About
Jun Fang is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science and Scientific Computing at the University of Michigan. His dissertation committee members are Chris Fariss, Mary Gallagher, Jean Hong, Iain Osgood (co-chair), and Jordan Siegel (co-chair).
During the 2026 Autumn Quarter, he is a Big Ten Academic Alliance Traveling Scholar at the University of Chicago, hosted by Scott Gehlbach.
His dissertation examines social media platforms that also function as digital marketplaces. This combination of social media and e-commerce, known as social shopping, lets users buy products directly through the content they view, such as videos and posts. He studies how content creators use political content to attract attention and sell products, and how governments regulate these marketplaces across countries.
His work on China's platforms is part of a broader research agenda on Chinese domestic politics and international relations. He also studies AI's political and social implications and the reliability of AI-assisted social science research.
Research Interests: Political Economy of Technology; Political Communication; Comparative Politics; International Relations and International Political Economy; International Business and Nonmarket Strategy; Generative and Agentic AI; Computational Social Science.
CV (available upon request; updated October 2026)
