Jennifer Pan

Jennifer Pan is an Assistant Professor of Communication, and an Assistant Professor, by courtesy, of Political Science and Sociology at Stanford University. The intersection of political communication and authoritarian politics is the flash point for conflict in numerous places around the world. Her research resides at this intersection, showing how authoritarian governments try to control society, how the public responds, and when and why each is successful.

Her work on censorship and propaganda shows how authoritarian governments try to control the information environment in the digital age. Her book, Welfare for Autocrats: How Social Assistance in China Cares for its Rulers (Oxford, 2020) shows how China’s pursuit of political order transformed the country’s main social assistance program, Dibao, for repressive purposes. Her work has appeared in peer reviewed publications such as the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, Journal of Politics, and Science.

Pan received her Ph.D. from Harvard University’s Department of Government in 2015. She graduated from Princeton University, summa cum laude, in 2004, and until 2009, she was a consultant at McKinsey & Company based in New York and Beijing. Jennifer has also worked for the Chinese Center for Disease Control and the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative.