Yingzhe Zhu

I am a PhD candidate in Sociology at Northwestern University, in the Department of Sociology. I am also a Fellow in the Science in Human Culture Program and a Dissertation Fellow at Northwestern’s Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs for the 2026-27 academic year. I will be on the academic job market in Fall 2026.

I am a sociologist focusing primarily on the political economy of technology and medicine, with a global scope and strong policy relevance. My research examines how digital technologies reshape human behaviors, work conditions, institutional arrangements, and inequalities, in medicine and other social sectors. My interdisciplinary training in sociology, law, and statistics across China and the United States equips me to examine complex social problems at the intersection of technological change, healthcare, and state governance from comparative perspectives. Methodologically, I integrate geospatial analysis, regression modeling, and computational text analysis with traditional qualitative methods.

Along these lines, my current study investigates the rise of online medical platforms (OMPs) in China and their social consequences. These platforms enable patients to consult leading doctors across specialties and across the country remotely. A mixed-methods approach is adopted, combining interviews, ethnography, public documents, and self-scraped datasets. I focus on patients’ patterns of platform utilization and evaluation, doctors’ motivations for participating in online platform work, changing dynamics of medical authority and power, and the impacts of OMPs on existing health inequalities.

My research has been supported by the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange. Two of my papers are currently undergoing R&R processes at Social Science & Medicine. Another paper, which examines doctors’ OMP engagement, received the ICSA Nan Lin Graduate Student Best Paper Runner-up Travel Award in 2026.

I expect to receive my Ph.D. in Sociology and M.S. in Statistics (Data Science) in July 2027. Prior to entering the U.S., I earned an M.A. in Sociology from Peking University, as well as a B.A. in Sociology and an LL.B. in Law from Tsinghua University.