My name is LIAN, Jie. My friends and colleagues also call me Jason. Currently, I am a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Nonviolent Action Lab in Harvard Kennedy School. I also affiliate with the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University and the Center for Political Studies at the University of Michigan. In Spring 2025, I got my Ph.D. in Political Science & International Affairs, a Master's Degree in Artificial Intelligence, and a Master's Degree in Statistics at the University of Georgia. 

My research is centered on a core question: how technological advancement can expand civil liberty and protect vulnerable actors while constraining new instruments of repression.   To answer this question, I investigate three interrelated mechanisms: (1) how emerging technologies reshape power distributions between governments and civic actors in civil resistance; (2) how they affect broader dimensions of human security; and (3) how disruptive technologies themselves should be theorized, governed, and evaluated as political phenomena. As one of the leading researchers in the ``AI for Democracy Movement'' project at Harvard Kennedy School, I am cooperating with Dr. Erica Chenoweth to investigate how AI technologies could be used to empower civil society.

My interests expand beyond the political implications of AI. Working with different research teams, I try to understand how the utilization of different physical equipment, like police helicopters and surveillance satellites, might impact the issues of police violence, battleground behaviors, and governments' human rights practices. In my ongoing book project, I review the development of disruptive generic technologies for the past two hundred years to understand their implications for civil liberty and human security.

Besides the substantive focuses, my research also heavily relies on AI-based methods, which not only deepen my understanding of this technology but also largely expand my methodological repertoire. My research toolkit spans Machine Learning and Deep Learning, Symbolic AI, Computer Vision Algorithms, Large Language Models, AI Agents, Geospatial AI, Network Analysis, and Bayesian Statistics. While leveraging state-of-the-art computational methods in my substantive research, I am also dedicated to developing open-source AI algorithms tailored specifically for political science and international relations research.

Check out my Research page for some cool projects!

I am passionate about teaching both substantive and methods courses! Be sure to visit the Teaching Data Analytics page to explore some incredible final projects created by my students in methods classes.

I like to think of myself as approachable and passionate (sometimes perhaps a bit too enthusiastic when it comes to research projects and all things nerdy). Please don't hesitate to reach out if you are interested in my research or just want to chat!

Long live Free Will and Human Dignity!

Get in touch!