Maya Van Nuys

Hello! I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Vassar College. Previously I was a Postdoctoral Fellow in international security at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation. I received my PhD from the University of Chicago in 2025.

I specialize in international relations (IR) and comparative politics with an emphasis on international security, global governance, and policing. My research combines critical and mainstream approaches to explore conflict dynamics and state-building. My research has been published in outlets including International Organization, Politics, Religion, and Ideology, and Democracy and Security. 

My book project, “Reforming Policing, Reproducing Power: The Global Governance of Domestic Policing" explores the parameters of international norms for policing. Putting critical policing studies in anthropology, sociology, and history into conversation with IR, the dissertation argues that there is a decoupling between international policing standards and the actual policies and practices of reforms, particularly in post-conflict states outside of the West.