Susie X. Liu graduated from New York University with a double major in History and Economics. Her research focuses on Chinese immigration and urban life in the United States during the Chinese Exclusion Era, with particular attention to how Chinese immigrant communities navigated exclusionary legal and social environments and negotiated their place within American cities.
Her previous research examined Chinese religious life in the United States, exploring how immigrant communities adapted religious practices and institutions in response to migration, racial exclusion, and changing social conditions. Her current interests extend this work into the urban sphere, examining the intersections of religion, municipal governance, crime and policing, and community institutions. Across these themes, she is interested in how Chinese immigrants responded to, negotiated with, and sometimes circumvented the institutions and restrictions that shaped everyday life.
Beyond her independent research, Susie has worked as a research assistant to historian Heather R. Lee for years on projects concerning Chinese and Chinese American history, conducting research on topics including the 1905 Chinese boycott of American goods and anti-Chinese violence in the American West. She has also been involved with the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) in New York, contributing to public programming and community engagement.
At Columbia University and LSE, Susie hopes to situate Chinese immigrant communities within broader histories of migration, race, and urban governance in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America, while continuing to explore the relationship between community institutions and the legal and social structures that shaped immigrant life.
