Beza A. Taddess
PhD Candidate in Sociology, Princeton University
I am a PhD candidate in Sociology at Princeton University. My research sits at the intersection of social demography, health stratification, and bio-medical sociology. I study how early life stressors, race and ancestry, and social environments shape physical and mental health over the life course — drawing on quantitative and computational methods, including epigenetics and natural language processing.
Research Interests
Social demography · Physical & mental health stratification · Bio-medical sociology · Race & ancestry · Quantitative & computational methods · Epigenetics
Education
- Princeton University — PhD Sociology (expected 2027), MA Sociology (2024)
- University of Colorado Denver — MA Sociology (2021)
- Colorado College — BA Sociology, Minor Asian Studies (2015)
Dissertation Committee
Sam Trejo · Dalton Conley · Sanyu A. Mojola · Tod G. Hamilton
Bold indicates academic advisor
Publications
Published & Forthcoming
- Taddess, Beza. “How Early Do Socioeconomic Gradients in Biological Aging Emerge? Investigating the Role of Early Life Stressors Using DNAm in Children.” Forthcoming at Demography, 2026.
- Taddess, Beza, Tan, Jolene, and Mojola, Sanyu A. “US Black Women’s Health Before and After the COVID-19 Pandemic: Socioeconomic and Temporal Patterns.” American Journal of Public Health, 2026.
- Lippert, Adam M., Ryan Kim, Robbee Wedow, Jinho Kim, Beza Taddess, and S.V. Subramanian. “Contributions of Socioeconomic and Polygenic Risks to Cardiometabolic Health at Mid-Life.” Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 2024.
Under Review
- Taddess, Beza†, Zhang, Luyin†, and Trejo, Sam. “Documenting Within-Race Attractiveness Penalties Among Black Americans.” SocArXiv.
- Taddess, Beza and Conley, Dalton. “Do Children Age Their Parents? Causal Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study and Add Health.”
- Tan, Jolene, Taddess, Beza, and Mojola, Sanyu A. “It’s About Time: Health Disparities Among US Women Through an Age, Period, and Cohort Lens, 1978–2018.”
- Taddess, Beza. “Social Position and the Meaning of Self-Rated Health: Evidence from Large-Scale Text Analysis.”
† joint lead authorship
Working Papers
- Taddess, Beza. “Environmental Burden and DNA Methylation Aging — Implications for Youth Mental Health and Self-Rated Health.”
- Taddess, Beza and Hamilton, Tod G. “Racialized Care Infrastructures: Structural Embeddedness of Racial Disparities in Severe Maternal Morbidity.”
- Taddess, Beza, Tan, Jolene, and Mojola, Sanyu A. “The Geography and Demography of American Happiness: Mapping Who Thrives, Why, and Where.”
- Tan, Jolene, Taddess, Beza, and Mojola, Sanyu A. “The Geography of Women’s Health in the United States, by Race/Ethnicity.”
- Curran, Emily† and Taddess, Beza†. “Care Work at the Intersections of Race and Gender: The Impact of Occupational Segregation on Perceived and Biological Stress.”
Teaching
- Racial Inequality (SO113) — Instructor on Record, Colorado College, Spring 2025
- Introduction to Sociology (SOC 101) — Teaching Assistant, Princeton University, Fall 2023 & Fall 2024
Honors & Awards
- Marvin Bressler Graduate Student Teaching Award 2025
- Prize Fellow in the Social Sciences, Princeton University 2025
- McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning Inaugural Exemplar Mentor 2024
- President’s Fellow, Princeton University 2023–2024
- CLAS Outstanding MA Graduate Student, University of Colorado Denver 2021
- Chancellor’s Fellowship Award, University of Colorado Denver 2019–2020
- Davis United World College Award 2011–2015
Selected Presentations
- “Race, SES, and Early Childhood Learning: Implications for Speech-Language Practice.” University of Colorado Boulder, 2025.
- “Inequality in Aging: Investigating Early Life Stressors and Epigenetic Age in Children.” Institute of Economy, Geography and Demography, Madrid, 2023.
- American Sociological Association, 2026.
- Population Association of America, 2025.
- Integrating Genetics and the Social Sciences (IGSS), 2024.
- Behavior Genetics Association (BGA), 2024.