Yang Zhang Contact Information 253 Seigle Hall St. Louis, MO 63130 Email: zhang.yang@wustl.edu Phone: (319) 899-0447 Website: http://yang-zhang.weebly.com Research Interests Comparative Politics: Chinese Politics, Political Networks, Authoritarian Resilience, Corruption and Anti-corruption Enforcement, Social Media, Public Opinion Political Methodology: Network Analysis, Text Analysis, Machine Learning, Information Retrieval Academic Appointments Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Political Science September 2016 - present Education Ph.D., Political Science 2016 Dissertation Title: Taming Factions in the Chinese Communist Party Summary: In 1980s, drawing on past failures the Chinese Communist Party began to take a road of institutionalization. I look into how various institutional mechanisms such as the rule of avoidance, horizontal and vertical job rotation, cadre evaluations, and term limits curtail factionalism in Chinese politics. In particular, I examine how these mechanisms shape the careers of provincial party secretaries, provincial standing committee members, and Central Committee members, and affect the performance of secretaries of provincial Discipline Inspection Commissions in anti-corruption campaigns. Dissertation Committee: Wenfang Tang (Chair), Frederick Boehmke, Caroline Tolbert, Frederick Solt, Kang Zhao (Management Science) Beijing International Studies University B.A., International Politics 2010 Additional Training Northwestern University Workshop on Research Design for Causal Inference June 2017 Information Science Certificate 2014-2016 University of Michigan ICPSR Summer School June-August 2014 Introduction to the R Statistical Computing Environment Empirical Modeling of Social Science Theory: Advanced Topics Network Analysis: Advanced Topics University of Houston Empirical Implications of Theoretical Models (EITM) Summer Institute June 2013 1
Publications 2017. Tang, Wenfang, Yang Zhang, and Sheri Martin. Revolution Postponed: The Limitation of the Internet in Promoting Democracy in China. In The Rising Civil Society and State-Society Relations in China, eds. Wei Shan and Lijun Yang. New Jersey, London and Singapore: World Scientific, 169-205. 2016. Wang, Xi (correspondent author), Zhiya Zuo, Yang Zhang (correspondent author), Kang Zhao, Yung-Chun Chang, and Chin-Shun Chou. Investigating Regional Prejudice in China through the Lens of Weibo. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Social Informatics, 500-513. 2016. Tang, Wenfang and Yang Zhang. Political Trust: An Experimental Study. In Populist Authoritarianism: Chinese Political Culture and Regime Sustainability, Wenfang Tang. New York: Oxford University Press, 134-151. 2016. Chang, Yung-Chun, Chin-Shun Chou, Yang Zhang, Xi Wang, and Wen-Lian Hsu. Sentiment Analysis of Chinese Microblog Message Using Neural Networkbased Vector Representation for Measuring Regional Prejudice. In Proceedings of the Pacific-Asia Conference on Information System, Paper 307. 2014. Yang Zhang. Testing Social Ties Against Merits: The Political Career of Provincial Party Chiefs in China, 1990-2007. Journal of Chinese Political Science (3): 249-265. Working Papers Rotation and Performance of China s Provincial Party Disciplinary Leaders Central Committee Networks and Politburo Transitions of the Chinese Communist Party Provincial Deficits and Political Centralization in China (with Xi Wang) Superficial Cooptation or Deep Engagement? Analyzing Policy Activism in the 11 th CPPCC (with Bin Yu) Diffusion of Birth-Control Reforms in Chinese Provinces (with Shuai Jin) Socioeconomic Environment and Interpersonal Trust in China The Information Divide: Digital Inequality, Online News and Place (with Karen Mossberger and Caroline Tolbert) Classification of Political News by Semi-supervised Learning (with Ruoxi Du) Work in Progress Conference Presentations Policy Moods in Latin American Countries (with Brian Crisp and Guillermo Rossas) Review Essay on New Methodological Advances in the Study of Chinese Politics 2017. Explaining Policy Activism in an Authoritarian Assembly: Evidence from the 11th CPPCC (2008-2012), (with Bin Yu), Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Chicago. 2016. Classifying Relevant Political Events Using Semi-Supervised Learning, (with Ruoxi Du), Computational Approaches to Social Modeling, Bellevue. 2
2016. Investigating Regional Prejudice in China through the Lens of Weibo, International Conference on Social Informatics, Bellevue. 2016. Diffusion of Birth Planning Reforms in Chinese Provinces, Association of Chinese Political Studies Annual Meeting and International Symposium, Monterey. 2016. Explaining Policy Activism in the 11th CPPCC (2008-12), (with Bin Yu), Association of Chinese Political Studies Annual Meeting and International Symposium, Monterey. 2016. Central Committee Networks and Politburo Replacement, (poster), Political Networks Conference, St. Louis. 2016. Diffusion of Birth Planning Reforms in Chinese Provinces, (with Shuai Jin), Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Chicago. 2015. New Longitudinal Data on Internet Use and Inequality Across U.S. Cities and Counties, 1997-2013, (with Karen Mossberger and Joshua Uebelherr), Association of Internet Researchers, Phoenix. 2015. New Longitudinal Data on Internet Use and Inequality Across U.S. Cities and Counties, 1997-2013, (with Karen Mossberger and Joshua Uebelherr), Partnership for Progress on the Digital Divide, Phoenix. 2015. Breaking Local Ties: How the Chinese Communist Party Manages its Disciplinary Leaders, American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco. 2015. Informal Power and Chinese Politburo Turnover, Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Chicago. 2013. Dealing with Social and Political Sensitivity in Chinese Surveys, (with Wenfang Tang), Sun Yat-Sen University. 2013. Reexamining Education Fairness: An Experimental Study of Chinese College Admission Policies, EITM Summer Institute, University of Houston. 2013. Revolution Postponed: The Limitation of the Internet in Promoting Democracy in China, (with Wenfang Tang and Sheri Martin), Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Chicago. Teaching Interests Comparative Politics: Intro to Comparative Politics, Asian Politics, Chinese Politics, Democratization, Public Opinion and Political Behavior Politics of Corruption Political Methodology: Data Science, Machine Learning, Text Analysis, Linear Regression, Maximum Likelihood Estimation, Event History Analysis, Time Series Analysis, Multilevel Modeling, Spatial Econometrics, Time Series Cross Sectional Analysis, Network Analysis, Survey Methods, Experimental Research, Programming in Stata, R and Python Formal Theory: Game Theory, Dynamic Models, Statistical Estimation of Formal Models 3
Teaching Instructor, Current Issues in Contemporary Chinese Politics Spring 2017 Understanding Political Research Spring 2015 Math Bootcamp for Incoming Graduate Students (with Ruoxi Du) August 2015 Workshops on Python (with Xi Wang) Fall 2015, Spring 2016 Teaching Assistant The Politics of International Economics Spring 2016 Public Choice Spring 2013 Interest Groups Spring 2013 Chinese Government and Politics Fall 2012 Strategy in Politics Fall 2012 Political Psychology Fall 2012 Globalization Spring 2012 Research Research Assistant (Caroline Tolbert) Broadband Use Mapping, Data and Evaluation State Policies of Same Sex Marriage in the US (Brian Crisp) Economic Structural Reforms in Latin American Countries Using Roll Call Votes to Understand Legislative Behavior Understanding Rankings of Political Science Programs Statistical Consultant Public Policy Center, Fall 2015 - Spring 2016 Grants & Awards 2015. Winner of SBP Grand Data Challenge (with Xi Wang) ($1400), International Social Computing, Behavioral Modeling and Prediction Conference 2015. Graduate College Post-Comprehensive Summer Research Awards ($4000), University of Iowa 2013. Houston EITM Summer Institute Scholarship ($2000) Skills Programming Python, R, Stata, Java, HTML/CSS, SQL, L A TEX, Mathematica Languages Chinese(Native), English(Fluent) Professional Reviewer The China Journal Journal of Chinese Political Science Public Policy and Governance 4
References Wenfang Tang Chair, Stanley Hua Hsia Professor (319) 335-2546 wenfang-tang@uiowa.edu Frederick J. Boehmke Professor, Director of Graduate Studies (319) 335-2342 frederick-boehmke@uiowa.edu Gerhard Loewenberg Professor Emeritus UI Foundation Distinguished Professor 336 Schaeffer Hall (319) 335-2345 g-loewenberg@uiowa.edu Brian Crisp Professor Campus Box 1063, One Brookings Drive St. Louis, MO 63130 (314) 935-5810 crisp@wustl.edu Caroline J. Tolbert Professor (319) 335-2417 caroline-tolbert@uiowa.edu Kang Zhao Assistant Professor Department of Management Sciences S224 Pappajohn Business Building (319) 335-3831 kang-zhao@uiowa.edu 5