Bio

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I am a postdoctoral fellow at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center within the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University, affiliated with Stanford’s Next Asia Policy Lab, Taiwan Program, and Pathways Network in Education. Starting August 2026, I will be Assistant Professor of Sociology at National Chengchi University. My research examines how social classes mobilize resources to secure advantages when facing uncertainty–particularly as college admissions in Taiwan have moved from an exam-centered system to holistic screening in recruiting elites. My work has appeared in International Studies in Sociology of Education, Ethnography, and is forthcoming in The Journal of Asian Studies.

Using ethnographic fieldwork, archives, and mixed methods, I trace youths’ life courses to observe interventions from their parents and teachers, as well as their digital footprints in offline and online settings—a process I term “hybrid ethnography” in my methodological paper. Currently, I am turning my ethnographic thesis, When Ladders Move, into a book manuscript.

I am currently involved in three collaborative research projects across Taiwan and the United States. At Stanford, I lead a transnational research project that examines how Taiwan and Korea mobilize state power beyond their borders to facilitate institutional and scholarly connections between home and host societies. In another project, I collaborate with scholars studying first-generation students’ college-to-workforce transitions in the United States to understand why the advantages associated with elite college attendance do not always carry over into later life-course stages. I also collaborate with an interdisciplinary research team on organizational competition and network formation, examining how institutions position themselves and respond to shifting rules in higher education markets.

I earned my B.A. from National Taiwan University and my Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. My work is funded by the Fulbright Foundation, the Association of Asian Studies, Taiwan’s National Science Foundation, the Midwest Sociology Society, and the Institute for Regional and International Studies at UW-Madison.