Professor Miri Song

Professor Song joined the University of Kent in 1995. She is now Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Kent and Visiting Professor in Social Policy at the London School of Economics. She completed her PhD in Social Policy at the London School of Economics (1996), MSW at the University of Wisconsin (Madison) and her BA in History and Literature at Harvard University (1986). After graduating from Harvard University, she worked for a few years for a newspaper, and in a women’s homeless shelter in New York City.

Professor Song’s research interests include ethnic identity, ‘race’ and ‘mixed race’, racisms, migration (in its many forms) and immigrant adaptation. Over the years, she has been involved in British, European and North American research networks, including IMISCOE (International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion), the American Sociological Association, and the British Sociological Association. 

Professor Song’s most recent book (with Carolyn Liebler) is Mixed Heritage in the Family: Racial Identity, Spousal Choice, and Child-Rearing, published by the Russell Sage Foundation, in 2025.

Her prior books include:

• Multiracial Parents: Mixed Race Families, Generational Change, and the Future of Race (2017 NYU Press)
• Mixed Race Identities (co-authored with Peter Aspinall, 2013 Palgrave Macmillan)
• Choosing Ethnic Identity (2003 Polity Press)
•  Helping Out: Children’s Labor in Ethnic Businesses (1999 Temple University Press).

She has also co-edited a number of books, including; 

• Global Mixed Race (co-edited with R. King-O’Rain, S. Small, P. Spickard, M. Mahtani) NYU Press, 2014
• International Perspectives on Racial and Ethnic Mixedness and Mixing (co-edited with R. Edwards, S. Ali, C. Caballero) Routledge  2012
• Rethinking "Mixed Race" (co-edited with David Parker) Pluto Press, 2001

Professor Song was the Guest Professor in Memory of Willy Brandt at the Malmö Institute for Studies of Migration, Diversity and Welfare (MIM), in Malmo, Sweden, in Autumn 2013, where she was in residence, gave a series of research seminars. In Autumn 2017, she was a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Advanced Research Collaborative (ARC) at the CUNY Graduate Center, New York. 

Professor Song's most recent book, 'Mixed Heritage in the Family’ (with Carolyn Liebler), is funded by the Russell Sage Foundation. As interracial unions and multiracial people are becoming more ordinary in the US, how important are racial and ethnic backgrounds to people with mixed racial heritage and their families? Thus far, while many studies have investigated the identifications of multiracial people, no studies in the US have examined their racial identifications, spousal choices, and their upbringing of their children. In this innovative study, they use their complementary research skills and parallel research interests to understand three intertwined aspects of the lives of Asian-White, Black-White, and Native-White mixed heritage people using both qualitative interviews and quantitative analyses of census data. 

They ask: How does a person’s race and ancestry responses link to their choice of spouse and the racial identification of their children? Does the answer to this question vary by location in the United States? Does it vary across different mixed-heritage groups? 

Editorial board memberships

Professor Song is on the editorial board of the following refereed journals: 

• Ethnic and Racial Studies 
• Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
• Identities
• Journal of Critical Mixed Race Studies

She has also served on the editorial board of the following journals:

• Ethnicities
• Sociology of Race and Ethnicity

Memberships 

• American Sociological Association: Council member, section on Asia and Asian America, 2000-2003 
• IMISCOE, editorial board member (2009 to 2012)
• Research fellow, Center for Migration and Development, Princeton University
• Associate of Centre for Urban and Community Research, Goldsmiths College 

Books

• Carolyn Liebler and Miri Song (2025). Mixed Heritage in the Family. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.