Ruo-Fan Liu

Ruo-Fan Liu joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as the inaugural Taiwan Program Postdoctoral Fellow. She recently obtained her PhD in sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research examines the uncertainties students encountered after Taiwan’s holistic admission reforms, and how parents and teachers activate cultural and social capital to regain admissions advantages. She is a Fulbright recipient, a former Congress party negotiator, and the author of Let the Timber Creek: An Alternative School’s Utopia for Coming Generations, selected as the top tenth best non-fictional book by China Times.

Ruo-Fan’s other line of research focuses on meritocracy and credentialism in East Asia. Her award-winning paper, “Digital Credentialism,” reveals how the symbolic power of credentials travels through online platforms to reify people’s beliefs about who is qualified, legitimated, and trustworthy.

At APARC, she will turn her dissertation, “When Ladders Move,” into a book manuscript. She will also expand her current research agenda on uncertainty and legitimacy into prescriptive recommendations for organizational hiring and talent flows. Learn more about Ruo-Fan’s work via her website and follow her on X.