Ziyao Tian, *23
Ziyao Tian is a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology at Princeton University. She received her B.A. in Sociology from Peking University (2015) and an M.A. in East Asian Studies from Stanford University (2017). Her research areas include stratification & inequality, economic sociology, education, immigration, and Asian American Studies. In her dissertation, Ziyao examines Asian Americans’ educational investments from the Asian Exclusion since the late 19th century to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using historical census, consumer expenditure surveys, and in-depth interviews with Asian American parents, her research shows how the American public uses Asians’ parenting behaviors to measure Asians’ foreignness despite drastic changes in the nation’s immigration policies.