Welcome!
I study how disruptive life events—such as job loss, divorce, and large-scale crises like the COVID-19 pandemic—reshape life course inequalities structured by family and gender processes.
Combining machine learning, causal inference, and sociological theory, I examine how people make constrained decisions in response to structural shocks—such as whether to leave the labor force or take on more caregiving responsibilities—and how these responses vary by institutional context and social position.
My work study how these decisions—shaped by institutional rules, cultural schemas, and access to resources—accumulate into divergent life trajectories that reproduce inequality over time.
About Me
I’m Nanum Jeon, a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology and M.S. student in Statistics and Data Science at UCLA.
Before UCLA, I trained in sociology in Korea and public policy in Japan, earning my B.A. from Ewha Womans University and an M.P.P. from the University of Tokyo. This cross-national academic foundation informs my comparative and interdisciplinary approach to inequality.
My research focuses on how life disruptions—such as divorce, job loss, or large-scale crises—reshape individual decision-making and life trajectories. I study how institutions—particularly the market, family, and state—mediate these disruptions and contribute to long-term social stratification.
Methodologically, I use longitudinal data and causal machine learning to examine how inequality is produced through dynamic and contingent processes over time.
My current projects explore:
Trajectory stratification after divorce in the U.S. welfare state
Deep learning–based g-computation for life course sociology
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.
It has been supported by fellowships and awards, including the Kwanjeong Education Foundation, Donald J. Treiman Research Fellowship, and an Honorable Mention from the ASA Religion Section.
I’m currently on the 2025–26 academic job market, seeking tenure-track positions and postdoctoral opportunities in sociology, demography, or data science–oriented social research.
To learn more, please visit my research and teaching pages or view my CV.
📢 Recent updates
August 8-12, 2025 – Organized two sessions on family and work, and will give an oral presentation on trajectory stratification at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA), Chicago.
August 4-7, 2025 – Helped Organize the RC28 Conference at UCLA.
June-August 2025 – Visiting the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research to work on machine learning approaches to life course analysis.
July 3- 4, 2025 – Gave an invited lecture on Machine Learning for Causal Inference: A Two-Part Introduction to G-Computation for Yonsei University’s Department of Sociology.
May 17, 2025 – Presented my ongoing work on deep learning and g-computation at the ASA Mid-Year Methodology Conference at the University of Pennsylvania.
May 6, 2025 – Received an Honorable Mention for the 2025 ASA Religion Section Student Paper Award.