Tianyao Qu

Hi! I am Tianyao, and I am currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Irsay Research Institute at Indiana University Bloomington . I received my PhD in Sociology from Cornell University in 2024. I am a sociologist working in the areas of social networks, health and aging, intimacy and economy, time use, and gender. Within these areas, my work uses quantitative, social network analysis, sequence analysis, and mixed methods to understand the structural dynamics of both physical and digitalized social relationships and their consequences on health and well-being across the life course and over time. My current projects examine how social networks contribute to health disparities, how daily routines influence stress and cognitive well-being, and how broader social and market contexts shape access to care and emotional resources. My work has appeared in Social Science & Medicine, Social Networks, and the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, among others.

News: I will be joining the School of Social Sciences at Singapore Management University as an Assistant Professor in Sociology this 2026 Fall! At the same time, I will be holding a Visiting Scholar position at Irsay Sociomedicine Research Institute at Indiana University Bloomington.

Research Interests

Social Networks, Sociology of Health and Illness, Aging and the Life Course, Gender, Economic Sociology, Social Inequality, Quantitative Methods