Shelley Liu

Shelley Liu is an assistant professor at the Sanford School of Public Policy. Her primary research and teaching focuses on issues relating to conflict, development, and state-building in fragile political contexts. Her ongoing research projects examine (1) how war shapes politics and development, (2) citizen agency in state legibility projects, and (3) the determinants of polarization, politicization, and disengagement. Liu's research has been published in the American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Peace Research, PLOS ONE, Political Science Research and Methods, Politics & Society, and World Politics.

Prior to joining Duke faculty, Liu was an assistant professor at UC Berkeley, Goldman School of Public Policy. She holds a PhD in government from Harvard University (2020).

Current Duke Appointments & Affiliations

Assistant Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy · 2023 - Present Sanford School of Public Policy

Assistant Professor of Political Science · 2024 - Present Political Science, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Affiliate of the Duke Center for International Development · 2024 - Present Duke Center for International Development, Sanford School of Public Policy

Recent News Items

Published April 22, 2024

Kristin Zhu Wins Gaither Junior Fellowship

Published April 11, 2024

Spring Books by Duke Authors: Meditations, Baseball, Rebels and Stomach Pains

Published October 17, 2023

Helping Social Scientists Grow an Idea into a Research Project

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Recent Scholarly Works

When trust building looks like surveillance: Public polarization toward Chicago policing.

Journal article Science advances · July 2026 Public debate about policing highlights competing views about whether community initiatives build trust or reinforce surveillance. We argue that perceptions depend on prior state orientations, which can polarize opinions across groups. Using a preregistere ... Full text Cite

Reducing Social Media Usage During Elections: Evidence from a Multi-Country WhatsApp Experiment

Preprint · March 23, 2026 Social media messaging platforms are central to worldwide communication, but are also major hubs of misinformation and toxic content. On these platforms, informationspreads through interpersonal and group-based chats rather than feed-based recommendatio ... Full text Cite

Varieties of insecurity and rebel-civilianties across time: Evidence from post-war Zimbabwe

Book section · January 1, 2026 Literature on rebel governance has examined various ways in which rebels engage with civilians, build informal governing institutions, and exert social control during civil war. When rebels win, how does rebel governance affect post-war politics? This chap ... Full text Cite

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