Nicholas Chan holds a PhD from the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge. His research interest lies in the intersection of religion and politics, with a specific focus on areas such as the politics of status-seeking, religion and social media, as well as the role of millenarian thinking in politics. His PhD project examines the role of Islam in Malaysia’s counter-terrorism on two levels: the first from the perspective of Muslim status-seeking at the global level, and the second involves the daily knowledge practices of ‘terrorist’ construction across different areas of governance.

Nicholas is also the co-investigator of a Meta research award in misinformation and polarisation, focusing specifically on the viral politics of right-wing populism in Malaysia.

Nicholas has published in journals such as Critical Studies in Terrorism and Critical Security Studies. He has also contributed a chapter about the evolution of Malaysia’s Islamist militancy in a monograph published by the Danish Institute for International Studies, and a policy brief on managing radicalisation in Indonesia and Malaysia with the GREASE consortium under the European University Institute.