Roberts research lies at the intersection of political methodology and the politics of information, with a focus on methods of automated content analysis and the politics of censorship in China. Roberts co-directs the China Data Lab, which is part of the 21st Century China Center at the School for Global Policy and Strategy.

She earned her Ph.D. in government from Harvard, and both her master’s in statistics and bachelor’s in international relations and economics from Stanford. She joined UC San Diego in 2014. Her recent book, Censored: Distraction and Diversion Inside China’s Great Firewall, was published in 2018 by Princeton University Press.

Post-Doctoral Fellow: Rebecca Fraenkel