Olivia Y. Hu

I study how assortative mating and family-making processes intersect with social inequalities by race, gender, and class. More specifically, my research agenda is motivated by three primary questions:

1. How do individuals select romantic partners across race and class boundaries?

2. What happens to people’s understanding of social difference after they enter these unions?

3. How do individuals in mixed-race relationships navigate their unions’ interraciality in different social contexts?

I use intersectional frameworks in my analyses, advancing our understanding of how behaviors and attitudes in the private sphere can entrench or dislodge a broader constellation of social inequalities. My work has received several paper awards and honorable mentions from the American Sociological Association (ASA), the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP), and the Eastern Sociological Society (ESS).

Beyond my primary research agenda, I have collaborated with colleagues to examine how individuals conceptualize the nature of race. In a first-authored publication in Ethnic and Racial Studies, I analyzed 108 interviews of genetic ancestry test-takers to develop a novel typology that situates racial conceptualization along a continuum from social constructivism to genetic essentialism.

Moreover, with Alexander Adames, I designed a conjoint survey experiment to disentangle the causal effects of gender, race, educational attainment, and educational prestige on romantic and sexual desirability in online dating contexts.

Prior to beginning my graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania, I executed marketing campaigns at UBS Investment Bank and consulted on new product launches at Nielsen. I received my B.S. in Sociology and Business Administration from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business in 2015.