Welcome to my website! My name is Liu Peng (彭柳), and I am a PhD candidate in political science at the University of Minnesota. I study historical legacies of communism, especially those related with the grandiose program of Soviet industrialization. I adopt a mix-methods approach relying on causal inference tools, archival evidence, and in-depth ethnography in the field. I have a passion for travel, with the goal of marking my footprints in all of the top 100 cities of the former USSR (currently 14/100). My work appears on Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Europe-Asia Studies, and among others. Originally I am from Tianshui, Gansu (甘肃天水), China. I lived in Beijing for six years for my bachelor’s and master’s.

Feel free to contact me at peng0334 at umn.edu.

Background: Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (defunct), Visaginas, Lithuania

Kivovakan Chemical Combine (defunct), Vanadzor, Armenia, photo by Liu Peng