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Welcome! My name is Xiaorui Huang (pronounced Shiao-Ray Hwang). I am an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies at Boston College.

My main research agenda examines economic development, income inequality, international trade, and renewable energy as drivers of climate change, global climate (in)justice, and other socio-environmental outcomes.

More broadly, my research focuses on environmental sociology, climate change, global political economy, social inequality, quantitative and computational methods, and sustainability science. I have also published on agricultural communities’ engagement with natural resource and climate change issues, and socio-ecological determinants of public health outcomes.

My publications appears in sociology and interdisciplinary journals such as American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Social Science Research, Climatic Change, Sociological Forum, Sociological Methodology, Sociology of Development, Ecological Economics, Energy Research and Social Science, Science of the Total Environment, and Human Ecology Review. My work has received media coverage in outlets such as National Geographic, Science Daily, Phys.org and Earth.com.

Find out more about my research on my research and publications page, curriculum vitae, and my Google Scholar page.

Prior to joining the faculty of Boston College, I was an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Drexel University from 2022 to 2025. I received a PhD in Sociology from Boston College in 2022. Before that, I received a MA in Sociology from Boston College in 2017, and a BS in Sociology and International Studies from the University of Oregon in 2014.