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About Me

Kyaw Hsan Hlaing—ကျော်ဆန်းလှိုင် is a Ph.D. student in Political Science at Cornell University and a 2024 recipient of the Paul & Daisy Fellowships for New Americans. He primarily studies comparative politics with a focus on Regime Changes, Political violence, Contentious Politics, Authoritarianism, Democratic Backsliding, Political Culture, and Rebel Politics.

Before beginning his doctoral studies, returned to academia as an undergraduate student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in January 2023, following a seven-year hiatus from his studies at the Yangon University of Distance Education—Sittwe University (Branch) in western Myanmar. He graduate summa cum laude with a B.A. in Asian Studies and minors in Political Science and Philosophy in August 2024. 

Prior to his academic pursuits, Kyaw Hsan worked as an independent journalist and analyst, covering armed conflict, anti-coup movement, and human rights violations for a range of international media outlets, including TIME Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, Foreign Policy, The Diplomat Magazine, and Al Jazeera. He was also a contributing writer for Pulitzer Center and one of the winners of the 2021 Human Rights Press Awards in Commentary and the 2021 Sigma Delta Chi Awards for the Foreign Correspondence from the Society of Professional Journalist (SPJ), as well as a finalist for the 2021 Society of Publisher in Asia (SOPA) awards for the Excellence in Opinion Writing. 

Reach out at kh827@cornell.edu

University of Hawaii at Manoa •

From refugee to scholar: Mānoa student wins competitive fellowship

A student who fled political persecution in Myanmar is on the brink of earning his BA from the Asian studies department at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and has won a highly competitive fellowship to pursue a PhD. Kyaw Hsan Hlaing is one of 30 students, selected from nearly 2,400 applicants in the country, recently awarded the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, which provides him $90,000 in funding for graduate school.
The Diplomat •

Is Myanmar’s Civil War Pushing the Country Toward Fragmentation?

Resistance forces now face the challenge of building an ethnically inclusive and democratic state, something that no government in Myanmar has ever achieved.

Today, Myanmar stands at a critical juncture in its history. The escalating losses of the Myanmar military due to the coordinated attacks by resistance forces and ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) throughout the country have ignited a pivotal debate, both nationally and internationally, about the country’s future trajectory. Is Myanmar heading toward Fragmentation and Chaos?