A mixed-methods sociologist of race and ethnicity, Professor Shiao’s work examines how race has remained a fundamental organizing principle for social relations in the United States, with a recurring but nonexclusive consideration of the Asian American experience. He has published research on organizational diversity policies, transracial international adoption, and major issues in racial/ethnic theory. His current research focuses on the social demography of race/ethnicity, particularly translating insights from qualitative research about the life-course salience of race/ethnicity into quantitative research on interracial contact, racial classification, and racial stratification.
Professor Shiao is the author of Identifying Talent, Institutionalizing Diversity: Race and Philanthropy in Post-Civil Rights America (Duke University Press, 2005) and Choosing Ethnicity, Negotiating Race: Korean Adoptees in America (Russell Sage Foundation Press, 2011, with Mia Tuan). His work has also been published in the American Journal of Sociology, Sociological Theory, Sociological Perspectives, Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, Comparative Sociology, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, Du Bois Review, Race and Society, Asian American Policy Review, and Contexts. He received his B.A. in Women's Studies from Brown University in 1991, and his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1998. He joined the University of Oregon faculty as an Assistant Professor of Sociology in 1998 and later served Dartmouth College as Associate Professor of Sociology and Asian American Studies before rejoining the UO faculty in 2009.
- social demography of race/ethnicity
- social segregation and interracial intimacy
- racial/ethnic identity of transracial adoptees
- philanthropic diversity policy
- race & ethnicity
- Asian American studies
- research methods
Shiao, Jiannbin Lee. 2024. “Over-educated or Overly Invested in Education?: The Role of Educational Commitment in Asian American Socioeconomic Attainment.” Race and Social Problems. 16: 167–184. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-023-09403-9.
Shiao, Jiannbin Lee. 2023. “Measuring Hispanics/Latinxs: Racial Heterogeneity and Its Consequences for Modeling Social Outcomes in U.S. Population Samples.” Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World 9:1–18. doi: 10.1177/23780231231174830.
Shiao, Jiannbin Lee, and Ashley Woody. 2020. “The Meaning of ‘Racism.’” Sociological Perspectives 495–517. doi: 10.1177/0731121420964239.
Shiao, Jiannbin Lee. 2019. “When (In)Consistency Matters: Racial Identification and Specification.” Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World 5:1–18. doi: 10.1177/2378023119848268.
Shiao, Jiannbin Lee. 2018. “It Starts Early: Toward a Longitudinal Analysis of Interracial Intimacy.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity 4(4):508–26. doi: 10.1177/2332649218769440.
Shiao, Jiannbin Lee. 2017. “The Meaning of Honorary Whiteness for Asian Americans: Boundary Expansion or Something Else?” Comparative Sociology 16(6):788–813. doi: 10.1163/15691330-12341445.