Research
I am broadly interested in social demography, fertility, family, gender, and reproductive justice.
My MA thesis project focuses on fertility preferences and the flexibility of young people in Mainland China. My current projects focus on fertility, contraception, and abortion in China and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Research projects I was previously involved in focus on fertility preferences and flexibilities in Malawi, as well as teaching evaluation towards US tenure-track faculties.
Publications
Trinitapoli, Jenny, Abdallah Chilungo, Huimeng Zhao, jimi adams, and Sara Yeatman. 2022. “Visualizing Young Men’s Fertility Desires: A View from Balaka, Malawi.” Socius 8:23780231221094750. doi: 10.1177/23780231221094752.
Murray, Dakota, Clara Boothby, Huimeng Zhao, Vanessa Minik, Nicolas Bérubé, Vincent Larivière, and Cassidy R. Sugimoto. 2020. “Exploring the Personal and Professional Factors Associated with Student Evaluations of Tenure-Track Faculty.” PLOS ONE 15(6):e0233515. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0233515.
(Altmetric’s 2020 Top 100 Articles)
Ongoing Projects
Huimeng Zhao. "Flexible Fertility Preferences Under Low Fertility Context - Evidence from China." In manuscript, presented at PAA 2022.
Huimeng Zhao. "Politics of Population Control, Populationism, and Abortion Access in China." In preparation.
Monica Grant and Huimeng Zhao. "Changes in spousal differences in educational attainment and modern contraceptive use: Evidence from Ethiopia, Malawi, and Uganda." In manuscript, presented at ICFP 2022.
Huimeng Zhao and Acton Jiashi Feng (equal authorship). “Who is making the second (and third) baby? Educational pairings and fertility in China” In manuscript, presented at PAA 2023.
Research Experiences
2020 - 2021
Research Assistant
Department of Sociology, University of Chicago
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Research young women’s and men’s fertility preferences and behaviors in Balaka, Malawi
2018 - 2018
Laboratory Research Assistant
Sociology Lab, Department of Sociology, Indiana University
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Researched intergroup and interpersonal conflicts and processes through computer-based social psychological lab experiments
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Researched forgiveness and revenge in social life through survey responses
2016 - 2018
Research Assistant
Department of Informatics, Indiana University
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Researched scholarly communications, academic/teaching connection in higher education institutions