Zhipeng Zhou

Welcome! I am a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at Cornell University.

I study the changing nature of work and how it affects patterns of economic inequality, career mobility, and perceptions of security. I’m especially interested in non-standard employment relations and flexible work arrangement, how these forms of work are embedded in specific institutional and organizational contexts, and how they affect income inequality.

My research has been supported by the Center for the Study of Inequality (CSI), Cornell University, and the East Asia Program (EAP), Cornell University. My work received the 2025 Best Graduate Student Paper Award from the Labor and Employment Relation Association (LERA) and the 2025 Robin M. Williams, Jr. Best Paper Award from the Department of Sociology, Cornell University. It has been published in journals including Social Forces, Socius, Journal of Asian Economics.

I would be glad to connect via email at zz334 at cornell dot edu.

news

July 2026	My solo-authored paper, “Job Precarity and Earnings Inequality in Contemporary China,” has been published online in Social Forces. 🎉🎉🎉
June 2026	My dissertation research on multidimensional job precarity in the United States has received grant support from the Center for Racial Justice and Equitable Futures, ILR Workplace Inclusion & Diversity Education (WIDE), Center for the Study of Inequality, and Cornell Population Center. I am grateful for their generous support of this work.
January 2026	I’m delighted to share that a high school senior I mentored through a research project has been admitted to Yale University. It has been an engaging mentoring experience. I’m glad to see the student’s work recognized! 🎉
October 2025	I was selected as a member of the 2025–26 cohort of the NextGen Professors Program at Cornell University.
June 2025	My paper on employment precarity and earnings inequality in China received the 2025 Deans, Chairs, and Directors Council (DCDC) Best Student Paper Award from the Labor and Employment Relation Association (LERA).
May 2025	My paper on employment precarity and earnings inequality in China received the 2025 Robin M. Williams, Jr. Best Paper Award from the Department of Sociology at Cornell University.
September 2024	My research received the Lee Teng Hui Fellowship in World Affairs with East Asia Focus from the East Asia Program (EAP) at Cornell University. It will fund one semester of my Ph.D. study at Cornell University.