Victoria Y. Zhang

About Me

I am a fourth year PhD candidate in the Economic Sociology Program at MIT Sloan where I work with Nathan Wilmers. My research centers on the locus of culture, inequality, and class and racial segregation. In my masters thesis, I study differences between blue- and white-collar worker experiences of organizational culture. In coauthored work, I study cultural change in organizations after buyouts of those firms. My dissertation focuses on black-owned and black-managed organizations, consumer behavior, and entrepreneurship.


Before coming to MIT, I worked as a product manager in a Pittsburgh-based technology startup. As a Pittsburgh native, you can find me cheering for the Steelers and puzzling over the latest Tomlin-ism.

News

  • January 9, 2024 I presented co-authored work with Dylan Nelson on sources of long-term organizational cultural committments at the Berkeley Culture Conference.
  • September 10, 2023 My co-authored grant application for the MIT Racism Research Fund was selected by the committee. I am looking forward to building on these ideas for my dissertation.
  • January 7, 2023 My paper "The Class Gap in Organizational Culture" won the Edward Schein Best Student Paper Award at the Berkeley Culture Conference '23!
  • June 9, 2022 Workrise published a report Employer Practices and Worker Outcomes which I helped with as a research assistant. This was a tremendous undertaking. Congrats to the team!