Zenobia Chan is a Visiting Research Collaborator in Politics at Princeton University and a 2021–22 USIP-Minerva Peace and Security Scholar. She studies signaling in foreign policy and the economic statecraft of revisionist powers. Her research interests lie in the intersection of international political economy, security studies, and computational social sciences.
Zenobia's dissertation book project investigates how positive economic statecraft––such as foreign aid, loans, and investment––influence preferences and behavior of elites and public abroad. Her other research projects examine the effects of Chinese and Russian information operations on voter polarization abroad and develop machine learning techniques for discovering heterogeneous treatment effects.
Prior to her doctoral studies, Zenobia was an analyst and geo-data engineer at Google, Inc. She has also served in analyst and consultant positions at the United Nations, OECD, and World Bank on issues related to development assistance, infrastructure financing, and energy, environmental, and industrial policy. She holds a Master of International Affairs in International Security Policy from Columbia University, an MA summa cum laude in International Economic Policy from Sciences Po Paris, and a BBA (1st Hon) in International Business and Global Management from the University of Hong Kong.
Selected Honors and Awards
- USIP-Minerva Peace and Security Scholar Fellowship (United States Institute of Peace)
- Timothy E. Cook Best Graduate Student Paper in Political Communication Honorable Mention (American Political Science Association)
- Hong Kong Scholar (Hong Kong SAR Government)
- Alexandre Yersin Scholar (French Ministry of Foreign Affairs)