Rate My Professor Jennifer Van Hook

Jennifer Van Hook is the Roy C. Buck Professor of Sociology and Demography and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at Pennsylvania State University, where she has served since 2007. She became Director of the Population Research Institute in 2022 and holds appointments as Co-Funded Faculty at the Social Science Research Institute and Non-resident Fellow at the Migration Policy Institute since 2010. Previously, she was Assistant to Associate Professor of Sociology and Demography at Bowling Green State University from 1999 to 2007 and Research Associate at the Center for Population Research at the Urban Institute from 1998 to 1999. Van Hook earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1996, M.S. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1991, and B.A. in Sociology and Anthropology from Carleton College in 1990.

Her research employs demographic methods to study immigrant integration, health, and the unauthorized foreign-born population, including assimilation patterns of Mexican immigrants compared to historical European groups and factors influencing immigrant health and well-being. Key publications include the book Texas-Style Exclusion: Mexican Americans and the Legacy of Limited Opportunity (Russell Sage Foundation Press, 2024, with James D. Bachmeier), edited volumes such as Immigration Policy and Immigrant Families (Springer, 2024, with Valarie King), and peer-reviewed articles like “Beyond Stocks and Surges: The Demographic Impact of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population in the United States” (Population and Development Review, 2024) and “Living With(out) Citizenship: The Impact of Naturalization on Mortality Risk Among U.S. Immigrants” (Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 2025, with Thoa Khuu and Kendal Lowrey). Awards include the Clifford C. Clogg Award for Mid-Career Achievement (2016) and Raymond Lombra Award for Distinction in the Social or Life Sciences (2016). She serves on the Board of Directors of the Population Association of America and the Census Scientific Advisory Committee, and has led major grants such as NIH R01AG081306 “Legal Status Exposure, Health, and Kinship Networks among Latino Immigrants” (PI, 2023–2027).