Biography (CV)

I am Won-tak Joo, a postdoctoral fellow in Demography at the University of California, Berkeley. I am joining the Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law at the University of Florida as an assistant professor in January 2023.

My research interests are in the areas of social demography, social networks, and computational sociology. Specifically, I study how social and family relationships change across the life course, and how these patterns contribute to social and health inequalities, using a range of quantitative approaches including social network methods, applied econometrics, and demographic techniques.

My current projects explore (1) the socioeconomic differences in social network changes during later life transitions (e.g., disease diagnosis, retirement), and (2) the individual and family consequences of epidemics using large genealogy and census datasets.

Publications

2022

• Engelman, Michal, Won-tak Joo, Jason Fletcher and Barry Burden. “Health, Wealth, and Voting Trajectories in Later Life.” The Journals of Gerontology: Series B 77(4):827-837. (link)

2020

• Joo, Won-tak and Jason Fletcher. “Out of Sync, Out of Society: Political Beliefs and Social Networks.” Network Science 8(3):445-468. (link)

2018

• Joo, Won-tak, Chan Joo Lee, Jaewon Oh, In-cheol Kim, Sang-hak Lee, Seok-min Kang, Hyeon Chang Kim, Sungha Park, and Yoosik Youm. “The Association between Social Network Betweenness and Coronary Calcification: A Baseline Study on Patients with a High Risk of Cardiovascular Disease.” Journal of Atherosclerosis and Thrombosis 25(2):131-141. (link)

• Kwak, Seyul, Won-tak Joo, Yoosik Youm, and Jeanyung Chey. “Social Brain Volume is Associated with In-degree Social Network Size among Older Adults.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B 285:20172708. (link)

2017

• Kim, Woo Jung, Won-tak Joo, Jiwon Baek, Sung Yun Sohn, Kee Namkoong, Yoosik Youm, Hyeon Chang Kim, Yeong-Ran Park, Sang Hui Chu, and Eun Lee. “Factors Associated with Insomnia among the Elderly in a Korean Rural Community.” Psychiatry Investigation 14(4):400-406. (link)

• Joo, Won-tak, Seyul Kwak, Yoosik Youm, and Jeanyung Chey. “Brain Functional Connectivity Difference in a Complete Network of an Entire Village: The Role of Social Network Size and Embeddedness.” Scientific Reports 7:4465. (link)

• Sohn, Sung Yun, Won-tak Joo, Woo Jung Kim, Se Joo Kim, Yoosik Youm, Hyeon Chang Kim, Yeong-Ran Park, and Eun Lee. “Social Network Types among Older Korean Adults: Associations with Subjective Health.” Social Science & Medicine 173:88-95. (link)

2014

• Youm, Yoosik, Edward O. Laumann, Kenneth F. Ferraro, Linda J. Waite, Hyeon Chang Kim, Yeong-Ran Park, Sang Hui Chu, Won-tak Joo, and Jin A Lee. “Social Network Properties and Self-Rated Health in Later Life: Comparisons from the Korean Social Life, Health, and Aging Project and the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project.” BMC Geriatrics 14:102. (link)

• Youm, Yoosik and Won-tak Joo. “The Role of Social Networks in the Etiology and Prognosis of Coronary Heart Diseases: A Meta-analysis of 44 Most Recent Prospective Studies.” Korean Journal of Social Issues 1(25):163-207.

Working Papers

• Joo, Won-tak. “The Educational Gradient in Social Network Changes at Disease Diagnosis.” (abstract)

• Joo, Won-tak, Michal Engelman and Jason Fletcher. “Changes in Social Networks after Retirement.” (abstract)

• Joo, Won-tak, Michal Engelman, Alberto Palloni, and Jason Fletcher. “Longevity and In Utero Exposure to the Influenza Pandemics in the 19th century.” (abstract)

• Joo, Won-tak, Felix Elwert and Martin Munk. “Labor Market Consequences of Grandparenthood.” (abstract)

• Joo, Won-tak. “Compulsory Schooling Reforms and Social Connectedness.” (abstract)

• Joo, Won-tak and Jason Fletcher. “The Rise and Fall of Patrilineage in Korea 1400-1940.” (abstract)