Maggie (Miaomiao) Deng is a PhD student in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at The Ohio State University. She earned her Master of Science in Statistics and Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from the University of Delaware, where she developed strong expertise in quantitative research methods alongside a deepening commitment to feminist and sociological inquiry.

Before joining Ohio State, she served as a Data Analyst at the Center for the Study and Prevention of Gender-Based Violence, contributing to multiple interdisciplinary projects on institutional betrayal, legal system responses, and the social determinants of gender-based violence. Her work has involved applying advanced statistical analyses to complex social datasets, allowing her to explore questions of inequality and justice from both empirical and theoretical perspectives.

Her research interests center on the rights and well-being of Asian and Asian American women, with a particular focus on gender-based violence, migration, and the structural conditions that shape women’s empowerment. She is especially inspired by the transformative potential of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies to bridge theory, lived experience, and activism. She views WGSS not only as an academic field but also as a framework for social justice that challenges systemic inequities and amplifies marginalized voices.

At OSU, she hopes to continue developing interdisciplinary scholarship that integrates her background in quantitative analysis with feminist theory and praxis, contributing to a broader understanding of how race, gender, culture, and migration intersect to shape women’s lives globally.