Approved Courses 2007-08

Anthropology	Biostatistics	Economics	Epidemiology	Geography
Maternal Health & Child Health	Nutrition	Public Policy	Sociology

Department of Anthropology

Anthropology 755 (formerly Anthropology 255)

Last offered Spring 2004 (Paul Leslie)

HUMAN REPRODUCTION: BIOCULTURAL AND ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES (3)

The course examines human reproduction from the perspective of human ecology. The premise is that human fertility, reproductive biology, reproductive behavior, and ultimately fertility and population replacement, are best understood in the context of the interactions of humans with their environment. Since a major component of the human environment is other humans, biocultural models are used to structure the relationships between various components of human reproduction examined in the course. Emphasis is on the proximate determinants of fertility, but always with an eye toward linking these to environmental, socioeconomic, and cultural factors. To this end, a central theme of the course will be the use of life history theory to generate hypotheses concerning reproductive ecology and reproductive decision making. Topics will include: population, resources, and environment; influence of nutrition, disease, activity patterns on reproductive function; reproductive "strategies"; parental investment and value of children; risk and uncertainty in family building.

Anthropology 897.037

(Paul Leslie)

EVOLUTIONARY APPROACHES TO POPULATION STUDIES (3)

This course examines the utility and application of evolutionary approaches to the study of processes and phenomena central to population studies. Evolutionary theory provides an orientation that is becoming more widespread and influential in a number of fields, including various realms within population studies, but opportunities for our trainees to learn about this are scarce. Evolutionary theory has great potential utility in population studies, in part because it provides a coherent theoretical framework that can bridge different areas within population studies (e.g., by providing a common framework for analysis of fertility and migration) and different disciplines (anthropology, biology, economics, ecology, psychology…).

Our general approach will be that of evolutionary ecology, with a more specific focus on life history theory. Life history theory (LHT) offers a framework for addressing how organisms (including people) should allocate time and energy to tasks and traits in a way that maximizes their fitness (in terms of reproductive success or other metrics). LHT explicitly recognizes that constraints and opportunities change over the life course. There are thus fundamental tradeoffs that must be taken into account (e.g., present vs. future reproduction, quantity vs. quality of offspring), and these tradeoffs vary over time and with environmental (social, biotic, physical) context.

Sessions and readings will focus on both general theory and case studies. No background in biology or evolutionary theory is assumed. The course will be run as a team-lead seminar, with class meetings incorporating short lectures, discussions, and student presentations. Collaborative student projects (oriented around research proposal development) will promote interdisciplinary training.
(approved December 2006)

Anthropology 898 (formerly Anthropology 328.037)

Last offered Spring 2006 (Paul Leslie)

Environment and Population: The ecology of risk, uncertainty, and demographic behavior (3)

Concern over the relationship between population and environment abounds. But the most salient research and discussion has focused on one aspect of the relationship --human impact on the environment. In this seminar, we will be concerned primarily, though not exclusively, with the other side of the relationship - how environmental characteristics (especially the physical and biotic environments, but also the social/economic/political environment as it interacts with the above) affect population characteristics and dynamics. These two "directional arrows" are of course ultimately inseparable; the distinction here is one of emphasis. We will be concerned not only with how environmental characteristics affect human populations, but also with how responses to those environmental characteristics - mitigation or coping - in turn affect the environment. That is, we will whenever possible take a systems view. A special emphasis will be on the biological and behavioral consequences of environmental fluctuations and unpredictability.
(approved December 2005)

Anthropology 898 (formerly Anthropology 328)

Last offered Spring 2005 (Paul Leslie and Flora Lu): FIELD METHODS IN HUMAN ECOLOGY (3)
This is a graduate methods training course in interdisciplinary approaches to examining population and environment issues. The course focuses on field methods commonly encountered in human ecology research, integrating social and natural science approaches, quantitative and qualitative data collection, as well as emic and etic perspectives. It is designed for students interested in examining the links between human populations and the natural environment, as well as students looking to include social perspectives in more interdisciplinary approaches to conservation and environmental management. Research about population and environment issues often entail interactions between researchers and local residents, families, and/or entire communities, and this requires training in appropriate and effective methods as well as preparation in handling the inevitable ethical and logistical issues that arise.

Department of Biostatistics

Biostatistics 670 (formerly Biostatistics 170)

Last offered Fall 2007 (C. Suchindran): DEMOGRAPHIC TECHNIQUES I (3)
Prerequisite, Biostatistics 101 or equivalent. Source and interpretation of demographic data; rates and ratios, standardization, complete and abridged life tables; estimation and projection of fertility, mortality, migration, and population composition.

Biostatistics 771 (formerly Biostatistics 271)

Last offered Spring 2006: DEMOGRAPHIC TECHNIQUES II (3)
Prerequisites, Biostatistics 170 and integral calculus. Life table techniques; methods of analysis when data are deficient; population projection methods; interrelations among demographic variables; migration analysis; uses of population models.

Biostatistics 777 (formerly Biostatistics 277)

Last offered Fall 2002: MATHEMATICAL MODELS IN DEMOGRAPHY (3)
Prerequisite, permission of the instructor. A detailed presentation of natality models, including necessary mathematical methods, and applications; deterministic and stochastic models for population growth, migration.

Department of Economics

Economics 454 (formerly Economics 165)

Last offered Spring 2005 (Boone Turchi): ECONOMICS OF POPULATION (3)
Prerequisite, Economics 100 or 101 or permission of instructor. Analysis of economic-demographic interrelations including demographic analysis, population and economic growth and development, economic models of fertility and migration, and population policy.

Economics 586 (formerly Economics 180)

Last offered Fall 2007 (Boone Turchi): ECONOMICS OF THE FAMILY (3)
Prerequisite, Economics 101 or permission of the instructor. Analyzes the family with respect to the marriage market, divorce, reproductive behavior, the baby black market, intrafamily allocation of goods, time and power, labor supply, migration, and family policy.

Economics 855 (formerly Economics 265)

Last offered Spring 2004 (Boone Turchi): ECONOMICS OF POPULATION (3)
Prerequisite, graduate standing in economics or permission of the instructor. Analysis of economic-demographic interrelationships including: population and economic development; population, environmental decay, and zero population growth; models of fertility, migration, and spatial organization; population policy.

Economics 880 (formerly Economics 291)

Last offered Fall 2006: LABOR ECONOMICS I (3)
Prerequisite, Economics 200 or permission of the instructor. An analysis of the short- and long-run aspects of supply and demand of labor, including empirical analysis of the labor force behavior of males, females, blacks, and whites. Topics include the microeconomic effects of marriage, fertility, and mobility on labor supply, as well as the macroeconomic effects of unemployment on inflation.
(approved December 2003)

Economics 881 (formerly Economics 294)

Last offered Spring 2006: LABOR ECONOMICS II (3)
Life cycle analysis of supply and demand for labor as a determinant of individual wages. Topics include an analysis of discrimination, union power, and governmental manpower policies on the distribution of earnings across the population.
(approved December 2003)

Economics 890 (formerly Economics 399)

Approved on a case-by-case basis.: Various topics (3)

Department of Epidemiology

Epidemiology 690

Last offered Fall 2007 (Andrew Olshan and Nancy Dole)

INTEGRATING BIOMARKERS IN POPULATION-BASED RESEARCH (3)

The course will introduce students interested in population research to the collection and analysis of biospecimens and their incorporation into epidemiologic, biomedical, and social science frameworks. Topics include concepts of study design and interdisciplinary research, sample collection, processing, and storage, working with laboratories, quality assurance and quality control, specimen management, ethical issues, assessing costs, and statistical methods. The course will provide a general introduction and discussion of topics with examples drawn from case studies.
(approved December 2007)

Epidemiology 757

Last offered Fall 2007 (Sharon Weir and Frieda Behets)

EPIDEMIOLOGY AND SOCIAL ASPECTS OF HIV/AIDS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES (3)

This course is designed to provide an overview of key issues in HIV/AIDS epidemiology to students interested in studying the proximate determinants of the HIV epidemic in developing countries. In addition to getting expert lectures on biological factors of HIV important for understanding the course of an epidemic in a country, students are exposed to topics such as: the methods used by UNAIDS to estimate HIV prevalence in a country and sources of bias in these estimates; the methods used to monitor the proximate determinants of the HIV epidemic in a country including the use of DHS data; and ethical issues raised in decision making about the allocation of prevention and treatment funding. (approved December 2007)

Epidemiology 826

Offered Spring 2008 (James Thomas)

SOCIAL EPIDEMIOLOGY: CONCEPTS AND MEASURES (3)

Social forces affecting community health and how to measure them for epidemiologic analysis. Topics range from social networks to racism and ethics. Three lecture hours per week.
(approved December 2006)

Epidemiology 851 (formerly Epidemiology 219)

Last offered Fall 2006 (Julie Daniels): PERINATAL EPIDEMIOLOGY (3)
Prerequisites: EPID 160 and BIOS 110 or alternatives. Epidemiology of major reproductive health outcomes, including infertility, fetal loss, birth weight, congenital malformations, and infant mortality. Current knowledge regarding epidemiology of these outcomes. Discussion of methodological issues specific to reproduction.

Department of Geography

Geography 450 (formerly Geography 150)

Last offered Fall 2005 (Melinda Meade): POPULATION GEOGRAPHY(3)
A study of the spatial dimensions of population growth, density and movement and of the shifts in these patterns as they relate to changes in selected socioeconomic and cultural phenomena.

Geography 803 (formerly Geography 303)

Last offered during Fall 2005 (Richard Bilsborrow) Note: Only sections of Geography 303 taught by Professor Bilsborrow are approved for the CPC population course list.

HUMAN ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH SEMINAR (3)

This new seminar course is in response to the growing interest in development, and population and the environment, especially in developing countries. The course is intended to enhance the understanding of the interrelationships through a critical appraisal of selected literature, provide a forum for developing research ideas, and offer a basis for considering policy implications and research needs.

The course will be interdisciplinary and partly participatory, with student interests determining part of the content through class presentations and research projects. While primarily a seminar, it will include lectures by the instructor and several guest lecturers mainly during the first half of the course. Lectures will cover topics such as economic development and the persistence of poverty and inequality; trends in population dynamics and environmental change in developing countries; theories of population-environment linkages; and empirical evidence in several areas. In reviewing the literature, empirical studies will be critically appraised to evaluate how they could have been done better. In the last half of the course, students will produce a research paper based on a topic of their choosing developed in consultation with the instructor.

Geography 813

Offered Spring 2008 (Michael Emch)

NEIGHBORHOODS AND HEALTH (3)

This course focuses on the theory behind neighborhood determinants of health, which is an important area in population health research. It is a survey course that covers the fundamental theory behind neighborhood effects and the approaches for measuring them. The course involves a review of empirical and theoretical work from several different fields including geography, sociology, and public health.
(approved December 2006)

Geography 803/813 -- Dr. Stephen Walsh (formerly Geography 308)

Last offered Spring 2005: SEMINAR IN PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY (3)

Department of Maternal and Child Health

Maternal Health Child Health 716

Offered Spring 2008 (Shelah Bloom and Sian Curtis)

INTERNATIONAL FAMILY PLANNING AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH (3)

This course will provide an overview of the critical issues in international family planning and reproductive health, including major theoretical frameworks, patterns and trends over time, and family planning and reproductive health policy development. We will trace the evolution of the field from its demographic roots through the current expansion to a broader reproductive health perspective. The main theoretical models to explain the determinants of fertility and reproductive mortality and morbidity will be presented. Demographic data will be used to describe the trends and patterns of family planning and reproductive health within the global context. The development of population, family planning and reproductive health policy through the last three decades, along with the more recent focus on the field within the context of health and human rights, will be discussed.
(approved December 2006)

Maternal and Child Health 862

Offered Spring 2008 (Gustavo Angeles)

MCH PROGRAM EVALUATION (3)

The focus of this course is developing the skills for examining data in order to assess whether a program had an impact on demographic or health outcomes or behaviors of a given population group. Even though good part of the course will be spent reviewing evaluation designs and the application of statistical techniques for evaluating programs, this is not a course in statistics, this is a course on program evaluation, therefore, the interest is in understanding what are the main issues involved in correctly answering the question: Does a program have an impact? and, if the answer is yes, by how much? We will review how to design and carry out a program evaluation and developing the criteria for selecting the appropriate analytical procedure for evaluating a program given the characteristics of the outcome under examination, the program, and the data available to the evaluator. Of course, students should know how to apply the chosen analytical procedure. Emphasis is given to the appropriate interpretation of results in the context of evaluating a program. This course examines the challenges for implementing program impact evaluations in developing countries. Most applications are drawn from impact evaluations of population and MCH programs in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
(approved December 2006)

Department of Nutrition

Nutrition 745 (formerly Nutrition 261)

Last offered Fall 2006 (Linda Adair and Peggy Bentley): INTERNATIONAL NUTRITION (3)
Provides a broad overview of international nutrition research issues, programs, and policies. Topics will include micronutrient deficiencies, child feeding and growth, determinants of under- and over-nutrition, chronic disease and nutrition, food fortification and supplementation, and nutrition intervention programs and policy.
(approved December 2003)

Department of Public Policy

Public Policy 895 (formerly Public Policy 295)

Last offered Fall 2006 (Dr. Sudhanshu Handa)

TOPICS IN POVERTY AND HUMAN RESOURCES (3)

This course covers topics in poverty, welfare and human resources from an economic perspective, and will be of interest to students who want to specialize in social and behavioral approaches to the study of population and demographic phenomena.
(approved November 2004)

Please visit PLCY295 for a preliminary course description, list of topics, and illustrative reading list. Questions concerning the new course should be directed to Dr. Handa.

Department of Sociology

Sociology 830 (formerly Sociology 212)

Last offered Fall 2007 (Philip Cohen): DEMOGRAPHY: THEORY, SUBSTANCE, TECHNIQUES, PART I (3)
This is the first part of a two-course sequence that is designed as a basic graduate-level introduction to demography. This part of the course will cover basic concepts and tools, sources of demographic data, and the study of mortality and fertility. The second semester will cover stable population theory, migration, population distribution, population policy, and estimates and projections. Class-time will be devoted to both lecture and discussion, depending on the nature of the topic. To facilitate the integration of readings and class discussion, I will periodically assign students to lead class discussion on certain articles.

Sociology 831 (formerly Sociology 213)

Offered Spring 2008 (Ted Mouw): DEMOGRAPHY: THEORY, SUBSTANCE, TECHNIQUES, PART II (3)
This course is designed to teach the skills necessary to be an effective social demographer. Half of the class time will be in the computer lab devoted to hands on manipulation of demographic data from a variety of sources. The course will be "problem-based" with time spent working on several cases in depth and developing analytic skills.

Sociology 851 (formerly Sociology 231)

Last offered Spring 2006 (Philip Cohen) Note: Only sections of Sociology 851 taught by Professor Cohen are approved for the CPC population course list.: Sociology of Gender Seminar (3)
The seminar will focus on theory and research findings, research methods, and beyond theory, a focus on work, family and labor market issues, and gender intersections. Most material will be about the United States, with a case study of China and some comparative readings. In addition to weekly seminar participation, students will submit a short weekly comment paper – no more than a page or two – and present occasional critiques of the readings to the group. At the end of the semester students will submit a final paper, which may be a piece of research in progress, a research proposal, or an extended essay on the course readings.
(approved December 2005)

Sociology 833 (formerly Sociology 289)

Last offered Fall 2007 (Ronald Rindfuss): SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS IN FERTILITY (3)

Sociology 835 (formerly Sociology 290)

Last offered Spring 2004 (Peter Uhlenberg): MORTALITY: SOCIAL DEMOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVES (3)

Sociology 950.003

Last offered Spring 2007 (Kathleen Mullan Harris)

USING ADD HEALTH TO STUDY ADOLESCENCE AND THE TRANSITION TO YOUNG ADULTHOOD (3)

This course is designed to integrate the theory and research literature on adolescence and the transition to adulthood with the design and data in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to facilitate student research using Add Health. Add Health was designed to study the causes of health and health behavior in adolescence and the transition to adulthood with special emphasis on the effects of the social contexts of young people's lives. The study was designed by population researchers at the Carolina Population Center at UNC, and has been funded through the Demographic and Behavioral Science Branch of NICHD as three program projects from 1994-2010. The design evolved from theoretical notions of how the social and physical environment influences individual health and health behavior among adolescents and their outcomes in young adulthood. In addition to comprehensive demographic, social, behavioral, and biological data on individuals, independent measurement of contextual data on the family, siblings, the school, friends, the peer network, romantic and sexual partners, the neighborhood, the community, and state laws and policies have been collected for rich multilevel analyses of main and interactive environmental influences on health and health behavior.

The course is structured to cover the fundamental concepts identified in the literature that are crucial to adolescent and young adult development and outcomes, and that are also captured in the design of Add Health. Each week, a particular conceptual topic is covered by reading theoretical or review articles on this topic as well as Add Health research articles on the topic. Each class will include what data are available in Add Health to study this topic, discussion of the readings, and a presentation by an invited speaker who will discuss their particular Add Health research on that topic (typically one or more of the speaker's readings will be included for that week). The majority of invited speakers are faculty fellows at CPC. The purpose of the course is to expose students to the range of opportunities for research in Add Heath, facilitate their thinking and formulation of a research question, show them what and where the data are, and enable students to produce a research paper on Add Health that can serve as a masters thesis, dissertation chapter, or publishable paper.
(approved December 2006)

Sociology 950.007

Offered for the first time during Spring 2008 (Peter Uhlenberg)

DEMOGRAPHY OF AGING (3)

Global population aging is one of the big issues facing human societies in the early twenty-first century. Population projections show that the proportion of the world’s population over age 60 will double between 2000 and 2050, and that about one-third of the people living in developed countries will be over age 60 in 2050. Already there are countries in Europe and Asia where the number of people over age 60 exceed the number of children, and by 2050 some of these countries will have twice as many old people as children. As noted by the 2002 UN World Assembly on Ageing Report, this global trend in population aging is unprecedented in human history, is pervasive across societies, is enduring (there is no going back to younger populations), and has profound implications for human beings.

This seminar will cover the following topics:

A demographic explanation of population aging
An historical perspective on global population aging
Migration and aging
Public and private pensions
Income and inequality
Health and disability
Health care: formal and informal
Intergenerational relationships

(approved December 2007)

Sociology 950 (formerly Sociology 326)

Offered Spring 2008 (Barbara Entwisle and Jacqueline Hagan): Migration Seminar (3)
This graduate seminar draws on the sociological and demographic literatures to assess international and internal migration from a comparative perspective.
Tentative topics include: Patterns and Trends; Concepts, Data, and Design Issues; Theories of Migration; Migration Mechanisms; Migration Streams; Immigration and the State: Policy, Immigration and the State; Citizenship; Rethinking Assimilation Theory; Transnationalism; (Im)Migration and Health; (Im)Migration, Remittances, and Consequences; and Migration and Neighborhoods.
(approved December 2005)

Sociology 820 (formerly Sociology 333)

Last offered Fall 2006 (Lisa Pearce): Seminar in Marriage and the Family (3)
This graduate seminar will introduce students to a wide range of studies in the sociology of family, improving their ability to critically analyze work in this field and inspiring students' own family-related research. The course materials draw on a variety of theoretical, historical, cultural and methodological perspectives to examine topics such as union formation and dissolution, family relationships, childbearing, parenthood, and intergenerational exchanges.
(approved December 2003)