Liza Steele

PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology, Princeton University

Dual-degree from Columbia University - B.A. in Political Science and Master of International Affairs with a double concentration in Human Rights and International Security Policy

Research interests include the construction of morality and changing values under different systems of social stratification, particularly in Asia and Latin America, focusing on China and Brazil

Subfields: sociology of religion, the sociology of culture, political sociology, urban sociology, and stratification

Working knowledge of Chinese (Mandarin), Portuguese, French, and Spanish

Published on the issue of terrorism in Xinjiang, China's predominantly Muslim region

Present working papers include "The Pursuit of Happiness in China: Capitalism, National Pride, and the Decline of Subjective Well-Being," which uses quantitative methodology to examine the three independent waves of the World Values Survey carried out in China; and, "'A Gift from God': Poverty, Religion, and Adolescent Motherhood in Urban Brazil," which draws on ethnographic work conducted in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, including over 50 face-to-face interviews

Before coming to Princeton, worked as project manager for over 30 primary research projects on media use throughout Southeast Asia, and spent a year interning at the United Nations - at the Central Asia desk of the Department of Political Affairs in the Secretariat in New York, and in Bangkok, Thailand at the United Nations Development Programme's Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific.