I work in the interdisciplinary field of political science and urban planning. My main research agenda centers on political control and urban governance, with a regional focus on China. In particular, I study how urban space impacts the power dynamics between the state and society, and how the state’s pursuit of political control and stability reshapes urban space. This dynamic has implications for issues related to migration, inequality, and authoritarian resilience. I am also interested in broader themes of state-society relations under authoritarianism: (a) the state’s censorship and propaganda strategies, and (b) prospects for civic engagement in policymaking given state control. I use mixed methods, including remote sensing data analysis, text data analysis, design-based inference, interviews, and ethnographic observation.

In my book project titled Preemptive Coercion, I explore the political control incentive for authoritarian governments to demolish informal settlements and evict internal migrants. My works have been published in the China Quarterly, the Journal of Contemporary China, and in edited volumes through the University of Pennsylvania Press.

I received my PhD in Government at Cornell University. Before that, I obtained my M.A. in Regional Studies-East Asia from Harvard University, and my LL.B. in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Peking University. I have worked and interned at Thomson Reuters News Agency Beijing Bureau, United Nations’ Department of Social and Economic Affairs, and Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy.