Career Details

Yang Hu (he/him/his) is Professor of Global Sociology (2022–), and previously Associate Professor (2019–2022) and Assistant Professor (2016–2019), at Lancaster University, UK. He is co-director of the Early Career Fellowship Programme at the Work and Family Researchers Network (2024–). He is an editorial board member of the Journal of Marriage and Family (2020–), and formerly Sociology (2020–2022) and Sociology Compass (2020–2022). He is also a member of the UNESCO Inclusive Policy Lab (2023–). Yang has been named in the Stanford-Elsevier World's Top 2% Scientists list for citations in 2022 and 2023 (latest). Since 2018, his leadership in digital innovation and global partnership development has been recognised through two Lancaster University Staff Awards ("International Impact of the Year") and one Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Dean's Staff Award.

Yang's research examines family and work changes and inequalities in a global context, including:

1. Intersectional inequalities in family and work lives across the lines of gender, sexuality, ethnicity/race, age, and migrant status.

2. The implications of digitalisation and AI (artificial intelligence) for family and work lives and inequalities.

3. The role of crises (e.g. COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters) in reproducing existing and giving rise to new forms of intersectional inequalities in family and work lives.

Yang takes two approaches to the 'global' in his research – the first features a cross-national comparative scope and the second focuses on transnational mobilities. His research contributes to advancing family and work equity and justice. It advances understandings of how macro socio-economic, political and institutional developments and cultural changes, as well as emergent crises, (re)configure everyday work and family lives. His recent research has been published in journals such as Nature Human Behaviour, Gender & Society, Demography, Journal of Marriage and Family, and European Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology, among others. His research has frequently been recognised through international awards and most read/cited status.

Yang's research has received funding (> £1.5 million) from the UKRI/ESRC (UK), SSHRC (Canada), British Academy (UK), HEFCE (UK), and Nuffield Foundation (UK).

Yang is an editorial board member of the Journal of Marriage and Family (2020–) and formerly Sociology (2020–2022) and Sociology Compass (2020–2022).

Yang's research has received broad coverage by more than 100 global media outlets, including the BBC, Guardian, CNN, ABC, CNA, Time Magazine, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, United Press, Global Times, German National Radio (see Yang's website for a full list).

Follow Yang on Personal Website, LinkedIn, ResearchGate.

At Lancaster, Yang is also affiliated with:

• Centre for Child and Family Justice Research

• Data Science Institute

• Centre for Gender and Women's Studies

• Centre for Mobilities Research and the Migrancy Research Group

• Lancaster University China Centre

• Centre for Alternatives to Social and Economic Inequalities