Teaching

As a sociologist, I believe our classes can not only offer students the theoretical tools to think and write critically about inequality and oppression, but also serve as a place for students of different backgrounds to feel included and supported. Hence, my goals as an instructor are to help students obtain a solid understanding of course materials, develop practical skills for argumentation, and find sociology (and the university) to be a place where they can thrive.

I am interested in teaching both advanced and introductory level courses on social theory, gender and sexuality, sociology of family, childhood studies, popular culture, and qualitative methods. As a member of Gender & Society’s junior scholar advisory board, I designed two teaching modules that center important topics in the sociology of gender. These modules have been peer-reviewed and are available on the journal’s WordPress blog. At Chicago, I spent all my teaching quota to teach courses that are global in scope. With several core members of the Datong Society of China Studies at Berkeley, I also co-taught a student-run course on China for two semesters through the Democratic Education at Cal (DeCal) Program.

Peer-Reviewed Teaching Resources

Yang, Yuchen. 2021. “Doing and Undoing Gender Lesson Plan.” Gender & Society Blog: In the Classroom Teaching Modules.

Yang, Yuchen, Melissa Kinsella, and Jihmmy Sanchez. 2020. “Men and Masculinities Lesson Plan.” Gender & Society Blog: In the Classroom Teaching Modules.

Teaching Experiences

University of Birmingham

Sociology of Everyday Life (Fall 2025)

Transforming Identities (Spring 2025, Spring 2026)

Gender & Sexuality (Fall 2024, Fall 2025)

University of Chicago (as teaching assistant)

Gender and Sexuality in World Civilizations I (Fall 2020)

Global Society III: Research Practicum (Spring 2020)

Global Society II: Population & Society (Winter 2020)

Global Society I: World Social Theory (Fall 2019)

University of California, Berkeley (as DeCal facilitator)

Journey to China: Exploration behind Icons (Spring 2016, Spring 2017)

Guest Lectures

Coding & Interactionist Analysis of Interview Data (UC Berkeley, Spring 2024)

Extended Case Method (UChicago, Winter 2022)

Student Feedbacks

“The best aspect of this module has been the teacher’s professionalism and dedication. In lectures, he always prepare[s] thorough reading materials and explain[s] the content clearly and seriously. During seminars, he pay[s] attention to everyone’s ideas and often encourage[s] students to speak up. This has really boosted my confidence and increased my interest in the [sic] Sociology.”
Anonymous student evaluation from Transforming Identities

“I feel very lucky to have met such a responsible and kind-hearted teacher. This experience has encouraged me to keep exploring this major in depth, and I hope that in the future, I’ll also be able to help others the way the teacher has helped us.”
Anonymous student evaluation from Transforming Identities

“Yuchen was really engaged in the topics, and brought a lot of wisdom and advice to the table. Yuchen was approachable, and answered all my questions with helpful feedback and advice from his own experiences as a former undergraduate. Yuchen was one of the most engaged, knowledgeable, and involved TAs I have had!”
Anonymous student evaluation from the Global Society sequence.

“Yuchen was very helpful this last quarter! He added tips on research papers during discussion, via long emails with resources, and always responded very quickly to my emails. He really did a great job helping us craft the research papers remotely (which is a daunting task). Really stellar job, and I very much appreciate his help.”
Anonymous student evaluation from the Global Society sequence.

“[Yuchen] was really helpful chiming in during class to provide examples and comments when we were reviewing what makes a good research question/research paper/analysis/graphs, etc. Yuchen also gave a few v helpful suggestions for my analysis that kind of went over my head bc I’m bad at stats but then explained things to me in office hours.”
Anonymous student evaluation from the Global Society sequence.

“Yuchen participate in the live synchronous lectures. His comments were deeply insightful and I thought that they provided a lot of valuable context that further assisted in facilitating discussion.”
Anonymous student evaluation from Gender and Sexuality in World Civilizations.

“Yuchen brought in many things from his sociology background which contributed to our discussions greatly. He also gave very clear comments on the papers”
Anonymous student evaluation from Gender and Sexuality in World Civilizations.