Howard Liu

Howard Liu

Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science

University of South Carolina

About me

Welcome! I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of South Carolina.

My research interest centers on state repression and political violence, particularly onhow governments maintain control and order through various coercive institutions such as the police, military, courts, and local governments, as well as strategies including direct violence, nonviolent coercion, and infiltration through informants and spies. I am particularly interested in how networks of dissent shape state repression strategies. To that end, I work on developing network methods to enhance my research on repression and political violence in general.

Interests

  • State repression
  • Political violence
  • Dictatorship
  • Armed Conflict
  • Network analysis

Education

  • PhD in Political Science, 2019

    Duke University

  • MS in Political Science, 2009

    National Taiwan University, Taiwan

  • BA in Diplomacy, 2007

    National Chengchi University, Taiwan

Research

The Law or the Career? Autocratic Judiciaries, Strategic Sentencing, and Political Repression

(2024) Published in Comparative Political Studies.

Spatial Modeling of Dyadic Geopolitical Interactions Between Moving Actors

(2022) Published in Political Science Research and Methods

And the Heat Goes On: Police Repression and the Modalities of Power

(2021). Published in Journal of Conflict Resolution.

Taking Dyads Seriously

(2021). Published in Political Science Research and Methods.

Hierarchy and the Provision of Order in International Politics

(2020). Published in The Journal of Politics.

Lost in Space: Geolocation in Event Data

(2018). Published in Political Science Research and Methods.

Teaching

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POLI502 - Methods of Political Analysis

This grad-level course offers an introduction to the theory and practice of quantitative data analysis techniques.

POLI794 - Politics of State Repression and Human Rights

This graduate-level course introduces topics of human rights abuses and transitional justices after state repression of human rights

POLI803 - Research Methods in Political Science

This graduate-level course introduces more advanced statistical models and the basics of causal inference