Charles Chang
I am a computational social scientist who specializes in leveraging large-scale spatial data, especially those from smartphone social media. The Big Data I use have helped me in the scientific measurement and causal identification of several social science and humanistic fields by drawing on data from a wide range of sources, including geospatial, textual, network, and visual information. My first book project, “Technologies Affecting Information Exchange in Contemporary China: Green Leap Forward?” examines how the physical environment of cities shapes political communication, a phenomenon that is previously thought only tightly controlled by a relentless authoritarian regime.
Academic Positions
- 2020–present Duke Kunshan University, Assistant Professor of Environment and Urban Studies
- 2022–2025 Purdue University, Visiting Assistant Professor in Sociology
- 2018–2020 Yale University, Postdoctoral Associate at the Council on East Asian Studies and Lecturer in Anthropology
- 2017–2018 Purdue University, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Sociology
- 2016–2017 Stanford University, Postdoctoral Fellow in Chinese Studies
Education
- 2016 Gaylord Nelson Institute, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Ph.D., Environment and Resources (major), Geography (minor)
Committee: Melanie Manion (chair), Scott Gehlbach, Pierre Landry, A-Xing Zhu, Qunying Huang
Dissertation: Using New Communication Technologies to Study Contemporary China - 2013 Gaylord Nelson Institute, University of Wisconsin–Madison
M.Sc., Environment and Resources
Thesis: Understanding Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Urban Expansion in Western China - 2009 Institute of Remote Sensing Applications, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing
Ph.D. student, Quantitative Remote Sensing - 2006 Beijing Normal University, Beijing
B.Sc., Cartography and Geographic Information Systems
Contact
- Email charles dot c dot chang at dukekunshan dot edu dot cn