Wenjie Liao
Associate Professor
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
College of Liberal Arts
Office Location
Wenjie Liao
Associate Professor
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
College of Liberal Arts
Select Scholarship
Journal Paper
Liao, Wenjie, Kim Ebert, and Lisa Sun-Hee Park. "Migration and Racialization Part II: The Light and Shadow of Inclusion." American Behavioral Scientist. (2022): online first. Web.
Ebert, Kim, Wenjie Liao, and Lisa Sun-Hee Park. "Migration and Racialization Part I: Constructing and Navigating a Hostile Terrain." American Behavioral Scientist. (2022): online first. Web.
Busse, Erika, Meghan Krausch, and Wenjie Liao. "How the ‘Neutral’ University Makes Critical Feminist Pedagogy Impossible: Intersectional Analysis from Marginalized Faculty on Three Campuses." Sociological Spectrum 41. 1 (2021): 29-52. Print.
Liao, Wenjie and Liying Luo. "Gender, Education, and Attitudes toward Women’s Leadership in Three East Asian Countries: An Intersectional and Multilevel Approach." Societies 11. 3 (2021): 103. Web.
Liao, Wenjie, et al. "The House Is on Fire but We Kept the Burglars Out: Racial Apathy and White Ignorance in Pandemic-Era Immigration Detention." Social Sciences 10. 10 (2021): 358. Web.
Liao, Wenjie. "Legitimacy of authoritarian law: Legal compliance in China." International Sociology 34. 6 (2019): 675-695. Print.
Ebert, Kim, Wenjie Liao, and Emily P. Estrada. "Apathy and Color-Blindness in Privatized Immigration Control." Sociology of Race and Ethnicity. (2019): online first. Web.
Boyle, Elizabeth H., Shannon Golden, and Wenjie Liao. "Catholic Church and International Law." Annual Review of Law and Social Science 13. (2017): 395-411. Print.
Book Chapter
Liao, Wenjie and Joachim J. Savelsberg. "Law." Handbuch Sozialwissenschaftliche Gedächtnisforschung. Ed. M. Berek,, et al. Wiesbaden, Germany: Springer Fachmedien, 2021. 1-15. Web.
Currently Teaching
ANTH-303
Statistics in the Social Sciences
3 Credits
The research conducted by sociologists and anthropologists generates large, complex data sets that are difficult to interpret subjectively. We will explore the basic quantitative tools that sociologists and anthropologists can use to understand these data sets and learn how to craft a research question and research design that utilize quantitative data, how to select appropriate quantitative techniques and apply them, how to present results, and how to critically evaluate quantitatively based knowledge claims.
SOCI-102
Foundations of Sociology
3 Credits
Sociology is the study of the social world and socialization processes. Sociologists study the broader picture of how societies are structured and organized through a macro-sociological analysis as well as how individuals create their own social reality symbolically through their interactions with others in a micro-sociological analysis. Students in this course will learn the fundamentals of each approach and come away with a sociological framework which they can critically apply to their own lives.
SOCI-102H
Honors Sociology
3 Credits
This course explores how sociological concepts, theories and research account for such social phenomena as socialization, deviance, social structure, stratification, political and religious affiliation and social change. It will also explore how social factors account for political and economic behavior and the speed and spread of technological change.
SOCI-303
Statistics in the Social Sciences
3 Credits
The research conducted by sociologists and anthropologists generates large, complex data sets that are difficult to interpret subjectively. We will explore the basic quantitative tools that sociologists and anthropologists can use to understand these data sets and learn how to craft a research question and research design that utilize quantitative data, how to select appropriate quantitative techniques and apply them, how to present results, and how to critically evaluate quantitatively based knowledge claims.
SOCI-370
Gender and the Law: A Tale of Intimacy and Violence
3 Credits
In the summer of 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the monumental decision granting women in the U.S. rights to abortion in 1973, sent shockwaves throughout the country and the globe. The tremendous impact of this decision on the life of millions raises fundamental questions regarding the very nature of the law and its implications in publicizing the most private choices we make. The fierce debate around reproductive rights is but one illustration of the intimate and yet violent relationship between gender and the law. In this course, we explore this relationship using a wide range of topics. We will utilize tools developed by scholars from various disciplines and activists in different struggles to ponder on questions ranging from “what is law/gender” to “what it means to have the law regulating our gendered bodies/practices”. Using examples both within and beyond the U.S. borders, we will analyze various perspectives on whether/how the law should regulate gender/sexuality grounded in different experiences across legal, social, and cultural contexts. Such comparisons will illuminate the connections among the worlds’ populations and elucidate the cultural and political assumptions underlying legal debates. The students will be tasked to research, analyze, and evaluate the cultural, political, and social implications of legal intervention in gendered social relations. This is a course of particular interest to students who aspire to a career in the legal profession and/or advocacy for gender equity.
SOCI-395
Borders:Humans, Boundaries, and Empires
3 Credits
Borders are more than walls; they are social constructions with real consequences. This course examines the creation and consequences of borders. It discusses how borders developed historically, how borders function as tools of population management in places and systems far from the borderlands, and the politics and experiences of border crossing. We will look for borders both between and within nation states when addressing these issues. The course will utilize a variety of materials including but not limited to scholarly sources, policy transcripts, popular cultural products (e.g. films and TV shows), and art (e.g. poetry, paintings). Students will play an active role in determining specific course topics, though they can expect to discuss a range of relevant issues including contemporary immigration politics, Indigenous rights, the war on terror, border disputes and armed conflicts, privatization of immigration management, displacement and segregation of domestic populations, and border activism. This course provides students with tools that ground and expand their understanding of borders, preparing them for participation in one of the most important public debates of our time. The purview of this course is relevant for those who aspire toward professions in public policy, law enforcement, public service, law, and community-organizing, among others.
In the News
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December 14, 2022
Sociology students use art to communicate important social issues
Students shared artwork that communicated social issues that are important to them during the Sociological Imagination Art Fair, part of Assistant Professor Wenjie Liao’s Foundations of Sociology courses.