Welcome!

I am Jingwen Wu (吴静雯), a Ph.D. candidate in Government at the University of Texas at Austin, working with Tiffany Barnes. My research examines how digital technologies shape political behavior, state strategy, and governance, with a particular focus on gender and East Asia.

My dissertation investigates how modern communication technologies (MCT) reshape politics. I argue that digital infrastructure is not a neutral public good, but a strategic variable that governments calibrate for regime survival.

The first chapter, “Whose Weapons? Modern Communication Technologies and the Strategic Logic of Provision,” examines when governments expand politically risky digital infrastructure and how political risk shapes the timing of digital expansion. The second chapter, “Information Without Accountability: How Institutions Filter the Impact of Digital Connectivity on State Violence,” examines how the political consequences of digital connectivity depend on institutional context, showing that increased visibility constrains repression in some systems but not others. The third chapter, “When to Regulate: Short-Video Platforms and the Politics of Timing,” extends this logic to platform governance through a comparison of China and South Korea, showing how regime type shapes when and how governments regulate short-video platforms such as TikTok. My dissertation shows that governments do not simply adopt or resist digital technologies. Instead, they strategically manage the expansion, consequences, and regulation of digital systems in ways that reflect broader concerns about political control and regime survival.

Beyond the dissertation, my broader research interests include the gendered consequences of digital inequality, political development in East Asia, and emerging questions in AI governance and digital institutions.

My work has been supported by the Ashley T. Judd Distinguished Graduate Fellowship (OPSVAW, 2023–2024). It has appeared in the Asian Survey and the Journal of Peace Research.

I hold a Master’s in Political Science from the University of Kentucky and a Master of Public Administration from Morehead State University, where I graduated as the Outstanding MPA Student. I earned my undergraduate degree from Minzu University of China.

My CV is available here.

You can reach me at: jwu12351[AT]gmail[DOT]com