Welcome! ​I am an assistant professor of political studies at Pitzer College in Claremont, California. For the academic year 2023-24, I am a visiting fellow at the Institute for Security and Technology at Carnegie Mellon University.  

I study authoritarian politics and political economy of development with a special focus on China. I am interested in authoritarian institutions and their role in mediating the relationship between the regime and the citizenry. My main research interests include 1) political selection and co-optation and 2) methods of information manipulation, both with an emphasis on implications for regime stability and security. 
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My work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Political Science Research and Methods and Political Communication. I have also appeared in media outlets including The New York Times, Bloomberg News, and South China Morning Post to provide commentary on Chinese politics.

I received my Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University in 2018, and a B.A. in Government and Economics from Smith College in 2011. Prior to coming to Pitzer, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for the Study of Contemporary China, University of Pennsylvania, for the academic year 2018-2019.

You can reach me at hanzhang_liu[at]pitzer.edu.