Personnel

Grace Kao

Grace Kao's picture
IBM Professor of Sociology and Professor of Ethnicity, Race, and Migration (Secondary); Chair, Department of Sociology; Faculty Director; Education Studies; Director, CERSI
Education:
Ph.D., Sociology, The University of Chicago, 1997
A.M., Sociology, The University of Chicago, 1992
A.B., University of California, Berkeley, Sociology and Oriental Languages (Chinese Literature), 1990
Areas of Interest:
Race and Ethnicity; Immigrant Adaptation; Sociology of Education; Adolescence; Asian Americans
Address:
493 College Street, Room 407
Phone number:
203-432-3793
Email:
g.kao@yale.edu

Grace Kao is Chair and IBM Professor of Sociology and Professor of Ethnicity, Race, and Migration (Secondary appointment, by courtesy). She is also Faculty Director of Education Studies. She is also Director of the Center for Empirical Research on Stratification and Inequality (CERSI).

She studies race, ethnicity, and immigration as they collectively relate to education and relationships among young people. She also has interests in the effects of migration on young people and has written papers on these topics in Mexico, China, and Spain. Currently, she is one of a team of researchers (led by Hyunjoon Park) that is examining the transition to adulthood among Korean Millennials. More recently, she has developed interests in the Sociology of Music and K-Pop in particular. She is the author of 2 books and over 80 articles. Her work has been published in the American Sociological ReviewAnnual Review of SociologySocial Science ResearchSocial Science Quarterly, Social Psychology Quarterly, American Education Research JournalTeachers College RecordChild DevelopmentEarly Childcare Research QuarterlyPopulation Research and Policy Review, Population and Development Review, among others. Her research has been supported by NICHD, The Spencer Foundation, The Russell Sage Foundation, and the Academy of Korean Studies.

She is Past Vice-President of the American Sociological Association. She has served on the Boards of the Population Association of America and the Association for Asian American Studies. In addition to serving as Past Vice-President of the American Sociological Association, she has served as Council member for the Sections of Asia/Asian America and Sociology of Education, and she has served as Chair of the Section of Children and Youth, and served on ASA’s Nominations Committee.

She is the recipient of the Contribution to the Field Award from the ASA Section on Asia and Asian America and was also named the Robin Murphy Williams Lecturer by the Eastern Sociological Society.

She previously served as the Co-Editor (with Hyunjoon Park) of Research in the Sociology of Education. She has also served or currently serves on the Editorial Boards of the American Sociological Review, NYU Press’ Series on Asian American Sociology, Social Science QuarterlySocial Science ResearchSocial Psychology QuarterlySociological ForumSociological PerspectivesSocial Problems, and Socius. According to Google Scholar, her work has been cited over 12,000 times.

Hannah Tessler

Hannah Tessler's Photo
PhD Student, Sociology, Yale University
Education:
A.M., Statistics and Data Science, Yale University, 2020
A.B., Hamilton College, Sociology, 2014
Areas of Interest:
Race and Ethnicity; Gender, Sociology of Education; Relationships; Life Course; Asian Americans; Stratification and Inequality
Address:
493 College Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Email:
hannah.tessler@yale.edu
Website:
http://sociology.yale.edu/people/hannah-tessler
Bio:
Hannah Tessler is a third year  Ph.D. student in the sociology department at Yale University.
She studies race, gender, and life course markers such as education and relationship formation. One area of research is on racial differences in the transition to college and experiences with the college application process. Another focus of her work is on social relationships including friendships and romantic relationships. Outside of her work, she enjoys figure skating and reading contemporary fiction novels for fun.

 

Meera Choi

Meera Choi's picture
Ph.D. Student in Sociology, Yale University
Education:
A.M., Sociology, Ewha Womans University, 2018
A.B., Ewha Womans University, Sociology and Psychology, 2016
Areas of Interest:
Gender and Sexuality, Family, Culture, Intimacy, Ethics of Care, Mixed Methods
Address:
493 College Street
New Haven CT 06511
Email:
meera.choi@yale.edu
Website: 
Bio:
Meera Choi is a sociology Ph.D. candidate at Yale University. Meera investigates shifting meanings and values of romantic relationships, family formation, and care work in South Korea, a social landscape marked by low fertility. To date, Meera’s research has focused on uncovering the ways in which gendered expectations of care work shape spatial boundaries and sense of place by gender and life course. Her dissertation examines how heterosexual desires have shifted in light of the popularization of sexual violence and safety discourse since the #MeToo movement. In particular, she studies South Korean feminist women who have opted out of sex, dating, marriage, and childbearing with heterosexual, cisgender men. She intends to reveal the crisis of heterosexuality in South Korea and alternative forms of intimacies around sisterhood. She frequently thinks about the ethics of care, particularly since the pandemic when she became the primary caretaker of a loving cat named Bingsu.