Zachary Van Winkle research revolves around individual and institutional factors that shape life courses and life course transitions as well as the consequences those life courses have for individuals in a comparative perspective.
He defended his doctoral dissertation on the complexity of family life courses in 20th century Europe and the United States in early October of 2018, which was awarded the best PhD thesis prize from the European Consortium for Sociological Research and the German Society for Demography.
Starting in September of 2015, he was employed as a pre-doctoral research fellow at the department of microsociology at the Humboldt University and the research group on demography and inequality at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. He was hosted by Stockholm University, Princeton University and the University of Amsterdam for research visits.
Up to 2020, he was a postdoctoral research fellow in sociology and social demography at the department of sociology and Nuffield College at the University of Oxford.
