics 29, no. 3 (2023) 501-512.
'In search of liberalism: ideological traditions, translations and troubles in Thailand', SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 32, no. 3 (2017) 531-561.
