Baozhen Luo, PhD

Associate Professor

About

Dr. Baozhen Luo obtained her B.A. in Journalism from Nanjing University (Nanjing, China) in 2003 and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from Georgia State University (Atlanta, GA) in 2009. 

Teaching

Dr. Luo currently offers SOC 302 Classical Socioloigical Theories, SOC 333 Aging and Societies, SOC 334 Contemporary Chinese Society, and SOC 437 Changing China: Culture, Community, and Citizenship (Global Learning Course).

In the classroom, she aims to fuse theory and practice through promoting reflection-oriented critical thinking and community-based service learning.  Luo also leads a global learning course in China every other year. Students are guided to explore the complexities of power at both central and local levels and understand how Chinese people define and remake their communities in the face of both rapid change and remarkable continuity.

Research

Luo's scholarly activities explore and examine aging policies and experiences in the Global North and the Global South and their interconnectedness. Her current research agenda examines the improvement of the direct long-term care workforce in mainland China, the US (state of Washington), Germany, and Taiwan. 

Selected Publications

Polivka, Larry and Baozhen Luo. 2020. “Neoliberal Health and Long-Term Care in the United States.” In Precarity and Ageing: Understanding Changing Forms of Risk and Vulnerability in Later Life edited by Amanda Greiner, Chris Phillipson, and Richard A. Settersten JR.

Luo, Baozhen and Heying Zhan. 2019. “Aging Related Welfare Programs in China: Later-Life Income Security and Elder Care Services.” Chapter 6 in Social Policy in China: From State-Led to Market-Led Economy, edited by Weizhen Dong. Rock’s Mills Press, Canada. 

Luo, Baozhen and Shaohua Zhan. 2018. “Crossing the River by Feeling for Different Stones: Contesting Models of Eldercare Marketization and the Development of China's Public Long-Term Care Service.” Journal of Chinese Governance3(4): 438-460. 

Li, Ying, Baozhen Luo, Chenchen Huang, and Junmin Wu. 2017. “Chinese Seniors’ Leisure Participation and Constraints in Five Cities.” Asian Social Science. Vol. 13 (11). 

Polivka, Larry and Baozhen Luo. 2017. “Neoliberal Long-Term Care: From Community to Corporate Control.” The Gerontologist. 

Liang, Jiayin and Baozhen Luo. 2016. “It Was All Planned…Now What? Claiming Human Agency and Constructing Meaning in Everyday Retirement Life in Urban China.” Ageing and Society. 37(10), 2074-2102

Luo, Baozhen. May/June, 2015. “China Will Get Rich Before It Grows Old: Beijing’s Demographic Problems Are Overrated.” Foreign Affairs.

Polivka, Larry and Baozhen Luo. 2015. “The Neoliberal Political Economy and Erosion of Retirement Security.” The Gerontologist (Special Issue: White House Conference on Aging 2015) 55(2): 1–8.

Polivka, Larry and Baozhen Luo. 2013. “The Future of Retirement Security across the Globe.” Generations: Journal of the American Society on Aging 37(1), 39-45.

Zhan, Heying, Baozhen Luo, and Gehui Zhang. 2013. “Faith and Health: Meanings of Faith for Chinese Elders with Diverse Religious Backgrounds.” Ageing International 38: 343- 363. 

Luo, Baozhen, Kui Zhou, *Eun Jung Jin, *Alisha Newman, and Jiayin Liang. 2013. “Ageism among College Students: A Comparative Study of U.S. and China.” Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology 28, 49-63. (*Undergraduate Student Co-authors).

Jiayin Liang and Baozhen Luo. 2012. “Toward a Discourse Shift in Social Gerontology: From Successful Aging to Harmonious Aging.” Journal of Aging Studies 26, 327–334.

Luo, Baozhen and Heying Zhan. 2011. “Filial Piety and Functional Support: Understanding Intergenerational Solidarity among Families with Migrated Children in Rural China.” Ageing International 37 (1): 69-92. 

Research Interests

  • Global Aging, Long-Term Care Systems, Asian Americans, Social Theories