Lan Chu鈥s research and teaching interests focus on the political role of religious institutions, the Catholic Church and global politics, faith diplomacy, religion and international relations theory, inter-religious dialogue, political ideologies (theory and practice), and the political liberalization processes of former and existing communist countries. Her work has been published in聽Politics and Religion,聽Democratization,聽Journal of Vietnamese Studies,聽CPD Perspectives on Faith Diplomacy,聽East European Politics and Societies, and聽BBC News. She has contributed chapters to聽Local Organizations and Urban Governance in East and Southeast Asia聽(Routledge Press, 2009),聽Religion and Public Diplomacy聽(Palgrave, 2013), and聽The Global Future of Religion: Probing into Issues of Religion and Religiosity in the Postmodern World聽(International Peace Studies Centre, 2013). In 2016, she edited a special section for the聽Journal of Vietnamese Studies聽titled, 鈥淭he Vietnamese American Diaspora Since 1975鈥 and her聽work was reprinted in聽Religion and Politics聽(IDEA Press, 2013) and聽the聽journal聽Islamic Perspective聽(2013).聽
Currently, she is working on a research project that examines the Catholic Church鈥檚 position on global issues.聽聽She theorizes how this amounts to an unofficial foreign policy on matters of conflict, peace, climate change, and migration.聽聽Applying a constructivist framework to characterize the Catholic Church as a norm entrepreneur, she focuses on how religious institutions can help reorient the way in which state and non-state actors approach international dilemmas (Routledge Press).聽聽She also is working on two projects focusing on religion and citizenship in the United State (Routledge Press) and religious freedom in Vietnam (Brill Press).聽
Professor Chu has received a Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship, was a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Political Science at the University of Southern California, and聽served on the Executive Council of the Western Political Science Association (2018-2021).聽 Currently, she is a Country Expert for the University of Gothenburg鈥檚 Varieties of Democracy Project (2012-Present) and is on the editorial board of the journal聽Politics, Groups, and Identities. 聽In 2022, she was the recipient of Oxy's Linda & Tod White Teaching Prize and appointed Faculty Director for Equity and Justice.