About

Hello! I am currently a dual-title Ph.D. candidate in Political Science and Asian Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. I expect to defend my dissertation in 2024.

My dissertation examines how countries use social media to advance their foreign policy interests and whether these efforts can influence foreign public opinion. My substantive research interests include international affairs, public diplomacy, foreign policy, social media, and international political economy. My geographic areas of expertise are East Asia, particularly China, and Latin America. Methodologically, I focus on quantitative political science, computational social science, text analysis, survey experiments, and digital humanities.

Moreover, I am proficient in advanced statistical techniques such as data mining, experimental design, panel data analysis, regression analysis, sentiment analysis, text-as-data methods, and time series analysis. Using R, Stata, Python, and other software, I have experience in cleaning, manipulating, sub-setting, and visualizing data.

My research has been published, or is forthcoming, in Foreign Policy Analysis, Journal of East Asian Studies, Journal of Public Diplomacy, Political Communication, Revista [IN]Genios, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, among others.

I also have experience teaching undergraduate courses in international relations and quantitative social science research methods, and I have worked as a teaching assistant for multiple courses. My teaching interests are closely related to my research, and I believe they mutually benefit each other.

I received my M.A. in Political Science from the Pennsylvania State University in 2021 with specializations in International Relations and Comparative Politics. Prior to attending Penn State, I studied Mandarin Chinese for two years in Beijing and obtained an M.A. in International Relations from Beijing Normal University (北京师范大学). I also hold a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus.

My pronouns are he/his/him. Please view my CV, Research, and other pages for more information about my work, or feel free to contact me via email (amv5718@psu.edu).