• Twentieth century Chinese history
• Chinese intellectual history
• The history of the Chinese Communist Party
• Global Maoism
• Contemporary Cambodian history
• The history of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (Khmer Rouge)
• Contemporary Peruvian history
• The history of the Communist Party of Peru-Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso)
• Urban history and built environment in colonial Indochina

Publications

Books

 The Emergence of Global Maoism: China’s Red Evangelism and the Cambodian Communist Movement, 1949-1979. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2022. https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501761829/the-emergence-of-global-maoism/#bookTabs=1

Experiments with Marxism-Leninism in Cold War Southeast Asia. ed. with Marc H. Opper. Canberra, ACT: Australian National University Press, Asian Studies Monograph Series 16, 2022. https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/series/asian-studies/experiments-marxism-leninism-cold-war-southeast-asia

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

with Lin Hongxuan, “‘Heirs to What Had Been Accomplished’: D.N. Aidit, the PKI, and Maoism, 1942-1965,” Modern Intellectual History 20, No. 3 (September 2023): 883-911. 10.1017/S1479244322000282

“Forging Autocratic Legitimation: Charisma and Mythmaking in Hun Sen’s Cambodia,” Asia Pacific Journal 21, No. 2, Issue 2 (February 2023): 1-10.

https://apjjf.org/2023/2/Galway.html

“Peasant Worker Communist Spy: A Chinese Intelligence Agent Looks Back at His Time in Cambodia,” Made in China Journal 7, No. 1 (January-June 2022): 100-112. 10.22459/MIC.07.01.2022.12

with Liu Yajuan, “Flirting with the ‘Modern Girl’: Socialism and Cosmopolitanism in the Packaging of Model Laborers in Shanghai, 1949-1963,” Asian Journal of Women’s Studies 29, (June 2022): 1-26.

10.1080/12259276.2022.2086763

“Who Are Our Friends?: Maoist Cultural Diplomacy and the Origins of Global China,” Made in China Journal 6, No. 2 (December 2021): 110-125. 10.22459/MIC.06.02.2021.14

“Red Service-Intellectual: Phouk Chhay, Maoist China, and the Cultural Revolution in Cambodia, 1964-1967,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 52, No. 2 (June 2021): 275-308. 10.1017/s0022463421000436

“Specters of Dependency: Hou Yuon and the Origins of Cambodia’s Marxist Vision (1955-1975),” Cross Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review 31 (2019): 126–161. 10.1353/ach.2019.0021

with Lu Hua, “Freedom and its Limitations: The Contemporary Mainland Chinese Debate over Liberalism,” China Information 32, No. 2 (June 2018): 1-21. 10.1177/0920203X18760849

with Shi Anshu and Francois Lachapelle, “The Recasting of Chinese Socialism: The Chinese New Left since 2000,” China Information 32, No. 1 (March 2018): 139-159. 10.1177/0920203x18760416

“Una Almenara Resplandeciente: El Maoismo Global y Los Movimientos Comunistas en Peru y Camboya entre 1965 y 1992 (A Shining Beacon: Global Maoism and Communist Movements in Peru and Cambodia, 1965-1992),” Revista Asia América Latina 1, No. 4 (December 2017): 15-47. ISSN 2524-9347. http://repositoriouba.sisbi.uba.ar/gsdl/cgi-bin/library.cgi?a=d&c=asia&d=1_4-1_4_3_html

“From Revolutionary Culture to Original Culture and Back: ‘On New Democracy’ and the Kampucheanization of Marxism-Leninism, 1940-1965,” Cross Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review 24 (September 2017): 132-158. 10.1353/ach.2017.0022

with Kamila Kolpashnikova and Osamu Sudoh, “The Role of Social Capital in the Transformation of Cultural Values and Practices: A Case Study on the Chinese Community in Taiwan,” Review of Religion and Chinese Society 3 (2016): 51-80. 10.1163/22143955-00301002

“La situazione è eccellente”: Maoismi globali (‘The Situation is Excellent’: Global Maoism), Zapruder [Italy], No. 37 (May-August 2015): 84-91.

http://storieinmovimento.org/2015/08/02/trentasettesimo-numero/

with Angel Ryono, “Xinjiang Under China: Reflections on the Multiple Dimensions of the 2009 Urumqi Uprising,” Asian Ethnicity 16, No. 2 (2014): 225-255. 10.1080/14631369.2014.906062

“Global Maoism and the Politics of Localization in Peru and Tanzania,” Left History 17, No. 2 (Fall/Winter 2014): 9-47. 10.25071/1913-9632.39276

“’Overturning the Basket’: Nostalgia, Maoism, and the Roots of the Communist Party of Kampuchea’s Ideology,” Strata 5 (September 2013): 83-113. https://www.academia.edu/29690289/Matt_Galway_Overturning_the_Basket_Nostalgia_Maoism_and_the_Roots_of_the_Communist_Party_of_Kampucheas_Ideology

Book Chapters

“The Chairman’s Long Shadow: Mao Zedong, Mao Zedong Thought, and the Resilience of the Communist Party of China’s Rule in Post-Maoist China,” in The Communist Party of China: The Resilience of One-Party Rule in Post-Communist China. Benjamin Hillman and Ji Fengyuan, eds. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, accepted for publication, forthcoming in 2024-2025.

“Left-Wing Extremism in Southeast Asia,” in The Palgrave Handbook of Left-Wing Extremism. Volume 2. José Pedro Zúquete, ed. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023, 185-201. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36268-2_10

“The Most ‘Dissolute and Dishonest Khmer to Aid China’: Hu Nim and Indigenizing the Maoist Ideological System, 1955-1977,” in Experiments with Marxism-Leninism in Cold War Southeast Asia. Matthew Galway and Marc Opper, eds. Canberra, ACT: Australian National University Press, 2022, 69-106. https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/series/asian-studies/experiments-marxism-leninism-cold-war-southeast-asia

with Marc Opper, “Introduction,” in Experiments with Marxism-Leninism in Cold War Southeast Asia. Matthew Galway and Marc Opper, eds. Canberra, ACT: Australian National University Press, 2022, 1-30. https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/series/asian-studies/experiments-marxism-leninism-cold-war-southeast-asia

“Building Uhuru: Chinese Workers and Labor Diplomacy on the TAZARA Railway,” in Proletarian China: A Century of Chinese Labour. Ivan Franceschini and Christian Sorace, eds. New York: Verso, 2022, 415-425.  https://www.versobooks.com/books/4039-proletarian-china

https://madeinchinajournal.com/2021/12/01/proletarian-china/ (open access)

“Off the Prachanda Path: Nepali Communists’ Crisis of Legitimacy,” in Crisis: China Story Yearbook 2021. Jane Golley, Linda Jaivin, Ben Hillman and Sharon Strange eds. Canberra: Australia National University Press, 2021, 249-255.

https://www.thechinastory.org/yearbooks/yearbook-2020-crisis/forum-of-mao-and-money/off-the-prachanda-path-nepali-communists-crisis-of-legitimacy/

“Introduction to Yuan Shu, ‘The Current Stage of the Chinese Revolution and the Issue of Constitutional Government,’” in Translating the Occupation: The Japanese Invasion of China, 1931-1945. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2020, 288-292. https://www.ubcpress.ca/translating-the-occupation

“Permanent Revolution,” in Afterlives of Chinese Communism. Ivan Franceschini, Nicholas Loubere, and Christian Sorace, eds. New York and Canberra: Verso/Australia National University Press, 2019, 175-182. https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/afterlives-chinese-communism#tabanchor

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2932-afterlives-of-chinese-communism

with Lu Hua, “’Introduction to ‘Liberalism in the Chinese Context: Potential and Predicaments’ by Liu Qing,” in Voices from China’s Century. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019, 45-71. 10.7312/chee19522-003

Book Reviews

“Review of From Rebel to Ruler: One Hundred Years of the Chinese Communist Party,” PRC History Review, 2024, specifics forthcoming

“Review of Agents of Subversion: The Fate of John T. Downey and the CIA's Covert War in China by John Delury,” The American Historical Review, 2024, in-press, specifics forthcoming

“Review of Khmer Nationalist: Sơn Ngọc Thành, the CIA, and the Transformation of Cambodia by Matthew Jagel,” Diplomatic History (June 2024): 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1093/dh/dhae032

“Review of The Nanyang Revolution: The Comintern and Chinese Networks in Southeast Asia, 1890-1957 by Anna Belogurova,” Journal of Social History, volume and number forthcoming (2024): 1-3. https://doi.org/10.1093/jsh/shae031

“Review of Amnesia: A History of Democratic Idealism in Modern Thailand by Arjun Subrahmanyan,” Journal of the Society for Asian Humanities 54 (2024): 249-252. https://josah.org/ https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.T2024030500019690342783373

“Review of Transwar Asia: Ideology, Practices, and Institutions 1920-1960 by Reto Hofmann and Max Ward, eds.,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, First View (December 2023): 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1356186323000585

“Review of Everyday Lives in China’s Cold War Military-Industrial Complex: Voices from the Shanghai Small Third Front, 1964-1988 by Youwei Xu and Y. Yvon Wang, eds.,” The China Quarterly 253 (March 2023): 277-278. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741023000103

“Review of Republicanism, Communism, Islam: Cosmopolitan Origins of Revolution in Southeast Asia by John T. Sidel,” Twentieth Century Communism 22 (2022): 203-207. https://journals.lwbooks.co.uk/tcc/

“Review of Left Transnationalism. The Communist International and the National, Colonial and Racial Questions by Oleksa Drachewych and Ian McKay, eds.,” Histoire sociale/Social History, 55, No. 113 (June 2022): 192-194. https://hssh.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/hssh/article/view/41225

“Review of Abolishing Boundaries: Global Utopias in the Formation of Modern Chinese Political Thought, 1880–1940 by Peter Zarrow,” Twentieth Century China 47, No. 1 (January 2022): E16-E19. 10.1353/tcc.2022.0013

“Review of Utopia and Utopianism in the Contemporary Chinese Context: Texts, Ideas, Spaces by David Der-wei Wang, Angela Ki Che Leung, and Zhang Yinde,” The China Journal, No. 86 (July 2021): 190-193. https://doi.org/10.1086/714400

“Review of Maoism: A Global History by Julia Lovell,” PRC History Review, No. 23 (August 2020): 1-8. http://prchistory.org/prc-history-review/

“Review of A Social History of Maoist China: Conflict and Change, 1949-1976 by Felix Wemheuer,” H-Net Reviews (October 2019): 1-8. https://networks.h-net.org/node/22055/reviews/5088939/galway-wemheuer-social-history-maoist-china-conflict-and-change-1949 https://china.usc.edu/wemheuer-social-history-maoist-china-conflict-and-change-1949-1976-2019

“Review of Violence and the Civilizing Process in Cambodia by Roderic Broadhurst, Thierry Bouhours, and Brigitte Bouhours,” Explorations 15 (2019): 99-103. https://www.cseashawaii.org/students/explorations/

“Review of The Great Hanoi Rat Hunt: Empire, Disease, and Modernity in French Colonial Vietnam by Michael G. Vann and Liz Clarke,” Journal of International and Global Studies 10, No. 2 (Spring/Summer 2019): 110-112.

https://www.lindenwood.edu/academics/beyond-the-classroom/publications/journal-of-international-global-studies/all-issues/volume-10-number-2/

“Review of Southeast Asia’s Cold War: An Interpretive History by Ang Cheng Guan,” Pacific Affairs 92, No. 1 (December 2018): 167-169. https://pacificaffairs.ubc.ca/ubc-product/volume-92-no-1/

“Review of From a British Colony to a Chinese Colony? Hong Kong before and after the 1997 Handover by Gary Chi-hung Luk, ed.,” Journal of International and Global Studies 10, No. 1 (2018): 179-181. https://www.lindenwood.edu/academics/beyond-the-classroom/publications/journal-of-international-global-studies/all-issues/volume-10-number-1/

“Review of Man or Monster: The Trial of a Khmer Rouge Torturer by Alexander Laban Hinton,” Journal of International and Global Studies 8, No 2 (April 2017): 100-102. https://www.lindenwood.edu/academics/beyond-the-classroom/publications/journal-of-international-global-studies/all-issues/volume-8-number-2/

“Review of The Cambodian Wars: Clashing Armies and CIA Covert Operations by Kenneth Conboy,” Journal of East Asian Studies 17, No. 1 (March 2017): 138-139. https://doi.org/10.1017/jea.2016.39

“Review of China’s Civil War: A Social History, 1945-1949 by Diana Lary,” Pacific Affairs 89, No. 2 (June 2016): 421-423. https://pacificaffairs.ubc.ca/book-reviews/chinas-civil-war-a-social-history-1945-1949-by-diana-lary/

“Review of The Khmer Lands of Vietnam: Environment, Cosmology and Sovereignty by Philip Taylor,” Pacific Affairs 89, No. 1 (March 2016): 221-223. https://pacificaffairs.ubc.ca/book-reviews/the-khmer-lands-of-vietnam-environment-cosmology-and-sovereignty-by-philip-taylor/

https://nuspress.nus.edu.sg/products/the-khmer-lands-of-vietnam

“Review of Mao's Little Red Book: A Global History by Alexander C. Cook, ed.” International Review of Social History 60, Issue 01 (2015): 129-132.          10.1017/s0020859015000139

“Review of Buddhism in a Dark Age: Cambodian Monks under Pol Pot by Ian Harris,” Pacific Affairs 88, No. 3 (September 2015): 360-362. https://pacificaffairs.ubc.ca/book-reviews/buddhism-in-a-dark-age-cambodian-monks-under-pol-pot-by-ian-harris/

“Review of A Critical Introduction by Timothy Cheek, ed.,” Journal of East Asian Studies 13, No. 2 (May-August 2013): 363-366. 10.1017/s1598240800003982

Review Essays

“Author’s Response to ‘Review of The Emergence of Global Maoism: China’s Red Evangelism and the Cambodian Communist Movement, 1949-1979 by Jeanne Cho,” The PRC History Review Book Review Series, No. 49 (November 2022): 4-9. http://prchistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Galway_review.pdf

http://prchistory.org/the-prc-history-review/

Translations

with Ma Nan, “從 ‘地方軍事化’到 ‘軍事地方化’: 第四集團軍伴著的發展戰略 ‘集成開發’,” (From ‘Local Militarization’ to ‘Military Localization’: The Evolving Strategy of the Fourth Red Army’s ‘Integrated Development’ by Ying Xing), Revisiting the Revolution: Contemporary Chinese Scholarship – A Collaborative Translation Project. PRC History Review, accepted for publication, forthcoming in 2024. http://prchistory.org/revisiting-the-revolution-landing-page/

with Liu Yajuan, “上海 ‘阿飛’: 滾動的話語邏輯與基層實踐走向,” (Shanghai “A-fei”: The Rolling Logic of Discourse and Grassroots Practical Trends, 1949-1965, by Liu Yajuan), Revisiting the Revolution: Contemporary Chinese Scholarship – A Collaborative Translation Project 1. PRC History Review (October 2022): 1-38. http://prchistory.org/revisiting-the-revolution-landing-page/

Yuan Shu 袁殊, “中國革命現階段與憲政問題 (Yuan Shu: ‘The Current Stage of the Chinese Revolution and the Issue of Constitutional Government’),” in Translating the Occupation: The Japanese Invasion of China, 1931-1945. (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2020), 292-309. https://www.ubcpress.ca/translating-the-occupation

with Lu Hua, “中國語境下的自由主義:潛力與困境 (Liberalism in the Chinese Context: Potential and Predicaments), by Liu Qing,” in Voices from China’s Century. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019, 45-71. 10.7312/chee19522-003

http://cup.columbia.edu/book/voices-from-the-chinese-century/9780231195232

with Zhang Hongbin, “知識生活的文化: 城市與專業, 托馬斯班德著 (The Cultures of Intellectual Life: The City and the Professions, by Thomas Bender),” 知識分子論叢 [Forum of Intellectuals] 12 (2014): 289-308.

http://202.120.85.33/Jweb_zsfzlc/CN/volumn/current_abs.shtml

Op-Eds

“Dictatorial Devarāja: Charisma and Autocracy in Cambodian Political Culture and the Rise of Hun Sen,” Positions Politics: Praxis (26 June 2022). https://positionspolitics.org/matthew-galway-dictatorial-devaraja-charisma-and-autocracy-in-cambodian-political-culture-and-the-rise-of-hun-sen/

“The Final Sheathing of La Cuarta Espada,” Made in China Journal 6, No. 2 (December 2021): 40-45.  10.22459/MIC.06.02.2021.05

Interviews and Documentary Work

“Chinese Philosopher Cryogenically Freezes His Brain in Arizona,” Interview by Lachlan Bennet, The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Pacific Newsroom (23 February 2024) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNA_u7MP6_E

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-01/chinese-philosopher-li-zehou-brain-freeze/103521240

“Interview for the Documentary Series Rise of the Dictators,” PBS International, WildBear Entertainment, Canberra, ACT, 4 December 2023

https://if.com.au/screen-canberra-puts-almost-500k-towards-10-projects/

“How do Cambodia’s Ever Closer Ties with China Affect Southeast Asia?,” Interview by Ali Moore, Ear To Asia, Asia Institute Podcast, University of Melbourne (29 June 2023)

https://melbourneasiareview.edu.au/podcasts/how-do-cambodias-ever-closer-ties-with-china-affect-southeast-asia/

“On The Emergence of Global Maoism: China’s Red Evangelism and the Cambodian Communist Movement, 1949-1979,” Interview by Sarah Bramao-Ramos, New Books Network: New Books in East Asian Studies (30 January 2023)

https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-emergence-of-global-maoism-2

“On The Emergence of Global Maoism: China’s Red Evangelism and the Cambodian Communist Movement, 1949-1979,” Interview by Felix Wemheuer, Studying Maoist China with Prof. Felix Wemheuer (9 January 2023) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlqkQcB_ENw

with Andrew Mertha, “Cambodia: China’s First Client State?,” Interview by Louisa Lim and Graeme Smith for The Little Red Podcast (19 September 2022) https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/cambodia-china-s-first-client-state

with Christian Sorace, “Interview of Laurence Coderre, Author of Newborn Socialist Things: Materiality in Maoist China,” Made in China Journal 7, No. 1 (January-June 2022): 64-72. 10.22459/MIC.07.01.2022.07

with Christian Sorace, “Interview of Mark Driscoll, Author of The Whites Are Enemies of Heaven: Climate Caucasianism and Asian Ecological Protection,” Utopian Futures Podcast: Made in China (10 September 2021) https://www.spreaker.com/user/14711066/episode-5-driscoll

“Interview of Covell Meyskens, Author of Mao’s Third Front: The Militarization of Cold War China,” Made in China Journal 6, No. 2 (December 2021): 126-138. 10.22459/MIC.06.02.2021.15

with Christian Sorace, “Interview of Ari Heinrich, Author of Chinese Surplus: Biopolitical Aesthetics and the Medically Commodified Body,” Utopian Futures Podcast: Made in China (13 August 2021) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ari-heinrich-not-all-organs-are-created-equal/id1583766893?i=1000535579627

“Off the Prachanda Path: Nepali Communists’ Crisis of Legitimacy,” Interview by Nancy Chiu for the China Story Yearbook 2021 (11 March 2021) https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1123402591504550

with Craig Smith, “Traitors with Chinese Characteristics,” Interview by Ali Moore, Ear To Asia, Asia Institute Podcast, University of Melbourne (5  March 2021) https://www.thejakartapost.com/multimedia/2021/03/22/traitors-and-treason-in-the-collective-chinese-imagination.html

https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/asia-institute/ear-to-asia/episodes/episode-86

with Carlos Amador, “The Market for Maoism Outside China,” Interview by Peter Clarke, Ear To Asia, Asia Institute Podcast, University of Melbourne (14 April 2020) https://www.thejakartapost.com/multimedia/2020/07/13/the-market-for-maoism-outside-china.html?fbclid=IwAR1mjpwbNlJMtIvV_IiMICoOu_itz9NIgt77O_Tvg2g316-u2ODt9eaMtbY

https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/asia-institute/ear-to-asia/episodes/episode-73

“Cambodia: Hun Sen’s Unrelenting Grip on Power,” Interview by Ali Moore, Ear To Asia, Asia Institute Podcast, University of Melbourne (21 February 2019)https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/asia-institute/ear-to-asia/episodes/episode-43

with Craig Smith, “China’s Long March to a Utopian Society,” Interview by Ali Moore, Ear To Asia, Asia Institute Podcast, University of Melbourne (5  February 2019) https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/asia-institute/ear-to-asia/episodes/episode-39