About

Amy H. Liu is a professor and the Interim Department Chair in the Government Department at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research and teaching focus on the intersection of language and politics, exploring both the politics of language—such as the recognition of different languages and the effects of this recognition—and the language of politics, including how leaders communicate and how people think. She has conducted fieldwork across Asia, Europe, and the United States, often examining these issues through the empirical lens of the Chinese diaspora, Chinese language, or Greater China. Additional information about her work can be found under the books, research, and teaching sections of her professional webpage.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Law
• Psychology
• Linguistics
• Social psychology
• Mathematics
• Statistics
• Medicine
• Geography
• Demography

Selected publications

• Languages and Linkages: Explaining Diaspora Attitudes Toward the Ancestral Homeland

  The Journal of Race Ethnicity and Politics · 2026-01-15

  articleOpen access

  Abstract What explains the attitudes of diasporas toward their ancestral homeland? One answer suggests some pull toward the country of origin (“ancestral homeland”) based on a shared cultural identity. In contrast, another explanation looks at how host country (“contemporary homeland”) politics surrounding the “perpetual foreigners” can push the diaspora toward their ancestral homeland. In this paper, we recognize that the link between the diaspora and the ancestral homeland is malleable. Specifically, we focus on the linguistic link—which can vary both spatially and temporally. We argue that when individuals of the diaspora do not speak the ancestral homeland language with their family at home, the primordial ethnic bond is weakened, and thus, they are less positive toward their ancestral homeland. We test our argument by focusing on the ethnic Chinese diaspora globally. Using the Sinophone Borderlands Survey, we identify and test whether those who speak Standard Chinese at home are more pro-China than their coethnics who speak a non-Standard Chinese vernacular. The results highlight that while the ethnic Chinese diaspora is more positive toward China than the non-ethnic Chinese respondents, what matters is whether a, and if so, which, Chinese vernacular is spoken.

  PublisherDOI

• Replication Data for: When Bilingual Ballot Designs Promote or Undermine Inclusivity: Evidence from Three Studies

  Open MIND · 2026-02-27

  dataset1st authorCorresponding

  Do bilingual ballot designs promote inclusivity? While ethnic politics scholars have argued about the importance of accommodating minorities, there has been little attention paid to one specific institution: the ballot. Likewise, while we know ballot designs are important, the empirical focus has strictly been on monolingual ballots. In this paper, we identify three designs: (1) single: monolingual ballots; (2) separated: one bilingual ballot with two columns, with one language per column; and (3) stacked: one bilingual ballot with one column, with languages collated for each race. We argue attitudes are most inclusive when ballots are stacked – i.e., there are multiple languages sharing the same space. However, this is only the case when language is not a politicized issue. When it is, attitudes in fact become exclusive. To test, we employ three studies that vary on their extent of language politicization: (1) no politicization – the use of an indigenous language and an immigrant language next to Chinese in Taiwan; (2) politicization of the majority language – the use of Spanish alongside English in Texas; and (3) politicization of a minority language – the use of Russian and English in the Republic of Georgia. The results are robust and consistent with our theoretical expectations. Given that the foundation of democracy rests on citizens being able to exercise their voice, it is imperative that we accommodate minority languages effectively on the ballot.

  DOI

• Gender, Ethnicity, and Intersectionality: Double-Minorities in Asian Cabinets

  The Journal of Politics · 2025-05-15 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Policing Socio-Geographic Boundaries and Inequality

  Perspectives on Politics · 2025-06-10

  articleOpen access

  How do patterns of racial inequality shape policing behavior in the United States? We investigate whether police engage in boundary maintenance at geographic points of racial difference. Critical race scholars suggest that police explicitly serve this function. Yet empirical studies are rare and limited to snapshots of a single city, making it hard to distinguish practices employed across departments from agency- and officer-level idiosyncrasies. We leverage high resolution data on police activity in seven U.S. cities to evaluate how police engage with racial boundaries. We find evidence that police activity is elevated in racial boundary zones relative to non-boundary zones, exceeds observed crime, and that racialized outcomes are as much a product of policing practices as they are of conflict between private citizens. We reorient the study of boundaries around top-down processes that lead to their regulation and identify an agenda for future research.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Representation and resentment: Explaining radical-right electoral success

  European Journal of Political Research · 2025-10-08

  articleOpen access

  Abstract The radical right succeeds when minorities challenge the societal standing of majorities. In Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), research often focuses on the political gains of ethnic minorities. We build on this work by differentiating among (1) types of representation; (2) minority mobilization versus ally advocacy; and (3) politically mobilized versus socially marginalized ethnic minorities. First, we introduce a novel measure of representation based on the power, influence, and prestige afforded to ethnic minorities at the executive (cabinet) level. Second, we evaluate whether legislative descriptive representation, ethnic minority party coalition participation, and ethnic minority cabinet-level prestige are associated with radical-right aggregate electoral success and individual-level radical-right vote choice. Cabinet-level prestige consistently predicts radical-right success; descriptive representation and coalition participation have less robust associations. Third, experiments in Romania and Slovakia highlight the mechanism, underscoring that representation – namely the substantive representation of politically mobilized minorities – causes resentment among ethnic majorities. In sum, majority-minority relations continue to structure CEE electoral politics, and the politicization of minority gains remains a viable strategy for mobilizing radical-right support.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Racial Identities, Linguistic Proficiency, and Public Attitudes Towards Immigrants: Evidence From Two Surveys in Taiwan

  Political Research Quarterly · 2025-02-12

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Are host populations more accepting of immigrants who are racially similar and/or linguistically proficient in the host vernacular? The empirical focus in the literature has been largely dominated by Western democracies where the host society is white—and therefore the immigrants are often non-white. As such, we lack a theoretical explanation for how race moderates other markers—for example, language—when it comes to immigrant attitudes. To remedy this, we shift the focus to Taiwan, where the “New Residents”—a new catch-all census category for all post-1987 immigrants regardless of race, language, and national origins—offers an empirical opportunity to test our theory. In a conjoint experiment of Taiwanese attitudes and a survey of New Residents, we find attitudes are (1) most positive for Han Chinese who can speak a Taiwanese vernacular; (2) the least positive for Han Chinese who cannot speak a Taiwanese vernacular; and (3) relatively positive when immigrants are neither racially similar nor linguistically proficient. These findings, however, are conditional on the New Residents being from a non-politicized country (i.e., not China). The results have implications for how we study immigration, Taiwanese politics, and the Chinese diaspora.

  PublisherDOI

• Gender, Ethnicity, and Intersectionality in Cabinets

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2025-01-15 · 12 citations

  book1st authorCorresponding

  What explains patterns of representation – of women and ethnic minorities – in government cabinets? The authors argue governments diversify their cabinets when (1) a minority group – and it need not be ethnic – is sizable and can mobilize (political competition); and/or (2) the general population believes in and expects the inclusion of minorities (popular norms). The authors test their argument using original cabinet data from Asia and Europe (N=93) 1960-2015 and a most-similar design of four case studies. They identify the gender and ethnicity of 91,000 country-year-minister observations – with consideration of the rank of their ministerial portfolio. They find evidence that in countries where there is political competition and/or popular norms, cabinets have fewer double-hegemons. However, this does not necessarily suggest minorities are holding portfolios of substantive prestige. This project offers a way to study intersectionality in democratic representation and political institutions.

  PublisherDOI

• Process Tracing

  2024-03-26 · 1 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Despite the growing popularity of process tracing, one challenge to the method is the general absence of guidelines on how to do it. Barring some exceptions, the scholarship promotes its use in theory but provides little guidance in application. One reason for this shortcoming is the different ways researchers can use process tracing, for example, deductive versus inductive, theory-driven or case-driven. This chapter provides a step-by-step checklist specifically for developing a hypothesis-testing research design using process tracing. It illustrates the value-added of this checklist by applying it to a puzzling development in Thai party politics. Using process tracing in this manner makes it a valid and substantial tool for hypothesis testing. This practical guide should be of interest to scholars grappling with their own research designs as well as those with prior experience in case study methods.

  PublisherDOI

• Coding with the machines: machine-assisted coding of rare event data

  PNAS Nexus · 2024-04-30 · 5 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  While machine coding of data has dramatically advanced in recent years, the literature raises significant concerns about validation of LLM classification showing, for example, that reliability varies greatly by prompt and temperature tuning, across subject areas and tasks-especially in "zero-shot" applications. This paper contributes to the discussion of validation in several different ways. To test the relative performance of supervised and semi-supervised algorithms when coding political data, we compare three models' performances to each other over multiple iterations for each model and to trained expert coding of data. We also examine changes in performance resulting from prompt engineering and pre-processing of source data. To ameliorate concerns regarding LLM's pre-training on test data, we assess performance by updating an existing dataset beyond what is publicly available. Overall, we find that only GPT-4 approaches trained expert coders when coding contexts familiar to human coders and codes more consistently across contexts. We conclude by discussing some benefits and drawbacks of machine coding moving forward.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Cultural Constraints and Policy Implementation: Effects of the Beijing License Plate Lottery on the Environment

  Quarterly Journal of Political Science · 2024-01-22 · 2 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Can culture constrain policy implementation — and if so, under what conditions and for whom? In this paper, we test to what extent traditional values of numerology in China impeded the environmental benefits of a well-designed license plate policy. We take advantage of two natural experiments in Beijing. First, in 2008 authorities began limiting cars on the road by restricting specific plate numbers each day. Second, in 2011 authorities introduced a lottery policy-making it difficult to obtain any plate. We find that (1) non-traditionalists abandoned cultural norms, accepted non-lucky plate numbers, and switched to newer, greener vehicles, whereas (2) traditionalists — fearing the loss of their lucky plate numbers — held on to their older pollutant-emitting cars. We test our argument using a CO readings dataset, a Beijing driver survey, and a license plate image database. We find strong evidence that emissions were lower when lucky numbers were restricted, and the pattern strengthened gradually over time.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Zsombor Csata

  Babeș-Bolyai University

  12 shared

• Roman Hlatky

  University of North Texas

  5 shared

• Attila Papp Z.

  Centre for Social Sciences

  3 shared

• Jacob I. Ricks

  Singapore Management University

  3 shared

• Anand E. Sokhey

  3 shared

• Bruce Chapman

  Jet Propulsion Laboratory

  3 shared

• David S. Brown

  University of Florida Health Science Center

  3 shared

• Zeynep Somer‐Topcu

  2 shared