Dr Mi Young Ahn
Staff details
With a background in sociology and social policy, Dr Mi Young Ahn is interested in intersectional inequality, social class and mobility, participation and social capital, disadvantage in education, sense of belonging and student engagement in Higher Education, quantitative and mixed methods research.
Prior to joining Goldsmiths in August 2022, she was working as a lecturer and research fellow at University College London (UCL), University of Kent, Bangor University, and Liverpool Hope University. She conducted various research projects including policy evaluation research commissioned by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF); two educational inequality projects in higher education funded by the Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) in 2018 and by the Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education (TASO) in 2020-2022; and an educational disadvantage research funded by Culham St Gabriel’s Trust (2019).
Academic qualifications
- PhD in Sociology & Social Policy in Bangor University 2017
- MA in Social Research & Social Policy in Bangor University 2011
- BA in Sociology (with Politics as minor) in Korea University, South Korea 2002
Research interests
Mi Young’s research interests include equality and diversity, educational inequalities and social mobility, social capital and social network analysis, students’ sense of belonging, engagement, success and retention in higher education, participation and voluntary organisations. She is a reviewer of several academic journals in higher education, education, social policy, and sociology.
She is also interested in research methods, particularly mixed methods and quantitative approaches; for instance, she developed a new survey instrument, the 10 Words Question (Four domains of students’ sense of belonging to university: Studies in Higher Education: Vol 45, No 3 in 2020). Her previous research involves statistical analysis of secondary data analysis, applying data linkage methods of administrative data, conducting large-scale online survey and synthesising quantitative and qualitative research.
