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UNC Carolina Population Center

 

CPC Postdoctoral Scholars

Academic Year 2008-09

Sarah Brauner-Otto, Ph.D.
Sociology, University of Michigan, 2007
Email: sbotto@email.unc.edu

Phone: (919) 843-6859
302C CPC East
Sarah Brauner-Otto
Research focus:
Family demography in Nepal and in the US; attitudes; new conceptualizations of social context

CPC Faculty Preceptors: Drs. Lisa Pearce and Ronald Rindfuss , Sociology

 

Select recent publications:
Brauner-Otto, Sarah R., William G. Axinn, and Dirgha J. Ghimire. 2007. "The Spread of Health Services and Fertility Transition." Demography 44(4):747-70.

Matt Bradshaw, Ph.D.
Sociology, University of Texas at Austin, 2008
Email: mbrad@email.unc.edu

Phone: (919) 843-4446
401G CPC East
Matt Bradshaw
Research focus:
Biodemography; health; gene-environment interplay; religion; personality; and quantitative methods

CPC Faculty Preceptor: Dr. Glen Elder, Sociology

 


Sergio Chavez, Ph.D.
Development Sociology, Cornell University, 2007
Email: schavez@email.unc.edu
Phone: (919) 843-3758
305F CPC East
Sergio Chavez
Research focus:
Internal and international migration; sociology of labor markets; race relations; ethnography.

CPC Faculty Preceptor: Dr. Ted Mouw , Sociology

 

Select recent publications:
Sergio Chavez. (Forthcoming). "The Sonora Desert's Domestic Bracero Program: Institutional Actors and the Creation of Labor Migration Streams." International Migration.

Sergio Chavez. (2005). "Community, Ethnicity, and Class in a Changing Rural California Town." Rural Sociology 70(3):28-49.


Felicia Yang DeLeone, Ph.D.
Policy Analysis and Management, Cornell University, 2008

Through April 30, 2009 Felicia DeLeone
Research focus:
Immigrant health outcomes during the transition to adulthood

CPC Faculty Preceptor: Dr. Kathleen Mullan Harris, Sociology

 


Claudia Geist, Ph.D.
Sociology, Indiana University, 2008
Email: cgeist@email.unc.edu

Phone: (919) 966-2154
501 CPC East
Claudia Geist
Research focus:
The intersection of gender, family, and social stratification in comparative perspective

CPC Faculty Preceptors: Drs. Philip Cohen and Lisa Pearce, Sociology

 

Selected recent publications:
Geist, Claudia, Patricia A. McManus (2008) "Geographical Mobility over the Life Course: Motivations and Implications." Population, Space, and Place 14(4) 283-303.

Geist, Claudia (2005) "The Welfare State and the Home: Regime Differences in the Domestic Division of Labour." European Sociological Review 21(1) 23-41.


Mariaelisa Graff, Ph.D. (2009-10)
Nutritional Epidemiology, Emory University, 2006
Email: migraff@unc.edu

Phone: (919) 966-6784
408B CPC East
Mariaelisa Graff
Research focus:
Gene-environment interactions and metabolic risk factors: the influence of lifestyle and social factors with genotype

CPC Faculty Preceptor: Dr. Penny Gordon-Larsen, Nutrition

 


Clark Gray, Ph.D.
Geography, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2008
Email: cgray@email.unc.edu

Phone: (919) 843-4450
305C CPC East
Clark Gray
Research focus:
Determinants and consequences of tsunami-related displacement for older adults in Indonesia

CPC Faculty Preceptor: Dr. Richard Bilsborrow, Biostatistics
Duke University Mentors: Drs. Elizabeth Frankenberg, Public Policy Studies and Duncan Thomas, Economics

Selected recent publications:
Clark Gray. (In press). "Environment, Land and Rural Out-Migration in the Southern Ecuadorian Andes." World Development.

Clark Gray, Richard Bilsborrow, Jason Bremner, and Flora Lu. (2008). "Indigenous Land Use in the Ecuadorian Amazon: A Cross-Cultural and Multilevel Analysis." Human Ecology 36(1): 97–109.


Maria Monserud, Ph.D.
Sociology, Washington State University, 2008
Email: monserud@email.unc.edu

Phone: (919) 966-0368
401A CPC East
Maria Monserud
Research focus:
Associations between intergenerational relationships in the family, life course transitions, adult roles, and gender

CPC Faculty Preceptor: Dr. Glen Elder, Sociology

 

Selected recent publications:
Monserud, M. A. (2008). "Intergenerational Relationships and Affectual Solidarity Between Grandparents and Young Adults". Journal of Marriage and Family, 70(1): 182-195.


Robert Mswia, Ph.D.
Demography, University of Pennsylvania, 2006
Email: rmswia@email.unc.edu

Phone: (919) 843-3769
C215 CPC North
Robert Mswia
Research focus:
Methods and measures of mortality in the era of HIV/AIDS: estimation models and projection techniques

CPC Faculty Preceptor: Dr. Gustavo Angeles, Maternal and Child Health


David Nolin, Ph.D.
Anthropology, University of Washington, 2008
Email: dnolin@email.unc.edu

Phone: (919) 966-5969
502 CPC East
David Nolin
Research focus:
Historical family demography and family reconstitution; delay of marriage, celibacy, and adult sibling allocare; fertility transitions; human behavioral ecology; social network analysis.

CPC Faculty Preceptor: Dr. Paul Leslie, Anthropology


Naomi Spence, Ph.D.
Sociology, The Florida State University, 2006
Email: spencen@email.unc.edu

Phone: (919) 966-5891
401G CPC East
Naomi Spence
Research focus:
Social demography with a focus on fertility as it shapes mental and physical health across the life course; race/ethnic differentiation in health, mortality, and adolescent sexual behavior; social determinants of military enlistment with a focus on family

CPC Faculty Preceptor: Dr. Glen Elder, Sociology


Tirzah Spencer, Ph.D.
Biobehavioral Health
The Pennsylvania State University, 2003
Email: tirzah@email.unc.edu

Phone: (919) 843-6255 Tirzah Spencer
Research focus:
Sociodemographic and environmental determinants of physical activity and obesity among African American and Latino children and adolescents; maturation, culture, obesity intervention design, and health disparities

CPC Faculty Preceptor: Dr. Barry Popkin, Nutrition

Selected recent publications:
Alhassan, S., Sirard, J., Spencer, T., and Robinson, T. (In Press). "Estimating Physical Activity from Incomplete Accelerometer Data in Field Studies" Journal of Physical Activity and Health

Jack Jr., L., Liburd, L., Spencer, T. and Airhihenbuwa, CO. 2004. "Understanding the Environmental Issues in Diabetes Self-management Education Research: A Re-examination of Eight Studies in Community-based Settings" Annals of Internal Medicine 140:(11) 964 - 971.


Amanda Thompson, Ph.D.
Anthropology, Emory University, 2007
Email: althomps@email.unc.edu

Through December 31, 2008 Amanda Thompson
Research focus:
Infant feeding, early life influences on body composition and obesity, and biological and cultural influences on infant growth and hormonal development

CPC Faculty Preceptors: Drs. Linda Adair and Margaret Bentley , Nutrition

 

Selected recent publications:
Lampl M and AL Thompson (2007) "Growth chart curves do not describe individual growth biology." American Journal of Human Biology, 19(5): 643-653.

Thompson, Amanda L., Turner, Bethany L. (2007) "Recruiting undergraduates to biological anthropology: Using PBL/ICBL as gateways." Anthropology News 48(4).

Lampl M, AL Thompson, and EA Frongillo (2005) "Sex differences in the relationships among weight gain, subcutaneous skinfolds and salutatory length growth spurts in infancy." Pediatric Research. 58(6): 1238-1242.

Sellen, D, AL Thompson, D Hruschka, A Stein, and R Martorell (2005) "Early determinant of non-exclusive breast feeding among Guatemalan infants." Protecting Infants through Human Milk: Advancing the Scientific Evidence Base. L.K. Pickering, A.L. Morrow, R.J. Schanler, G.M. Ruiz-Palacios, eds. New York, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.