UBC Sociology

We are now accepting submissions for the 2026 Sociology Undergraduate Research Conference. Please submit the abstract for your oral presentation by March 07, 2026 via the link in our bio.

This is a premier opportunity to share your research, engage with peer scholarship, and gain valuable presentation experience.

The conference will be held on Friday, March 20, 2026.
WHEN: 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM
WHERE: Buchanan A-201

Congrats to PhD candidate Rose Xueqing Zhang for receiving the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences’ Congress Student Merit Award!

The merit-based award recognizes and celebrates the academic excellence of graduate students who present their work at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Canada’s largest gathering of academics.

Rose’s dissertation explores how overwork regimes and gendered labor expectations shape the health and life trajectories of Chinese white-collar workers.

Beyond her dissertation, Rose is also engaged in public-facing research as a contributor to the BC Atlas of Disaster—an interactive tool that visualizes the social impacts of extreme weather—and as a researcher on the Understanding Precarity in BC project, where she studies how employment precarity affects health and well-being.

Read more:

PhD candidate Rose Xueqing Zhang receives FHSS Congress Student Merit Award - Department of Sociology The award recognizes and celebrates graduate students who present their work at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Drawing on examples from Europe, the U.S., and Canada, Prof. Amin Ghaziani writes that in order to protect q***r nightlife spaces, we need to treat them more like museums and heritage buildings, rather than entertainment venues.

Read the full piece in Maclean's: https://buff.ly/p8rTSgP

Prof. Amanda Cheong has received two awards and multiple honourable mentions from the American Sociological Association for three of her recent articles!

Her research on statelessness and dispossession has been awarded by the Political Sociology and Human Rights sections, in addition to receiving honourable mentions from the Development, Theory, and Global and Transnational Sociology sections.

Learn more about the awards and Dr. Cheong's work:

Prof. Amanda Cheong recognized by ASA section awards - Department of Sociology She has received an award and multiple honourable mentions for two of her articles from American Sociological Association.

Congrats to PhD candidate Rose Xueqing Zhang for winning the Nan Lin Graduate Student Paper Award from the International Chinese Sociological Association!

The award rewards young scholars engaging in innovative research on Chinese societies. Rose won for her research examining the prospective motherhood penalty encountered by women white-collar workers of childbearing age, regardless of their childbearing status, in China’s non-state-owned enterprises.

Learn more:

PhD candidate Rose Zhang receives Nan Lin Graduate Student Paper Award - Department of Sociology Rose was awarded for her paper, “Racing Against a Hidden Clock: The Prospective Motherhood Penalty and Gendered Ageism in China’s Workplace.”

In her honours thesis, Emma Nguyen explores the adoption of English preferred names among Asian international university students in Anglo-Saxon countries.

Her research focuses on Asian international students who are familiar with Western culture through internationally-national schools. She examines how these students navigate dual cultural spheres through educational, professional, and social environments.

Read our Q&A with Emma:

Emma Nguyen explores adoption of English names in honours thesis - Department of Sociology Her study investigates how students select English names and the impact of this decision on their overall “success” in Anglo-Saxon countries.

Congratulations to the winners of this year’s Sociology Undergraduate Research Conference!

Emma Nguyen won first place with her thesis examining the adoption of English preferred names among international university students who attended internationally-national secondary schools with Anglo-Saxon curricula.

Second place went to Alexander Murphy, for his presentation on his research examining how non-binary transmasculine people understand and enact masculinity.

Emma Dierkes rounded out the podium, earning third place for her presentation on how merit, and deservingness more broadly, is understood in education systems in non-capitalist regimes. Her work looks specifically at socialist post-war East Germany.

Learn more about the award winners:

Emma Nguyen, Alexander Murphy, and Emma Dierkes win SURC 2025 awards - Department of Sociology The judging panel was comprised of past Honours students and members of the Sociology Students Association.

Do civil rights claims actually resonate?

In a new study, Prof. Irene Bloemraad investigates whether civil rights appeals are effective for diagnosing social problems and fostering support for government intervention.

Large-scale survey experiments showed that framing contemporary social issues as civil rights violations actually reduced support for government intervention among respondents.

Read the full study: https://buff.ly/9B5TcL1

Last month, our amazing undergraduate honours students presented their honours thesis research at the Sociology Undergraduate Research Conference!

A number of them will also be travelling to the Canadian Sociological Association's annual conference in Montreal next month to present their research. Best of luck at the conference!

Last week, our graduating students crossed the stage and received their degrees! We were so excited to celebrate them at our graduation reception.

Congratulations to all our graduating students, and welcome to our alumni community! We're so excited to see you all embark on your next chapters. 🩵

In a panel discussion at the 2025 Eastern Sociological Society Annual Meeting, Prof. Amin Ghaziani discussed publishing in general sociology journals with other editors of top generalist journals. Their discussion covered a wide range of topics, from the major challenges to publishing to the different characteristics of each journal.

Check out their discussion and the advice they have for authors:

Publishing in General Sociology Journals Click on the article title to read more.