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Sociology Research

 

Heqing Huang is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology. Her research employs ethnographic methods to examine how traditional Chinese culture, Party-state governance, and market liberalisation shape the power structures in Chinese hospitals. Drawing on fieldwork conducted during the pandemic, her thesis analyses doctor-patient relationship, organisational structures, gender dynamics, and professional hierarchies in healthcare, showing how multiple institutional logics inform contemporary Chinese society.

Heqing studied sociology at Sun Yat-sen University and University of California, Berkeley. She completed an MPhil in Health, Medicine and Society at Cambridge. Her research interests are grounded in healthcare. Her outreach activities have included work with Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, CancerScreen, i-Teams, and the Cambridge Consulting Network to address real-world challenges in health and care.

Heqing is an advocate for sustainability issues. As the MCR Green Officer at Gonville & Caius College, she led multiple student campaigns and was instrumental in the College’s receipt of the Green Impact Awards. She was a research intern at BT where she investigated options to reduce the carbon footprint of the broadband network. 

She was a member of the winning teams in the Oxford vs Cambridge Varsity competitions in both blind wine tasting and kendo. As a former member of Caius Boat Club, she won numerous titles on Cam with her crews.

Research Interests

Sociology of health and medicine; doctor-patient relationship; healthcare organisations; healthcare innovations; qualitative methods

Teaching

SOC13: Health, Medicine and Society

Key Publications - Other

Huang, H. (2022), Doctors’ orders: The making of status hierarchies in an elite profession. By Jenkins, Tania M., New York: Columbia University Press. 2020. pp. 352. $120 (hbk); $30 (pbk); $29.99 (ebk). ISBN: 9780231189354. Sociol Health Illn. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.13543

Grants and Projects

The Annette Lawson Charitable Trust

Gonville & Caius College Graduate Academic Grant

University of Cambridge Fieldwork Grant

UCCL Grants

Guangzhou Concord Medical Humanities Research and Education Fund

PhD Supervisor

Prof Stuart Hogarth

Media Articles

Awards

Chinese Students Awards, Great Britain China Educational Trust

Vice Chancellor’s Social Impact Awards (shortlisted), University of Cambridge

Postgraduate International Conference Travel Awards, Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness

Speaker Scholarship, Global Symposium on Health Systems Research

Job Title:
Tradition, Party, and Market: The Three Institutional Logics in Contemporary Chinese Hospitals, Supervisor: Prof Stuart Hogarth
Contact Information: