She was educated at Stanford University (BA in Economics) and Princeton University (MPA in Development Studies and PhD in Politics and Public Policy). She has held fellowships at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Oxford University’s Centre for the Study of Inequality and Democracy, and Stanford University's Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.

Her research investigates the origins of effective and democratic states with a regional focus on South Asia. She is the authos of two books: The Promise of Power: The Origins of Democracy in India and Autocracy in Pakistan(2013) and Varieties of Nationalism (with Harris Mylonas, 2023), and has authored over twenty peer-reviewed articles in Comparative Politics, Party Politics, Perspectives on Politics, Annual Review of Political Science, and Indian Politics and Policy.

Her writing has also appeared in policy outlets such as Foreign Affairs, The Hindu, New Statesman, Washington Post, Indian Express, and Journal of Democracy. Maya is a regular commentator on elections and the state of democracy in media outlets, including the BBC and The Guardian.

Before embarking on an academic career, Maya worked as a Special Assistant to Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz at the World Bank, at UNICEF, in the United States Senate, and at the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee. A dual citizen of Germany and the United States, she has lived and worked in Bangladesh, Germany, France, India, Kenya, Pakistan, the Philippines, the United Kingdom and the United States.