Sex and Gender

Masculinities

Sexualities

Religion

Globalization and Transnationalism

Education

• Ph.D., Sociology, Rutgers University—New Brunswick, 2018
• M.A., Sociology, Rutgers University—New Brunswick, 2018
• M.A., Sociology, National Taiwan University, 2006
• B.A., Sociology (major) and Philosophy (minor), National Taiwan University, 2003

Research Interests

• Sociologies of sexualities, sex and gender
• Masculinities
• Religion
• Globalization and transnationalism
• LGBTQ+ politics
• Social movement studies
• Global Asias
• Queer Asias studies
• Taiwan in the world studies
• Global racial/ethnic politics
• Transnational movement
• Social justice

Select Publications

• Ying-Chao Kao. Liquid Conservatism: Queering Transnational Anti-LGBTQ Movements between Taiwan and the United States, under contract with the New York University (NYU) Press – Hauntings: Queer/Trans Studies in Religion series (eta: 2025).
• Lee, Po-Han & Ying-Chao Kao. 2022. “Health Apartheid during COVID-19: A Decolonial Critique of Racial Politics between Taiwan and the WHO.” International Journal of Taiwan Studies 5(2):375–402. (Equally shared authorship) https://brill.com/view/journals/ijts/5/2/article-p375_008.xml
• Kao, Ying-Chao. 2022. “One Virus, Two Worlds: A Taiwanese Queer Stranger’s ‘World’-Traveling and Loving in the COVID U.S.” Pp. 216–229 in Global Feminist Autoethnographies During COVID-19: Displacements and Disruptions, edited by M. Heath, A. Darkwah, J. Beoku-Betts, and B. Purkayastha. New York: Routledge.
• https://www.routledge.com/Global-Feminist-Autoethnographies-During-COVID-19-Displacements-and-Disruptions/Heath-Darkwah-Beoku-Betts-Purkayastha/p/book/9781032122656
• Kao, Ying-Chao. 2021. “The Coloniality of Queer Theory: The Effects of ‘Homonormativity’ on Transnational Taiwan’s Path to Equality.” Sexualities. Online First, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13634607211047518.
• Kao, Ying-Chao. 2017. “Weapons of the Weak Soldiers: Military Masculinity and Embodied Resistance in Taiwanese Conscription.” Pp. 199–218 in East Asian Men: Masculinity, Sexuality and Desire, edited by X. Lin, C. Haywood, and M. Mac an Ghaill. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/978-1-137-55634-9

Courses

• Sociology of Masculinities (SOCY 335)
• Sociology of Sexualities (SOCY 353)
• Sociology of Religion (SOCY 360)
• Religions, Sexualities, and Global Inequalities (SOCY 452)
• Contemporary Sociological Theory (SOCY 402, SOCY 502)
• Sociology Senior Seminar (SOCY 406)

Awards

• Burnside Watstein Award (LGBTQIA+ Community Contribution Award) at Virginia Commonwealth University, 2019.
  https://news.vcu.edu/article/three_honored_for_their_contributions_to_the_lgbtqia_community
• VCU First-Generation Student Office First-Generation Student Success Research Grant. Awarded project: “Identifying Needs and Supporting First-Gen, LGBTQ+ Students at VCU.” (PI: Dr. Yiwen Wei, Assistant Professor of Art Education; co- PIs: nicole marie killian, Associate Professor of Graphic Design and Dr. Ying-Chao Kao, Assistant Professor of Sociology). Jul 2022–Dec 2023.
• Taiwan Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwanese Overseas Pioneers Grants for New Scholars. 2019–2023. Awarded project: “Liquid Conservatism and ‘Hetero-Hegemony’: Transnational Religious Networks of Taiwanese ‘Pro-Family Movements’ and Their Inter-Asian/American Allies.” Mar 2019 – Feb 2023.
• Association for the Sociology of Religion (ASR), Joseph H. Fichter Research Grant. Awarded project: “Transnational Sex-Religious Network: A Mixed-Methods Study on U.S. and Taiwanese Christian Pro-Family Movements’ Cooperative Resistance against Marriage Equality.” 2017–2018.
• Taipei International Book Exhibition. The 2017 Editor Award of Translated Books. Taiwanese translation of Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Restrooms (Humphreys 1975; Kao trans. 2016, New Taipei City: Socio).

Languages

• American English
• Taiwanese/Chinese/Mandarin