I am a Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology at
Princeton University.
My research lies at the intersection of political sociology, race and ethnicity, and African studies.
I study how African states inherited and transformed colonial systems of racial and ethnic classification. I draw on archival data, macro-historical census reports, interviews, and oral histories to examine how postcolonial statecraft, ethnic violence, and international actors reshape boundaries of race, ethnicity, and belonging.
My research has been supported by the American Sociological Association’s Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (ASA DDRIG) and the UC Davis Provost’s Dissertation Year Fellowship in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.
I received my Ph.D. in Sociology at University of California-Davis in 2026.
Email: lu.yao@princeton.edu
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