Shoudeng Zhang

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Shoudeng Zhang

DPhil in Sociology

Thesis: 'Within and Between Families: Educational Inequality in China'

Supervisor: Christiaan Monden

I am a second-year DPhil student in Sociology funded by Chinese Scholarship Council. My research interests lie on the intersection of educational inequality, social stratification, and family sociology. I study the determinants and influential factors of educational attainment, particularly those related to family and sibling structure. My doctoral project broadly investigates educational inequality in China from both the inside and outside of households. In addition, I study how cultural and political transformations, as well as contemporary education and population policies, produce/reproduce educational inequality in China, with a particular focus on rural students’ wellbeing.

Before coming to Oxford, I earned an MSc in Economics of Education (with distinction) at Peking University, where I worked on (and am still part of) the NSFC-funded project County-level High School Under Rural Revitalization Strategy. Prior to that, I graduated from Peking University with a Bachelor of Economics in Finance (with honours).

Research Interests: Education, Social stratification, Family, Quantitative methods