Linda Zhao

Linda Zhao is a Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago. Zhao’s research investigates how the population composition of social settings (such as levels of diversity or inequality in classrooms, workplaces, and communities) shapes emergent interpersonal networks and intergroup dynamics, and how this in turn generates distinct patterns of social cohesion and inequality. Her recent projects aim to contextualize the intergroup relations that underlie inequality and integration in several substantive areas including immigrant integration, social cohesion, policing, and public health. Prior to joining the University of Chicago, Zhao was a Frank H.T. Rhodes Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cornell Population Center. She received a Ph.D. from Harvard in Sociology in 2020, a M.A. in Statistics from Harvard in 2017, and a B.A. in Economics from Princeton in 2013.