Shelley Liu
Faculty Affiliate of Journalism & Public Policy
Assistant Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy
OFFICE
Rubenstein Hall 288
shelley.liu@duke.edu
IN THE NEWS
BIO
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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).
PUBLICATIONS
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Cheng, Tony, and Shelley Liu. “When trust building looks like surveillance: Public polarization toward Chicago policing.” Science Advances 12, no. 29 (July 2026): eaeb7575. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aeb7575.
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Ventura, Tiago, Rajeshwari Majumdar, Shelley X. Liu, Carolina Torreblanca, and Joshua A. Tucker. “Reducing Social Media Usage During Elections: Evidence from a Multi-Country WhatsApp Experiment.” Center for Open Science, March 23, 2026. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/zrsqw_v1.
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Liu, S. “Varieties of insecurity and rebel-civilianties across time: Evidence from post-war Zimbabwe.” In Institutional Legacies of Violent Conflict Development and State Building in the Shadow of Wartime Institutional Change, 211–40, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1093/9780197904077.003.0007.
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Bowles, J., K. Croke, H. Larreguy, S. Liu, and J. Marshall. “Sustaining Exposure to Fact-Checks: Misinformation Discernment, Media Consumption, and Its Political Implications.” American Political Science Review 119, no. 4 (November 1, 2025): 1864–87. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055424001394.
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Liu, S. X. “From Politicization to Vigilance: The Post-war Legacies of Wartime Victimization.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 69, no. 5 (May 1, 2025): 868–97. https://doi.org/10.1177/00220027241268533.