Jidong Deng

Jidong Deng is a Ph.D. student in Sociology at West Virginia University. He holds an LL.M. from Southwestern University of Finance and Economics and an LL.B. from Guizhou University, both in China, and has professional experience working in a procuratorate and in higher education. Through his previous academic and professional work, he became increasingly aware of the significant gaps between legal institutions and social realities, which led him to shift his focus toward the interaction between law and society. His research interests include how social structures and consciousness shape legal practice and interact with each other, with particular emphasis on the intersections of gender and law.

As a first-year doctoral student transitioning into sociology, he remains open to a broad range of topics and has not yet begun formal dissertation design. He welcomes opportunities to exchange ideas and resources with faculty and peers and looks forward to refining his research focus in the coming years.

Outside academia, Jidong enjoys outdoor activities—one of the aspects that drew him to West Virginia—cooking Chinese cuisine and caring for cats. In China, he adopted two stray cats and has maintained a long-standing commitment to animal welfare.