Welcome to our 2022 PhD student cohort

August 18, 2022

"It is my great pleasure to introduce our new 2022 graduate cohort: Jess Burnham, Teresa Rivera, and Juwen Wang. This is one of the strongest cohorts of graduate students in our department. I am thrilled to finally have all of them join us." - Dr. Hui Liu, MSU Sociology Graduate Program Director.

Jess Burnham is a junior scholar interested in protective social factors, social relationship quality, and the health effects of social support, minority stress, and structural stigma. Specifically, Jess is interested in how supportive social relationships influence health outcomes for gender nonconforming people across race-ethnicity in the United States. Jess has worked as a research assistant at the Rutgers University Center for Research on Ending Violence before joining us and is a fellow of the 2022 MSU Early Start Program.

Teresa Rivera is a dual-major, PhD student with the Department of Sociology and Chicano/Latino Studies Program. Her research interests include understanding the lived experiences of Latino immigrants with a special interest in: individual and collective conceptualizations of trauma, the duality of resilience, and how U.S. mental health interventions can holistically support the needs of the Latino immigrant community. Teresa is a recipient of the Academic Achievement Graduate Assistantships (AAGA) and a fellow of the 2022 MSU Early Start Program.

Juwen Wang holds a bachelor's degree in Sociology from National Taiwan University and has worked as a research assistant at Academia Sinica of Taiwan since graduation. Juwen has been actively engaged in research projects regarding living arrangements and life expectancy, sleep and cognitive life expectancy, and educational and racial/ethnic differences during the COVID-19 pandemic. More broadly, Juwen is interested in studying the causes of health inequality in later life from the life course perspective.

 Please join me in welcoming our 2022 graduate cohort!