Alice Xu

Alice Xu is an Assistant Professor at the School of Social Policy and Practice and the Department of Political Science (secondary appointment). She studies the comparative political economy of development with a focus on urban and distributive politics, inequality and social policy, and environmental politics in the Global South. Her book project explores the political causes and consequences of class- and race-based segregation across cities in Brazil and Mexico. She also has research interests in quantitative and spatial methods for studying inequality. Her research received the American Political Science Association's Best Paper on Social and Economic Inequality award (Class and Inequalitly Section) in 2021 and APSA's Paul A. Sabatier Best Conference Paper award (Science, Technology, and Environmental Politics Section) in 2022. Xu received a Ph.D. in Government (Political Science) from Harvard University and a B.A. in Economics-Political Science and Sustainable Development from Columbia University. Prior to joining Penn, she was a Postdoctoral Associate at the Yale Leitner Program in International and Comparative Political Economy.