Dr Yang Hu

Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Data Science

Research Interests

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Yang Hu's research focuses on changing family, gender and sexual relations, and their intersection with population mobility. His research contributes to advancing gender and social equalities, family justice, and understandings of how macro socio-economic, political and institutional developments and cultural changes (re)configure everyday family and intimate lives:

Transnational family and intimate relationships

The first strand of Yang’s research focuses on mobilities and family relations in a transnational and global world, which sits at the intersection of family, gender, race/ethnicity, nationality, and migration. Yang’s first book Chinese-British Intermarriage examines how men and women negotiate, (re)construct and make sense of their intersecting gender and ethnic identities in Chinese-British inter-ethnic families in the UK. The book was nominated for the 2017 British Sociological Association Philip Abrams Prize. Yang has also published on the formation of transnational marital orientations, and the mobility of Chinese international students. Funded by The Sociological Review Foundation, Yang has organised (with D. Nehring) the 2017 Sociological Review Symposium on ‘Transnational Family Justice in Migration Crises’. Yang is currently editing (with D. Nehring) a journal special issue of the outputs from this event (with D. Nehring).

(Changing) work-family, gender and sexual relations and values in regional and cross-national contexts

The second strand of Yang’s research focuses on the region-specific dynamics pertaining to family, gender and sexuality over the life course in regional (China and the UK) and cross-national contexts. Published topics include: cross-national variations in domestic gender inequalities, family and gender values in China, ideational impact of migration, social change and geographical variations in sex ideologies, intergenerational reproduction of gender inequalities, intergenerational marital mobility, life-course trajectories of marital disruption and remarriage, living space and mental health, and new forms of intimate relationships such as living apart together. At Lancaster, Yang co-founded and co-convenes (with J. Fledderjohann) the LAARG (Lancaster Asia Area Research Group).

Yang's recent research activities have been funded by organisations such as the Nuffield Foundation, British Academy, The Sociological Review Foundation, HEFCE (N8), and Shanghai Social Science Research Council.

At Lancaster, Yang is also affiliated with:

Qualifications

BA (Zhejiang University); MPhil & PhD (Cambridge, as Gates Scholar)

Career Details

Yang Hu is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Lancaster University. He also holds an early career fellowship at the Work Family Researchers Network, USA. Yang obtained his MPhil and Ph.D in Sociology as a Gates Scholar from the University of Cambridge, and his B.A. from Zhejiang University, China. He has previously taught and supervised students in social sciences at the University of Cambridge. He has also worked as an interpreter/translator for organisations such as the UNDP. He is author of the book Chinese-British Intermarriage—Disentangling Gender and Ethnicity. His research has appeared in Journal of Marriage and Family, European Sociological Review, Environment and Planning A, Journal of Sex Research, Demographic Research, Journal of Family Issues and so on. His social commentaries have been published in major media outlets, such as the United Press, Time Magazine, Quartz, Xinhua News, 163.com, etc.

Current Teaching

GWS.101 Femininity and masculinity in East Asia and in a transnational context
SWK.116 Family changes and family diversity
SOCL.248 Global families and intimacy
SWK. 227/433 Focus groups and qualitative interviews

PhD Supervision Interests

Yang would be happy to work with students in (the intersection of) the following areas: sociology of families (marriage and intimate relationships, intergenerational relations, child development, and gender), regional and international migration, race and ethnicity, globalisation and transnationalisation, East Asian societies, and research methodology.