Life course, family demography, education, social inequality
Xiaowen Han is a PhD candidate in Sociology with a minor in Population Studies at the University of Minnesota. Xiaowen completed her Population Studies trainee program at the Minnesota Population Center in 2023.
Xiaowen’s research interests include life course studies, sociology of work and the labor market, social psychology, medical sociology, and social stratification. Her dissertation examines how the non-economic dimensions of labor market inequality, particularly intrinsic job rewards beyond wages, unfold across generations and over the life course, and their consequences on the health and wellbeing of workers.
Xiaowen has published broadly on the life course associations between labor market experiences and health, such as the later life health implications of cumulative unionization, and the impacts of perceived discrimination at work on depressed mood. Her peer-reviewed papers have appeared in the Journal of Health of Social Behavior, Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, and the Chinese Journal of Sociology.