Ruoxi's research interests include intrastate conflict, protest and repression, and mass media coverage of such events. In her dissertation, she collects global newspaper data and uses topic modeling techniques to study the variation in international media framing of mass protests. Her research reveals statistically significant differences in how newspapers based in countries with and without freedom of expression focus on different aspects of protest and repression. Furthermore, it demonstrates how these differences are conditioned on the types of regime the events take place under, as well as whether the movements are primarily violent or non-violent.

Methodologically, Ruoxi is interested in data science techniques, text retrieval and analysis, social network analytics, formal modeling, empirical implications of theoretical models (EITM), and other applied statistical methods. She is expected to obtain her MS degree in information science through the Iowa Informatics Initiative in fall 2017.