Contact Information
3059 Lincoln Hall
Urbana, IL 61801
Biography
Ting-Syuan Lin is a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She holds an MA and BA in sociology from National Taiwan University and National Taipei University (minor in Economics). Previously a research assistant for the Taiwan Youth Project, she was awarded the prestigious Overseas Study Scholarship from Taiwan’s Ministry of Education. In 2025, she participated in the Population and Social Data Science Summer Incubator Program at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research.
Working at the intersection of family sociology and demography, her research applies a life course perspective to analyze how macro-level structures and spatial disparities shape individual values and outcomes. She utilizes quantitative, spatial, and sequence analysis to address the following research areas:
- Family, Life Course, & Demography: Investigating how social structures, cultural norms, and political environments shape values and life events in East Asia and the U.S.. This includes published work on son preference (Population Research and Policy Review) and precarious work (Social Indicators Research).
- Spatial Disparity & Mobility: Examining inequality in segregation/mobility and disaster response, including research on wildfire response (Computers, Environment and Urban Systems) and and current projects on Asian American isolation.
- Sequence Analysis & Health: Applying sequence analysis to health outcomes and aging trajectories in collaboration with gerontologists. This methodological expertise is featured in her forthcoming chapter in the Handbook on Data Modelling and Data Analysis.
Research Interests
Marriage and family; Fertility and reproductive decision-making; Spatial and structural inequalities; Life course perspective; Sequence analysis
Education
M.A. in Sociology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
B.A. in Sociology (minor in Economics), National Taipei University, Taipei, Taiwan
Grants
2025 Conference Participation Grant, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
2025 Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies (CEAPS) Graduate Student Conference Travel Grant, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
2023–2024 Scholarship for Studying Abroad, Ministry of Education, Taiwan
2023 Graduate Student Employees Union Professional Development Program Grants, SUNY Stony Brook
2023 Student Registration Grant, RC55 Social Indicators, International Sociological Association
2022 Conference Participation Grant, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Awards and Honors
2020 List of Teaching Assistants Ranked as Excellent, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Courses Taught
2025 Guest Lecturer, Introduction to Sequence Analysis in R (Incubator Tutorial), Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR)
2024 Guest Lecturer, SOC225: Race and Ethnicity, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
2023 Instructor, SOC201: Statistical Methods in Sociology, SUNY Stony Brook
2022 Guest Lecturer, SOC273: Sociological Perspectives of the Family, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
2022 Guest Lecturer, SOC274: Health, Illness, and Society, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Recent Publications
Ma, Zihui, Guangxiao Hu, Ting-Syuan Lin, Lingyao Li, Songhua Hu, Loni Hagen, and Gregory B. Baecher. 2025. “Analyzing Public Response to Wildfires: A Socio-Spatial Study Using SIR Models and NLP Techniques.” Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 121:102333. doi:10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2025.102333.
Lin, Ting-Syuan. 2025. “Regional Difference in Changing Son Preference Attitudes in Taiwan: An Age–Period–Cohort-Interaction Analysis, 2001–2021.” Population Research and Policy Review 44(3):28. doi: 10.1007/s11113-025-09953-3.
Tsai, Ming-Chang, and Ting-Syuan Lin. 2025. “Precarious Work During the Transition to Adulthood: A Latent Profile Analysis of Taiwan’s Young People.” Social Indicators Research 176(3):993–1020. doi: 10.1007/s11205-024-03495-5.
Tim F. Liao and Ting-Syuan Lin. Forthcoming in 2025. "Using Sequence Analysis in Social Science Research." Chapter in Handbook on Data Modelling and Data Analysis, edited by David Weakliem. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.
Professional Service
- 2025–Present Editorial Associate, Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World
- 2023–Present Listserv Manager, Asia & Asian America Section, American Sociological Association