Xiaofan Liang

Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning
Connect
Office: 2364

Xiaofan Liang is an Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning, University of Michigan – Ann Arbor. She is also an affiliated faculty with the UM Center for the Study of Complex Systems. She is passionate about fostering inclusive urban networks and enabling participatory/collaborative planning processes through urban analytics. Her approaches are largely inspired by the field of network science, complex systems, and critical & participatory approaches in GIS and planning, thus grounding her research in the pursuit of a diverse, equitable, and sustainable network society.

Her current work focuses on two themes: 1) examining how network infrastructure (e.g., transportation and social infrastructure) can simultaneously be inclusive and exclusive, offering connectivity and access for certain populations, places, or types of flows, while marginalizing or restricting others, 2) exploring how data, technology, and AI can support, transform, or challenge participatory practices in planning. Her works have been published in top-tier journals and conference proceedings, such as Journal of Planning Education and Research, Computer, Environment and Urban Systems, Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, and Transactions in GIS.

Xiaofan received her Master’s and PhD of City and Regional Planning at Georgia Institute of Technology (2019-2023), B.S. in Computational Science from Minerva University as a member of the first class of students (2015-2019), and B.A. in Sociology from UC-Berkeley (2013-2015).

Projects

Aug 20, 2024
Addressing strategies for managing vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated (VAD) properties is important for maintaining healthy communities. Yet, the process of identifying these properties can be difficult. Here, we create a […]

Courses

UT 402, Section 3
Winter 2025
Instructors: Xiaofan Liang
URP 610, Section 1
Winter 2025
Instructors: Xiaofan Liang
URP 402, Section 1
Winter 2025
Instructors: Xiaofan Liang
URP 535, Section 1
Winter 2025
Instructors: Xiaofan Liang
URP 610, Section 3
Fall 2024
Instructors: Xiaofan Liang
UT 402, Section 3
Fall 2024
Instructors: Xiaofan Liang
URP 506, Section 1
Fall 2024
Instructors: Xiaofan Liang
URP 402, Section 1
Winter 2024
Instructors: Xiaofan Liang
URP 535, Section 1
Winter 2024
Instructors: Xiaofan Liang