Yuhan Gao
  • June 11, 2026

  • Award-winning sociology grad student Yuhan Gao shares her work

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An urge to better understand how the world operates and why suffering persists drove Yuhan Gao to pursue a Ph.D. in sociology at UC Irvine following completion of her bachelor’s and master’s at Emerson College and Columbia University, respectively.

“I believed that sociology could offer me tools to engage with these broad and difficult questions,” she says. “UCI has many leading scholars in macrosociology and comparative sociology. I feel deeply grateful and honored to have the opportunity to work with them and learn from them.”

Now in her second year of the program, Gao, who is from Shenzen, China, has been awarded both the A. Kimball Romney Award for Outstanding Graduate Paper and Etel Solingen Award for Outstanding Paper in International Cooperation. The honors recognize her paper, “Society-Building and ‘Accidental’ Democratization,” and more broadly her research which lies at the intersection of cultural sociology and political sociology.

“Currently, my work focuses on democratization, illiberalism, and changes in higher education. These research areas speak directly to the current political environment and to the challenges we are facing as researchers in the social sciences, as graduate students, as immigrants, and as international students,” she says. “Through my research, I seek to identify the institutional and cultural factors that led to the historical processes of democratization, as well as those that contributed to the emerging challenges to universities. I am also trying to figure out what makes democracies resilient to the contemporary backsliding forces.”

Her co-advisors, sociology associate professor Julia Lerch and professor Ann Hironaka, have provided tremendous support in her short time on campus, Gao says.

“Their mentorship has helped me understand the post-WWII global order and the cultural factors behind social changes from new perspectives, which greatly helped me form my own theoretical understanding of democracy and education,” she says. “I’m deeply grateful for having them as my co-advisors.” Gao also expresses gratitude to professor Evan Schofer, who has provided valuable theoretical and methodological suggestions on her research projects. “All of them have placed great trust in me as I worked to finish an ambitious research project. Their kindness, encouragement, and intellectual guidance have always been the light in my Ph.D. life. I feel extremely fortunate for having them guiding my academic journey.”

Additional advice and encouragement for her work has come by way of the Irvine Comparative Sociology Workshop, organized by professor and chair David Frank, Hironaka, Lerch, and Schofer.

“I am grateful for having the opportunity to present my work in progress and to receive feedback from this community.”

 

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