Abi Young is the Research Fellow for the UWA DSI and CSDR joint project on Enhancing Australia-India Underwater Domain Awareness (UDA) Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. She is a researcher in the politics of international migration, national security and international relations and holds specialist knowledge in research security and counter foreign interference in the university sector.
Awarded her PhD in 2024 by the University of Western Australia, Abi’s research examined the non-state product of long-distance authoritarianism arising from Chinese diaspora politics in Australia. Her dissertation has been adapted into a book titled ‘Chinese Diaspora Politics in Australia: Transnational Repression and Social Governance’. Prior to her doctoral studies, Abi completed a Master of International Relations with a thesis that explored the operationalisation of Chinese soft power through Confucius Institutes.
Abi is currently interested in researching academic security, Chinese foreign politics, relations of the Indo-Pacific, international security and the global balance of power, reactive politics and securitisation theory, and democratic defence against authoritarianism.
