Dr. Jie Zhuo

Biography

Jie Zhuo is a sociology researcher at Macquarie University, specializing in the intersection of population health, social inequality, and environmental governance. His research addresses the unifying question of how demographic structures and local institutions convert structural disadvantages into unequal health and environmental outcomes, and what governance infrastructure can be put in place to reduce these inequalities. He employs a mixed methods approach, incorporating multilevel spatial modeling of large administrative datasets, layered path mediation style designs, household surveys, qualitative fieldwork, and theoretical development. Zhuo's empirical work spans various interconnected themes. He analyses U.S. county-level data to study intersectional disparities in COVID-19 mortality based on education, gender, age, and political contexts, exploring how these factors shape health gradients. Additionally, through household survey data from Northwestern Cambodia, he investigates the influence of water source portfolios, accessibility, costs, and water quality on family health vulnerabilities. His fieldwork in coastal China extends to developing the concept of an ecological gaze to explain how moral perceptions, affect, and disciplinary pressures influence community responses to marine waste governance. Zhuo's ultimate goal is to produce mechanism-based explanations that are sociologically grounded and policy relevant.

Research Interests

Experience