Thorin Wright is an associate professor at the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University. He received his doctorate in political science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2012. He received his bachelor's (2005) and master's (2007) degrees in political science at the University of North Texas.

His primary research interests include state repression and human rights, and international conflict dynamics. His research has been published in journals such as International Studies Quarterly, International Interactions, Journal of Conflict Resolution and Journal of Peace Research. He was also recently awarded, along with his co-principal investigators, a multi-year grant from the National Science Foundation to collect data on sub-national variation in human rights practices.