Afshin Zilanawala

Dr. Afshin Zilanawala is an Associate Professor of Demography at the University of Southampton. Her research focuses on family contexts and children's health/development, particularly examining parental employment, mental health, and economic hardship as drivers of inequalities in child wellbeing. She investigates racial/ethnic disparities in child outcomes and comparative analyses between the UK and US policy contexts.

Prior to joining Southampton (2021), she held positions at the University of Nottingham, Oregon State University, and University College London. She earned her PhD in Social Welfare Policy from Columbia University and a BA in Psychology from Wellesley College.

Her current work, funded by the ESRC, examines parental nonstandard work schedules' impacts on children's health and parental wellbeing in the UK. She also studies pandemic effects on couples' relationships and household structures.

Key research themes include nonstandard work schedules, child development trajectories, economic hardship, and cross-national comparisons. Her interdisciplinary approach uses UK/US birth cohorts and is published in journals like Journal of Marriage and Family and Social Science & Medicine.