Jennifer Pan

Jennifer Pan serves as the Sir Robert Ho Tung Professor of Chinese Studies and Professor of Communication at Stanford University, within the Communications department. She is additionally a Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and holds professor by courtesy appointments in the departments of Political Science and Sociology. Pan received her A.B. summa cum laude from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs in 2004, followed by an M.A. in 2011 and Ph.D. in 2015 from Harvard University’s Department of Government. Prior to her academic career, she worked as an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company’s Greater China Office and as an International Project Manager at the Chinese Center for Disease Control. She joined Stanford University as an Assistant Professor of Communication in 2015, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2021, Full Professor in 2022, and received her current endowed chair in 2023.

Pan’s research centers on political communication, digital media, and authoritarian politics, utilizing experimental and computational approaches with large-scale political datasets to study mechanisms of political censorship, propaganda, and information manipulation in the digital era, and their effects on preferences and behaviors. She is the author of the book Welfare for Autocrats: How Social Assistance in China Cares for its Rulers (Oxford University Press, 2020). Notable publications include “How Saudi Crackdowns Fail to Silence Online Dissent” (American Political Science Review, 2020, with Alexandra A. Siegel), “Reshares on Social Media Amplify Political News but Do Not Detectably Affect Beliefs or Opinions” (Science, 2023), “Like-minded sources on Facebook are prevalent but not polarizing” (Nature, 2023), and “The Effects of Facebook and Instagram on the 2020 Election: A Deactivation Experiment” (PNAS, 2024). Her scholarship has earned awards such as the American Journal of Political Science Best Article Award (Midwest Political Science Association, 2016), International Communication Association Political Communication Best Paper Award (2017), Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences Fellowship (2019-2020), and Political Ties Award for Best Article (APSA PolNet, 2024). Pan serves on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Political Science, Political Analysis, Political Communication, Journal of Communication, and others. She has contributed to various committees at Stanford, including the FSI Stanford Center on China’s Economic and Institutional Transition Faculty Steering Committee and the China Fund Committee, as well as APSA award committees.

Professional Email: jp1@stanford.edu