Dr. Titipol Phakdeewanich did his MA in International Political Economy (1998) and PhD in Politics and International Relations (2005) at the University of Warwick, UK. He is currently based at the Faculty of Political Science at Ubon Ratchathani University, Thailand; and has been a Visiting Research Fellow on Human Rights at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at Lund University, Sweden.

A key component of his research is to find actual solutions to problems experienced by the under-represented, marginalised, and disenfranchised groups within Thailand, and he is committed to promoting democracy and human rights within it.

His research seminar is on the relevance of the Thai ‘patronage system’ as a paradigm for understanding politics in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It continues his research’s broader emphasis on the plight and injustice in the lives of the rural poor, understanding how the perpetuation of patronage politics has contributed to a failure to effectively mitigate the economic consequences especially for those who live in rural villages.