Edward Aspinall is a professor and head of the Department of Political and Social Change, Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, Australian National University. He is a specialist in the politics of Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia.

He has authored four books:

• Opposing Suharto: Compromise, Resistance and Regime Change in Indonesia (2005),
• Islam and Nation: Separatist Rebellion in Aceh, Indonesia (2009),
• Democracy for Sale: Elections, Clientelism and the State in Indonesia (2019, with Ward Berenschot) and
• Mobilizing for Elections: Patronage and Political Networks in Southeast Asia (2022, with Meredith L. Weiss, Allen Hicken and Paul D. Hutchcroft)

and co-edited a further ten, including Electoral Dynamics in Indonesia: Money Politics, Patronage and Clientelism at the Grassroots (2016).

His most recent research projects focus on clientelism, village politics, and urban machine politics across Southeast Asia.

He was president of the Asian Studies Association of Australia in 2019-2020 and with Melissa Crouch authored the 2022 ASAA report, Australia's Asia Education Imperative: Trends in the Study of Asia and Pathways for the Future. He is co-series editor of the Cambridge University Press Southeast Asian Politics and Society Elements series and of the ASAA’s Southeast Asia Publication Series, published by NUS Press.