Welcome!
I am a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology and an M.S. student in Statistics and Data Science at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). I am affiliated with the Inequality Data Science Lab (IDS-Lab) and the California Center for Population Research (CCPR). Prior to UCLA, I worked in public policy think tanks, including the Asian Development Bank Institute in Tokyo, Japan. I hold an M.P.P. from the University of Tokyo in Japan and a B.A. in Sociology from Ewha Womans University in South Korea, where I completed the Scranton Honors Program with a focus in Society and Justice, an interdisciplinary academic track.
Research Interests
My research focuses on the following interconnected areas: (1) the intersection of social stratification and life course studies, using life disruptions as critical lenses to examine inequality; (2) intra-group inequality, analyzing how intersecting socioeconomic resources create divergent outcomes within seemingly homogeneous groups; and (3) the advancement of statistical and machine learning methods for sociological research and causal inference.
My work has been published in several journals, including the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Journal of Marriage and Family, and Social Science Research. My research has been recognized with funding and awards, including the Donald J. Treiman Research Fellowship from the UCLA CCPR, the Kawahara Fellowship, from the UCLA Terasaki Center for Japan Studies and a UCLA Dissertation Award. I have also received a nationally competitive scholarship from the Kwanjeong Education Foundation in Korea.
I will be on the academic job market for the 2025–2026 academic year, seeking tenure-track faculty positions in sociology or related fields, as well as postdoctoral opportunities. For further details about my research and teaching, please visit my research and teaching pages, or view my CV.
Recent News
- Jan 2025: I’m happy to share that I will be participating in a contributors’ workshop to present our review paper on causal machine learning for sociology for the 2026 special issue of Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie on 'Explanation and Causality in the Social Sciences' at Johannes Gutenberg University in April 2025. I am excited to gain new perspectives on causal inference and sociology and to connect with other scholars!
- Dec 2024: I’m excited to serve on the organizing team for next summer’s RC28 Meeting at UCLA. We’re looking forward to welcoming submissions and fostering meaningful discussions on social mobility and inequality among stratification researchers from around the world.
- Oct 2024: I’m pleased to share that I’ll be organizing a regular session on Work and Family for ASA 2025. If you’re conducting research in this area, I’d be glad to see your work—please consider submitting.
- Feb 2024: I’m grateful to have received UCLA’s dissertation award, which is supporting my research on life course inequalities.
- 2023