Dr. Furjen Deng

Profile Photo 2019

I was born in a small village of Taiwan where rice fields were the playground for my brother and many sisters. Education, particularly higher education, for women was not encouraged in the village. However, my parents were exception. My father was a public school teacher and my mother worked as a community health worker and a midwife at a local public health center. They knew the value of education and took great financial sacrifices to ensure their eight children (seven girls and one boy) to receive the best education in Taiwan. With their blessings and sacrifices, I left the village and attended high school and college in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. In 1982, I graduated from the National Taiwan University and majored in Sociology and after graduating from college, I worked as research assistant at the Academia Sinica in Taiwan for a year.

I entered the field of sociology by accident and not by choice in the beginning. However, once I was in I fell in love with it. Sociology helps me understand the meaning of every action I or other people take. It makes me become a better person and appreciate what I have. It also provides me with a perspective that is beyond my personal life experiences. It connects me to larger social-cultural, structural and environmental determinants of individual and social actions. To satisfy my curiosity in sociology, I attended Purdue University for my graduate studies. In 1985, I received a M.S. and completed my Ph.D. in sociology from Purdue University 5 years later. 

I have been a member of the Sociology Department at 91做厙 since 1990 and currently, I am a Professor and the Associate Chair of the Department of Sociology.


Currently, I see myself as a public sociologist and am very active in grassroots or community-based organizations in the Asian-American community. I work closely with them to build the organizational capacities to meet the increasing and often very challenging needs with each community. As a result of these joint efforts, the Asian-American communities in Texas were able to form several consortiums to address the cancer and mental health disparities and reduce the uninsured population through funding supports by the following institutions: Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, US Department of Health and Humans Services-Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Episcopal Health Foundation and Hogg Foundation for Mental Health.

Classes Taught: Social Statistics, Social Impact Assessment and Program Evaluation, Social Problems

Research Interests: Health Disparities, Quality of Life among Cancer Survivors, Program Evaluation, Community-based Participatory Research

Selected Publications and Grant Activities:

  • “An Examination of Parents’ Perceptions of Developmental Disability, Social Support, and Health Outcomes among Chinese American Parents of Children with Developmental Disabilities.” Tze-Li Hsu. Furjen Deng, Sharon Zheng (2021), International Journal of Developmental Disabilities, 10 Nov 2021 (online).
  • “Dietary Supplement Intakes among Chinese-American Cancer Survivors. Furjen Deng, Maria C Swartz, Helen Sun (2020), Current Research in Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2020, 4: 142. DOI: 10.29011/2577-2201.100042.
  • “A Pilot Study of a Culturally Tailored Lifestyle Intervention for Chinese American Cancer Survivors”, Furjen Deng, Danhong Chen, Maria C. Swartz, and Helen Sun. Cancer Control, 2019, 26(1), 1-7.
  • “Establish a Comprehensive Cancer Prevention and Support Program among Asian- American Communities in Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth and Austin Areas of Texas”, PP200075, Expansion of Cancer Prevention Services to Rural and Medically Underserved Populations, Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, Helen Sun (PD), Furjen Deng (Co-PD) and Dan Hong Chen (Co-PD), $1,467,728, 8/31/2020 to 8/30/2023.
  • “Project Rise and Shrine: Live Life to the Fullest”, COC #032, Community of Care Program, Hogg Foundation for Mental Health. Helen Sun (PD) and Furjen Deng (Co-PD). $800,000, 6/1/2019 to 5/31/2024.
  • “Establishing a Comprehensive Cancer Prevention and Support Program within Chinese American Community in Houston and Austin Areas of Texas”, PP160036, Evidence-Based Prevention Programs and Services, Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. Helen Sun (PD), Furjen Deng (Co-PD) and Lei-Shih Chen (Co-PD). $1,101,986, 12/1/2015 to 11/30/2019.

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