Yuan Hsiao

Yuan Hsiao’s major research explores the intersection of digital media, social networks, and collective action. His research brings a network perspective to understanding questions pertinent to a variety of online and offline social processes. Examples include how networks on social media contribute to political mobilization, how gang members engage in online and offline conflict relationships, how personal relationships affect the spread of religion, or how community networks affect health behavior. Central to all these examples is societal change, such as the rise of social media, reshapes how people form network relationships, and in turn how such network relationships affect collective phenomena such as political mobilization or the spread of a religion.

Yuan is enthusiastic about multi-data and mixed-methods research. As a believer that complex social problems often require multiple sources of data, he combines “big” digital data, administrative records, survey experiments, and historical archives to glean insight into general theoretical processes. Analytically, he is a big fan of mixed-methods research that combines qualitative and quantitative data.

Yuan finds it interesting when conducting cross-national research. His research has engaged geographical and cultural contexts including the United States, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Jordan, Georgia, and other countries. Recognizing that he may not have deep cultural expertise in every context, Yuan often collaborates with scholars from different countries.

Yuan’s work has appeared in the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Social Networks, Sociological Methods & Research, Political Communication, Journal of Computational Social Science, International Migration Review, among other outlets. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology and M.S. in Statistics from the University of Washington in 2021.