Mai Thai (pronounced "my tie") is a sociologist specializing in areas of criminal justice, education, youth, race/ethnicity, and qualitative methods.
Mai Thai's scholarship primarily employs the tools of cultural sociology to understand power and social inequalities.
Her forthcoming book, Kid Cops: What Communities Gain and Lose from Junior Police in Schools, explores the intersections of criminal justice and educational institutions and will be published in 2026 by the University of Chicago Press. You can read some of this research in her article in the , which won the Outstanding Scholarly Contribution Award from the American Sociological Association Section on Children and Youth.
She has served as a fellow with the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation through the Institute for Citizens & Scholars. Her research has been recognized by the American Sociological Association, the Society for the Study of Social Problems, and the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction.
As an educator and experienced workshop facilitator, her teaching background spans various contexts. Whether in college classrooms, with student groups, or in community-based organizations, she draws from critical and engaged pedagogies in her work with diverse populations that range from high schoolers to immigrant parents and elders.