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Lijun Song is an Associate Professor of Sociology, MHS (Medicine, Health, and Society), and Asian Studies, and directs the SNAIL (Social Networks and Inequalities Lab). Her research delves into how societies produce and reproduce inequalities. Her core research interests encompass social networks, medical sociology and mental health, social stratification (gender/sexuality, race/ethnicity, and class), marriage and family, social psychology, and aging and life course. Currently, she is developing social cost theory to understand the detrimental consequences of social networks, and is integrating it with social capital theory to elucidate the double-edged role of social networks.

Her scholarship has appeared in such journals as the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Social Forces, Social Networks, Social Psychology Quarterly, Social Science and Medicine, Society and Mental Health, Sociological Perspectives, and Work and Occupations. Her work has garnered support from prestigious institutions such as the National Institutes of Health, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange. Furthermore, she has been honored with two publication awards from the American Sociological Association (ASA): one from the Section on Asia/Asian America and another from the Section on Sociology of Mental Health. She is currently the Chair-Elect of the ASA Section on Sociology of Mental Health. For more information, please refer to her curriculum vitae, Google Scholar page, and  ResearchGate page.