Professor Grace Kao is the chair of Yale’s Department of Sociology, a Faculty Director for Education Studies, and Director of the Center for Empirical Research on Stratification and Inequality. She is an IBM Professor of Sociology and Professor of Ethnicity, Race, and Migration. Professor Kao currently teaches two undergraduate courses, Race, Ethnicity and Immigration in the Fall, and currently Race and Place in British New Wave, K-Pop, and Beyond, a first-year seminar. She also teaches a graduate course: Sociology of Education.
Grace Kao studies how race and immigration impact education practices and young people’s social relationships. Her research has examined differences in educational achievement among adolescents, with a focus on race and immigrant experiences. She is finishing a book on the transition to adulthood among minority and immigrant young people.
Her work around young people’s experiences expands to cultural elements, like the music industry, as well. One of her best teaching experiences is her current course, Race and Place in British New Wave, K-Pop, and Beyond, which draws from her research around interracial romance and friendship among youth. Her and her research partners noticed how Asian men are seen negatively in dating, but the recent popularity of BTS and K-Pop means interesting things for the development of this stereotype. She says, about her inspiration for this course: “During COVID, I actually became very interested in K-Pop but BTS in particular. BTS is not only talented, but they have been pathbreaking not just terms of K-Pop, but also in terms of the representation of Asian men. They managed to have three #1 singles at the end of 2020 – they are the first K-Pop group to ever have a single #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100.” She is beginning to work on a few papers about K-Pop that develop this idea.