Carolina Population Center

Giovanna Merli: The Changing Intellectual Landscape of Demography: A Computational Look at Published Scholarship, 1950-2020
2021-11-19 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York) | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
On November 19, 2021, Giovanna Merli, Professor of Public Policy and Sociology at Duke University and a member of the Duke Global Health Institute, will present “The Changing Intellectual Landscape of Demography: A Computational Look at Published Scholarship, 1950-2020” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2021-2022 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.
Her research straddles three disciplinary realms: demography, contemporary Chinese society and global health. She focuses on a range of population and health issues in developing countries that intersect frontline public policy, such as the role of China’s population control program in lowering fertility preferences and fertility rates in China, the social and behavioral determinants of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases and the evaluation of methodological approaches to sample hard-to-reach and hidden populations at high risk of acquiring HIV/AIDS. Merli combines her passion for demography and her 20-years experience with living in, studying and conducting research in China in her most recent work. China is a very low HIV prevalence setting but infection rates are high in some population groups whose behaviors are driving the Chinese epidemic. Thus, it is crucial to understand the social and behavioral patterns that put population groups with different risk profiles in contact with each other. Merli’s work examines the social and behavioral factors that create conditions which lead individuals in China to acquire HIV infection. This work is crucial to inform the design of appropriate interventions to prevent further spread of infection. Merli also studies HIV/AIDS in another, very different setting of the global HIV epidemic, South Africa, where the AIDS morbidity and mortality crises are tantamount to a perturbation of the age structure. HIV/AIDS in South Africa mostly affects individuals in the mid-adult ages and her work focuses on understanding the consequences of this mortality and morbidity crisis for families and households. Research in China is my comparative advantage.
Abstract:
Much of what we know about the intellectual landscape of demography comes from subjective narratives authored by leaders in the field, whose reviews and observations are grounded in their broad knowledge of the field. Here we use bibliographic information from all articles in the journals Demography, Population Studies and Population and Development Review to survey the changing contours of the field over the past 70 years. We characterize the field by applying a two-pronged, data-driven approach from the sociology of science. The first uses natural language processing that lets the substance of the field emerge from the contents of publication records and applies social network analyses to identify groups of papers that talk about the same thing. The second uses bibliometric tools to capture demographers’ reliance on other disciplines. Our goals are to (a) identify the primary topics of demography since the discipline first gained prominence as an organized field; (b) assess changes in the field’s intellectual cohesion and the topical areas that have grown or shrunk; (c) examine how demographers place their work in relationship to other disciplines and our field’s visibility in the scientific literature. We discuss prospects for the continued scientific importance of demography as a standalone research field and its public visibility.
We record as many seminars as possible. You can see previous events here.

Ashu Handa: Malawi’s Social Cash Transfer Programme (SCTP)
2021-11-12 12:00 - 13:00 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
On November 12, 2021, Ashu Handa, the Lawrence I. Gilbert Distinguished Professor in the Department of Public Policy at UNC and a Faculty Fellow at the Carolina Population Center, will present his study results from Malawi as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2021-2022 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.
Handa is Lawrence I. Gilbert Distinguished Professor in the Department of Public Policy at the UNC and is a human resource economist specializing in household behaviours in developing countries. He has over 20 years’ experience assessing impacts of government poverty alleviation programs in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa. He previously served as Chief of Social Policy and Economic Analysis, UNICEF Innocenti.
About the Transfer Project
The Transfer Project is a multi-country cash transfer research initiative. Established in 2008, the project is a collaborative network between UNICEF Innocenti, FAO, University of North Carolina, UNICEF Regional and Country Offices, national governments, and local research partners. The Transfer Project is a thought leader on cash transfers in Africa. We go beyond measuring typical economic outcomes to find out if and how cash transfers impact other aspects of people’s lives.
We record as many seminars as possible. You can see previous events here.

Julie Bynum: Accelerating population research and its impact to reduce Burden of Alzheimer’s disease
2021-11-05 12:00 - 13:00 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
On November 5, 2021, Julie Bynum, the Margaret Terpenning Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatric Medicine, Research Professor in the Institute of Gerontology, Geriatric Center Associate Director for Health Policy and Research, and a member of the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation at the University of Michigan, will present “Accelerating population research and its impact to reduce Burden of Alzheimer’s disease” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2021-2022 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.
Dr. Bynum is the Margaret Terpenning Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatric Medicine, Research Professor in the Institute of Gerontology, Geriatric Center Associate Director for Health Policy and Research, and a member of the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. She received her medical and public health degrees from Johns Hopkins, did her residency and chief residency at Dartmouth, and completed specialty training in Geriatric Medicine at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Bynum then joined the faculty at Dartmouth Medical School. She received prestigious awards from the Robert Wood Johnson Physician Faculty Scholar Program and the National Institute of Aging Beeson Scholar Program. She has been an Atlantic Philanthropies Health & Aging Policy Fellow, was a member of the National Academy of Medicine Committee that published “Vital Signs: Core Metrics for Health and Health Care Progress” and was recently a Deputy Editor of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. She is currently a member of the National Academy of Medicine Forum on Aging, Disability and Independence.
Dr. Bynum joined the University of Michigan in 2018 and was recently chosen to succeed Dr. Dick Simon as Vice Chair for Faculty Affairs for the Department of Internal Medicine. She currently leads a robust portfolio of research, has taken on a diverse group of junior faculty mentees across the instructional, clinical and research tracks, and provides primary and consultative care to older adults. Dr. Bynum is well known for leading interdisciplinary research teams to study questions about the complex drivers of quality and costs for older adults and how to improve health care policy and performance using national administrative data.
Title and abstract of lecture will be available soon.
We record as many seminars as possible. You can see previous events here.

Will Dow: Female Sex Workers in the Time of COVID: A Longitudinal Study in Tanzania
2021-10-29 12:00 - 13:00 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
On October 29, 2021, Will Dow, the Director of the Center on the Economics and Demography of Aging and a Professor of Health Policy and Management at the University of California-Berkeley School of Public Health, will present “Female Sex Workers in the Time of COVID: A Longitudinal Study in Tanzania” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2021-2022 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.

Dow, a celebrated scholar of the economic aspects of health insurance, health behaviors, and health and demographic outcomes, joined the Berkeley faculty in 2004. Since 2005, he has been the founding associate director of the Berkeley Population Center and, since 2013, the director of the Center on the Economics and Demography of Aging. He has also served at the School as division head of Health Policy and Management and as the associate dean for research, and in 2018-19 served as Interim Dean of the School of Public Health. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and previously served as Senior Economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
Dow’s research contributes to improvements in health policy and healthy aging among vulnerable populations locally and globally. He has led teams analyzing California’s pathbreaking health insurance reforms and paid leave policies, as well as teams designing innovative behavioral economic strategies for preventing HIV and promoting behavior change such as smoking cessation. His global work includes serving as principal investigator of the premier team studying determinants of Costa Rican’s exceptional longevity, as well as projects in Cuba, Mexico, Tanzania and Japan.

Title and abstract of lecture will be available soon.
We record as many seminars as possible. You can see previous events here.

Yamnia I. Cortés: Women’s reproductive health across the life course: A marker for cardiovascular disease risk in later life?
2021-10-15 12:00 - 13:00 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
On October 15, 2021, Yamnia I. Cortés, Assistant Professor of Cardiovascular Nursing, Health Disparities, Women’s Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will present “Women’s reproductive health across the life course: A marker for cardiovascular disease risk in later life?” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2021-2022 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.

Dr. Cortés obtained her BA in Biology and completed a concentration in Latino/a Studies at Williams College in 2006. She completed her MPH in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University in 2009, where she also received her BS/MS in Nursing and FNP-BC. In 2015, she received her PhD at Columbia University School of Nursing. She was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health from 2015-2018 in Cardiovascular Epidemiology. Dr. Cortés leads an interdisciplinary research program focusing on cardiovascular disease in midlife women. She has a longstanding interest in understanding how women’s reproductive health may be an indicator of future cardiovascular disease risk, including measures of subclinical vascular disease. Another area of research focuses on racial/ethnic disparities in women’s reproductive and cardiovascular health, as well as the role of sociocultural factors.
Abstract:
Women’s reproductive health across the life course: A marker for cardiovascular disease risk in later life?
In this presentation Dr. Cortés will provide an overview of the current evidence linking reproductive health, from menarche thru postmenopause, to cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in midlife women and beyond. Using examples from existing literature and her program of research, she will discuss potential mechanisms and interventions to address inequities in reproductive health and CVD.

We record as many seminars as possible. You can see previous events here.

Marcia (Marcy) J. Carlson and Peter Fallesen: Longer lives, Later Births: Generational Overlap in Denmark and the U.S.
2021-10-08 12:00 - 13:00 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
On October 8, 2021, Marcy Carlson, Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Peter Fallesen (Rockwool Foundation and Stockholm University) will present as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2021-2022 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.
Carlson’s primary research interests center on the associations between family contexts and the wellbeing of parents and children. She has explored the changing composition of families and aspects of their functioning. Her early work explored how family structure was associated with child and adolescent being, identifying fathers’ involvement with children as a key mechanism by which family structure affects offspring. Much of her recent work is focused on growing family diversity and complexity, particularly with respect to fertility patterns and fatherhood, as well as how family change is linked with inequality in both the U.S. and cross-national contexts.
Fallesen is an associate professor (docent) of sociology in the LNU/level-of-living group. Until December 2016, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the same place. He received my PhD in sociology from the University of Copenhagen in February 2015. He is also a Research Professor at the Rockwool Foundation Research Unit in Copenhagen and a research affiliate at the Center for Demography and Ecology, University of Wisconsin – Madison. He previously held visiting positions at Yale University, UC Berkeley, and European University Institute.
We record as many seminars as possible. You can see previous events here.

Thomas McDade: Biosocial 2.0: Future directions for research at the interface of the biological and social sciences
2021-10-01 12:00 - 13:00 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
On October 1, 2021, Thom McDade, a biological anthropologist and the Director of the Laboratory for Human Biology Research at Northwestern University, will present “Biosocial 2.0: Future directions for research at the interface of the biological and social sciences” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2021-2022 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.
Thom McDade is a biological anthropologist specializing in human population biology. His work is primarily concerned with the dynamic interrelationships among society, biology and health over the life course, with an emphasis on life course approaches to stress and the human immune system. The development and application of minimally-invasive methods for integrating physiological measures into population-based research is also a major area of interest. Prior research in Samoa, and ongoing research in Bolivia and Ecuador, investigates how local cultural transitions associated with globalization affect human development and health, while research in the Philippines is exploring the long term developmental consequences of early nutritional and microbial environments. He is currently applying conceptual and methodological tools from this work to US-based research on health disparities, with an emphasis on the potential contributions of stress and environments in infancy.
Abstract:
Novel methods for measuring human biology and health in non-clinical settings are generating new opportunities for discovery at the interface of the social and biological sciences. In this seminar I highlight how biosocial approaches have enriched our explanatory and conceptual frameworks, and I underscore how work in this area can fundamentally change how we think about human biology and the origins of social inequalities in health.
We record as many seminars as possible. You can see previous events here.

Aunchalee Palmquist: Advancing Health Equity in the first 1,000 days: Breastfeeding and Reproductive Justice
2021-09-24 12:00 - 13:00 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
On September 24, 2021, Aunchalee Palmquist, Assistant Professor in the Department of Maternal and Child Health at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and an affiliate of the Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute (CGBI), will present as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2021-2022 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.
Dr. Palmquist’s research addresses the intersectionality of perinatal maternal, newborn and young child health disparities globally and in the U.S., with an emphasis on breastfeeding. Dr. Palmquist’s interdisciplinary work bridges medical anthropology and global public health. She conducts community-based participatory research and uses both ethnographic methods and mixed-methods approaches. Her scholarship and practice are informed by human rights based approaches and a reproductive justice lens.
Dr. Palmquist is the lead for the CGBI Lactation and Infant Feeding in Emergencies (L.I.F.E.™) Initiative. She serves as a CGBI representative on the WHO/UNICEF Global Breastfeeding Collective, the Emergency Nutrition Network IFE Core Group, and the United States Breastfeeding Committee as Co-Steward of the COVID-19 Infant and Young Child Feeding Constellation. Dr. Palmquist has previously served as an International Lactation Consultants Association liaison to the United Nations.
Abstract: The perinatal period is a critical time during which health interventions have potential to impact immediate, life course, and intergenerational outcomes for mothers, children, and families. Collaborative community-engaged approaches are critical to advancing health equity for this population. In this presentation, Dr. Palmquist will describe her research on breastfeeding and reproductive justice globally and locally.
We record as many seminars as possible. You can see previous events here.

Rebecca Kreitzer: Unplanning Pregnancy: The Politics of Contraception Deserts
2021-09-17 12:00 - 13:00 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
On September 17, 2021, Rebecca Kreitzer, Associate Professor of Public Policy and an Adjunct Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will present “Unplanning Pregnancy: The Politics of Contraception Deserts” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2021-2022 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series. This is a project with Candis Watts Smith (Duke), Kellen Kane (UNC Policy PhD student), Tracee Saunders (former UNC Policy undergrad, now PhD student at Iowa).
Dr. Kreitzer’s research focuses on gender, political representation, political inequality, and public policy in the US states. She teaches classes on the politics of policy, public policy theory, gender and sexuality policy, and interest groups.
Abstract:
Historically, access to contraception has been supported in a bipartisan way, best exemplified by consistent Congressional funding of Title X–the only federal program specifically focused on providing affordable reproductive healthcare to American residents. However, in an era of partisan polarization, Title X has become a political and symbolic pawn, in part due to its connection to family planning organizations like Planned Parenthood. The conflicts around Title X highlight the effects of the intertwining of abortion politics with that of contraception policy, particularly as they relate to reproductive justice and gendered policymaking. To what extent are contraception deserts—places characterized by inequitable access to Title X—developed or expanded in response to policy changes around contraception and reproductive health? What is the demographic make-up of these spaces of inequality?
We record as many seminars as possible. You can see previous events here.

Mark Hayward: Understanding Recent Trends in Dementia Prevalence for Older Black and White Americans
2021-09-10 12:00 - 13:00 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
On September 10, 2021, Mark Hayward, Professor of Sociology and the director of the Population Health Initiative at the University of Texas at Austin, will present as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2021-2022 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.
Dr. Hayward also serves as the Training Director of the Population Research Center. He recently served as the the president of the Southern Demographic Association, chair of the Aging and Life Course section of the American Sociological Association, and is the chair of the Sociology of Population section of the ASA. He has served on the boards of the Population Association of America and the Society of Biodemography and Social Biology, and he was a member and then chair of the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research council. Currently, he is a member of the Committee on Population, National Academy of Sciences, and the Board of Scientific Counselors at the National Center for Health Statistics. He recently served on the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Health and Society Scholars Program. Hayward received his Ph.D. in sociology from Indiana University in 1981.
His primary research addresses how life course exposures and events influence the morbidity and mortality experiences of the adult population. Recent studies have clarified how early life conditions influence socioeconomic, race and gender disparities in adult morbidity and mortality; the demography of race/ethnic and gender disparities in healthy life expectancy; social inequality in the biomarkers of aging, and the health consequences of marriage, divorce, and widowhood. Most recently, he has been investigating the fundamental inequalities in adult mortality in the United States arising from educational experience, differences in these associations by race and gender, and trends in inequality in mortality. Currently, he is part of a national scientific team examining the role of federal and state policies shaping the growing inequality in life chances in the US adult population. His research on these topics has been by the National Institute on Aging and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute on Child Health and Human Development. His recently published work has appeared in the American Journal of Public Health, Demography, the Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences, the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, and Social Science and Medicine.
Abstract
Objectives: Today’s talk is motivated by recent evidence that dementia prevalence has been declining in the United States. Less clear, however, is whether important sociodemographic groups diverged or perhaps contributed in different ways to the overall national trend. For example, is the downward trend in dementia prevalence evident across the age range (young old compared to the oldest old)? Do Blacks and Whites both experience downward trends in dementia prevalence? Have changes in educational attainment, as well as other changes in modifiable risk factors for dementia (such as changes in poor childhood circumstances, health behaviors, and health conditions), had widespread consequences across major race–age groups
Methods: The Health and Retirement Study (HRS) is used to assess dementia prevalence changes for non-Hispanic Blacks and Whites between 2000-2014 for community dwelling and nursing home residents aged 65 years and older. Cognitive status has been validated using clinical diagnoses and survey scores of a subsample of HRS respondents. The analysis of the dementia prevalence trends is based on logistic regression models predicting the log odds of having dementia as a function of a time-trend variable and a set of relevant covariates.
Results: Consistent with other studies, we found significant declines in dementia for Blacks and Whites across the 2000-2014 period. Nonetheless, these declines were not uniform across age and race groups. Blacks aged 65–74 years had the steepest decline in this period. We also found that improved educational attainment in the population was fundamentally important in understanding declining dementia prevalence in the United States.
Discussion: This study shows the importance of improvement in educational attainment in the early part of the twentieth century to understand the downward trend in dementia prevalence in the United States from 2000 to 2014. The downward trend was unrelated to dementia risk
factors such as controlled hypertension, changes in health behaviors, or changes in early life conditions. This finding has implications not only for understanding current trends in the United States, but also the potential role of the growth in cognitive ability and functioning in other countries that underwent similar rapid expansions in schooling.
We record as many seminars as possible. You can see previous events here.

Colloquium: Alexis Dennis, UNC Sociology Odum Award Winner
2021-09-08 12:00 - 13:00
Racial Differences in the Influence of Socioeconomic Resources on Depressive Symptomatology across the Early Life Course.
Prior scholarship documents that having more socioeconomic resources is associated with better mental health. Yet, accumulating work shows that Black Americans do not consistently receive the same mental health returns to greater socioeconomic resources as White Americans. Using structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques, I analyze a sample of Black and White young adults from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). I investigate how access to various socioeconomic resources across stages of early life influence depression trajectories among US young adults from adolescence to early midlife. I also test when in the early life course, and how, these processes vary across racial groups. Findings demonstrate an association between adolescent socioeconomic disadvantage and increased depressive symptomatology across the transition to adulthood, young adulthood, and early midlife. Increased educational attainment in the transition to adulthood is also associated with fewer depressive symptoms in young adulthood and early midlife. Moreover, low income in young adulthood is associated with increased depressive symptomatology in early midlife. Importantly, racial differences in the types of socioeconomic resources, and duration of influence of socioeconomic resources, that are associated with depression across stages of early life are also present. These findings advance understanding of the underlying socioeconomic life course mechanisms that generate the racial inequalities in mental health observed among U.S. adults.
Details
Date:
September 8
Time:
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Website:
https://unc.zoom.us/j/97022362896

Follow all talks for Fall 2021 at https://sociology.unc.edu/sociology-events/colloquium-series/

CANCELED: Michael H. Esposito: Racism and Quantitative Counterfactual Inference: Historical and Life-Course Examples
2021-08-27 12:00 - 13:00 | Carolina Square Room 2002, 123 W. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
This event has been canceled and will be rescheduled for the spring semester.
On August 27, 2021, Michael H. Esposito, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Washington University in St. Louis, will present “Racism and Quantitative Counterfactual Inference: Historical and Life-Course Examples” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2021-2022 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.
Dr. Esposito’s research examines how structural racism shapes population health. His work investigates how macro-level economic, social and ideological systems—and the institutions that comprise them—are arranged in ways that confer significant advantages for individuals interpreted as white; penalties for individuals interpreted as non-white; and how these systematically produced rewards/risk coalesce and generate health inequity among individuals. This work includes: (1) studies that examine how the actions of race-cognizant institutions (like law enforcement agencies) contribute to health disparities; (2) studies that consider how multiple racialized systems interact to gate access to critical health contexts; and (3) projects that examine how structural racism enters into and distorts social processes that are foundational to well-being (e.g., the association among education and health). He specializes in statistical methods—particularly Bayesian approaches and techniques for drawing causal(-ish!) inferences from observational data.
Abstract
While evidence suggests an association between redlining and population health, we still lack empirical accounts of how this historical act of racialized violence arrived on contemporary inequities. In this study, we use a counterfactual-based mediation framework to evaluate 1) how the spatial marking of places, codified by redlining, translated into historical trajectories influencing life expectancy and 2) how racialized disparities in life expectancy might look if Black working-class neighborhoods were exposed to histories of White professional-class neighborhoods. We find significant disparities in life expectancy between redlined geographies that can be traced along urban renewal, racialized economic isolation, and property valuation in the following decades. Still, only a small fraction of the total disparity between Black working- class and white professional-class communities is explained by this historical exposure. Policy implications include targeting resources to formerly redlined neighborhoods, but also dismantling broader racist logics of capital accumulation codified in more abstracted political economies of place.
We record as many seminars as possible. You can see previous events here.

ORWH COVID-19 Webinar Will Cover Intersectionality and Structural Inequality During Public Health Crises
2021-06-24 13:00 - 14:00
On June 24, 2021, ORWH will host “Analysis and Action: Applications of Intersectionality in COVID-19,” the second webinar in the “Diverse Voices: COVID-19, Intersectionality, and the Health of Women” speaker series.
Speaking are authors of two American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) articles on intersectionality: Lisa Bowleg, Ph.D., M.A., of George Washington University and Tonia Poteat, Ph.D., M.P.H., PA-C, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Bowleg will discuss her commentary piece in AJPH titled “We’re Not All in This Together: On COVID-19, Intersectionality, and Structural Inequality.”
Dr. Poteat will speak about her AJPH article titled “Navigating the Storm: How to Apply Intersectionality to Public Health in Times of Crisis.”

Register Today

About the “Diverse Voices” Speaker Series
ORWH’s “Diverse Voices” speaker series disseminates key COVID-19 research findings that are relevant to diverse groups of women and incorporate a multidimensional sex-and-gender focus. The series strives to increase public awareness, understanding, and engagement with COVID-19 research. Each session includes one or more authors of articles relevant to the health of women. Speakers present, in plain language, specific takeaways from their publications for researchers, clinicians, and the public. By amplifying key research on women’s health, the series also seeks to enable diverse women to make informed decisions about their participation in therapeutic and vaccine trials and other research.

J. Richard Udry Distinguished Lecture: Teresa Seeman: Aging Trajectories Through Biopsychosocial Lens
2021-04-30 12:00 - 13:00
The J. Richard Udry Distinguished Lecture will be held on April 30, 2020.
Teresa Seeman, PhD, will present “Aging Trajectories Through Biopsychosocial Lens.” Seeman is Professor of Epidemiology at the Fielding School of Public Health and of Medicine in the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Trained as an epidemiologist, with post-doctoral training in neuroendocrinology, her research interests are inter-disciplinary, focusing on role of social and psychological factors in health and aging, with particular interest in elucidating the biological pathways through which such factors impact on health.
Working in both community- and laboratory-based contexts, her work has documented the widespread health effects of protective social factors (e.g., social relationships) and psychological characteristics (e.g., control beliefs, perceptions of self-efficacy), including effects on risks for physical and cognitive decline as well as overall longevity. Her research has also contributed to our understanding of how these social and psychological influences are mediated through multiple major biological regulatory systems. She has been a leader in empirical research on a multi-systems view of biological risk – allostatic load.
Her work has shown that levels of allostatic load predict subsequent health outcomes, and that differences in allostatic load are related to social factors, including levels of social integration and support as well as more traditional measures of socio-economic status [SES]: higher allostatic load seen among those reporting less social integration and/or support and lower SES. Her current research is focused on developing more integrated models that incorporate consideration of life-course experiences with stressful and protective conditions and the cumulative impacts of these experiences on major biological regulatory systems that determine trajectories of health and longevity.
Abstract:
The presentation will examine evidence linking socio-economic and socio-emotional life-histories to trajectories of aging with explicit attention to the multiple biological pathways involved in these relationships. Taking a life-course perspective, illustrative examples of the patterning of these relationships across the life-course will be reviewed. Evidence of later-life plasticity of psychosocial and biological influences will be highlighted, illustrating the potential for health promotion via psychosocial interventions even at later ages.
About the annual J. Richard Udry Distinguished Lecture Series: Dick Udry’s research was highly innovative and interdisciplinary—features that he embedded in the Carolina Population Center’s practices and culture as its Director. In recognition of his enduring contributions, CPC named its distinguished lecture series in his honor. Previous presenters have included Dr. Lisa Berkman, the Director of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, the Director of Harvard’s PhD program in Population Health Sciences, and the Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy, Epidemiology, and Global Health and Population (2019); Dr. Douglas Massey, Professor of Sociology at Princeton University (2018) and Dr. John Bongaarts, Vice President and Distinguished Scholar of the Population Council (2017).
This event will be held on Zoom. You can register here. We will post a recording after the talk. You can see previous events here.

Nancy Krieger: COVID-19, structural racism, embodied histories, and the two-edged sword of data: structural problems require structural solutions
2021-04-23 12:00 - 13:00
On April 23, 2021, Nancy Krieger, Professor of Social Epidemiology, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and Director of the HSPH Interdisciplinary Concentration on Women, Gender, and Health., Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, will present “COVID-19, structural racism, embodied histories, and the two-edged sword of data: structural problems require structural solutions” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2020-2021 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series.
Suggested readings from Dr. Krieger
Abstract:
COVID-19 has pulled the thread, starkly revealing both profound connections – and profound divisions – both within the US and within and between countries worldwide, with risk of infection, illness, and death profoundly and inequitably socially structured. Analyzing and acting to alter the myriad ways in which structural racism systemically generates health inequities, including for COVID-19, requires engaging with the two-edged sword of data. This sword cuts deeply with respect to the profound challenges of conceptualizing, operationalizing, and analyzing the very data deployed – i.e., racialized categories – to document racialized health inequities. In my presentation, I use the example of COVID-19 to dissect the sword’s two edges: (1) the non-use (Edge #1) and (2) problematic use (Edge #2) of data on racialized groups – but the point is data for health justice. Because structural problems require structural solutions, for both data and action for health justice, I conclude with recommendations for a new feasible enforceable institutional mandate for the reporting and analysis of publicly-funded work involving racialized groups and health data. A core requirement is that racialized health data must always be conceptually justified and analyzed in relation to relevant data about racialized societal inequities. A new opportunity arises as US government agencies re-engage with their work, with a stated commitment to racial and economic justice, to move forward with structural measures to sharpen and strengthen the work for health equity.
Bio:
Nancy Krieger is Professor of Social Epidemiology and American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor, in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH) and Director of the HSPH Interdisciplinary Concentration on Women, Gender, and Health. She received her PhD in Epidemiology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1989. Dr. Krieger is an internationally recognized social epidemiologist, with a background in biochemistry, philosophy of science, and the history of public health, combined with over 35 years of activism linking issues involving social justice, science, and health. In 2004, she became an ISI highly cited scientist (reaffirmed: 2015 ISI update), a group comprising “less than one-half of one percent of all publishing researchers,” and in 2019 she was ranked as being “in the top 0.01% of scientists based on your impact” for both total career and in 2017 by a new international standardized citations metrics author database, including as #1 among the 90 top scientists listed for 2017 with a primary field of public health and secondary field of epidemiology (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000384). In 2013 she received the Wade Hampton Frost Award from the Epidemiology Section of the American Public Health Association, and in 2015, she was awarded the American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professorship, which was renewed in 2020; also in 2020, she was awarded the American College of Epidemiology’s “Outstanding Contributions to Epidemiology” award.
Informed by an analysis of the history and politics of epidemiology and public health, Dr. Krieger’s work addresses three topics: (1) conceptual frameworks to understand, analyze, and improve the people’s health, including her ecosocial theory of disease distribution, focused on embodiment and equity; (2) etiologic research on societal determinants of population health and health inequities, including structural racism and other types of adverse discrimination; and (3) methodologic research to improve monitoring of health inequities. She is author of Epidemiology and The People’s Health: Theory and Context (Oxford University Press (OUP), 2011) and editor for the OUP series “Small Books Big Ideas in Population Health” (starting with Political Epidemiology & The People’s Health, by Jason Beckfield, OUP, 2018; Climate Change & The People’s Health, by Sharon Friel, OUP, 2019; and Critical Epidemiology & The People’s Health by Jaime Brielh, OUP, 2021). She also is editor of Embodying Inequality: Epidemiologic Perspectives (Baywood Press, 2004) and co-editor, with Glen Margo, of AIDS: The Politics of Survival (Baywood Publishers, 1994), and, with Elizabeth Fee, of Women’s Health, Politics, and Power: Essays on Sex/Gender, Medicine, and Public Health (Baywood Publishers, 1994). In 1994 she co-founded, and still chairs, the Spirit of 1848 Caucus of the American Public Health Association, which focuses on links between social justice and public health.

We record as many videos as possible. You can see previous events here.
This event will be held on Zoom. You can register here. We will post a recording after the talk. You can see previous events here.

Ross Boyce: Geography as Destiny: Malaria in the Highlands of Western Uganda
2021-04-16 12:00 - 13:00
On April 16, 2021, Ross Boyce, a Fellow in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, will present “Geography as Destiny: Malaria in the Highlands of Western Uganda” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2020-21 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series. This year, the CPC Interdisciplinary Research Seminars will be open to both CPC members and Social Epidemiology program members.
Abstract:
Malaria remains one of the leading cause of pediatric morbidity and mortality in Uganda, despite the availability of effective prevention measures, diagnostic tools, and treatments. The development of new interventions to achieve further progress against the disease requires a detailed knowledge of the geographic factors that drive transmission as well as an intricate understanding of the existing public health systems that provide frontline care. Nowhere are these factors more important than in western Uganda, where the highland terrain creates micro-environments of intense transmission, while also imposing significant barriers to service delivery and care seeking.
Bio:
Dr. Ross Boyce is a Fellow in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. He is a native of Clemmons, North Carolina, having graduated Magna Cum Laude from Davidson College with Honors in Chemistry. After graduation, Dr. Boyce was commissioned as an Infantry Officer in the United States Army, eventually rising to the rank of Captain. He completed two deployments to Iraq, where he served in a variety leadership positions including Reconnaissance Platoon Leader, Operations Officer, and Civil-Military Officer. For his service, Dr. Boyce was awarded three Bronze Star Medals, including one with a Valor Device for heroism in combat.
Upon leaving the military, Dr. Boyce attended medical school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Between his third and fourth years of medical school, Dr. Boyce completed a M.Sc. In Public Health from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, focusing his thesis on the control of Dengue vectors. Dr. Boyce completed his medical residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, where together with his partners at the Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) and Epicentre Mbarara Research Base, he has worked to establish an active malaria research program in the highlands of Western Uganda.
Dr. Boyce’s research focuses on the epidemiology of malaria and vector-borne diseases in East Africa, particularly in rural, underserved communities. He is interested in the expanding field of implementation science with the intent of developing and operationalizing evidence-based practices to improve care delivery and optimize limited resources. Currently, Dr. Boyce has two areas of active investigation. The first is an evaluation of multiple antigen rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) to provide a semi-quantitative estimate of parasite density and ideally, risk of severe malaria in order to guide management strategies at remote health facilities. A second area of investigation is the use of geographic information systems (GIS) to describe the spatial epidemiology of malaria and eventually identify and target “hotspots” via community-based interventions. Such work holds the potential to reduce local malaria transmission in a sustainable, cost-effective manner, while maximizing existing public health infrastructure such as community health workers.
This event will be held on Zoom. You can register here. We will post a recording after the talk. You can see previous events here.

The Gendered Navigation of Work and Family Life through Social Upheaval
2021-04-14 13:00 - 14:00
“The Gendered Navigation of Work and Family Life through Social Upheaval”
Wednesday, April 14th
1:00-2:00pm EST

Zoom Link: https://unc.zoom.us/j/92253738104

Abstract: The 1900 generation became adults in the prosperous 1920s and then lived through the Great Depression and World War II, all the while navigating work and family ideals and realities. Rarely before studied, the 1900 generation reveals important insights into the roots of gendered work-family tensions. Their pioneering experiences forged through a massive economic downturn and war have much to suggest about families and work today, especially given how life-altering the pandemic has been. Join the authors of Living on the Edge: An American Generation’s Journey through the Twentieth Century for a conversation about their findings.

Richard A. Settersten Jr.
University Distinguished Professor of Human Development and Barbara Knudson Endowed Chair at Oregon State University
Glen H. Elder Jr.
Odum Distinguished Research Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Lisa D. Pearce
Zachary Taylor Smith Distinguished Term Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Transgender women's perceptions of HIV cure-related research
2021-04-12 12:00 - 13:00
On Monday, April 12th at 9am Pacific /12pm Eastern, the lead author of that article, Dr. Tonia Poteat, will discuss with us the results from this qualitative investigation into transgender women’s perceptions of HIV cure-related research.
Please register for this Zoom meeting here: https://bit.ly/3cwNvID
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
BTW, the same email will also provide a way for you to submit questions prior to the meeting on the 12th.
And be sure to check out the Facebook event page https://fb.me/e/3L3xBAY22 for information related to the topic that will be shared as we get closer to the meeting.

ABOUT OUR GUEST
Tonia Poteat, PhD, PA-C, MPH, is Assistant Professor of Social Medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill, as well as core faculty in the UNC Center for Health Equity Research.
After completing her PhD at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Poteat served for two years in the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator as the Senior Advisor for Key Populations.
Since returning to academia in 2014, Dr. Poteat’s research, teaching, and practice have focused on HIV and LGBT health disparities with particular attention to the health and well-being of transgender communities.
She is a certified HIV Specialist by the American Academy of HIV Medicine and has devoted her clinical practice to providing medically appropriate and culturally competent care to members of the LGBTQ community as well as people living with HIV.
We hope that you’ll be about to join the presentation of April 12th and add your questions and concerns to our discussion with Dr. Poteat.

Margaret Sheridan: Deprivation and threat, testing conceptual model of adversity exposure and developmental outcomes
2021-04-09 12:00 - 13:00
On April 9, 2021, Margaret Sheridan, an Assistant Professor in the Clinical Psychology Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will present “Deprivation and threat, testing conceptual model of adversity exposure and developmental outcomes” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2020-21 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series. This year, the CPC Interdisciplinary Research Seminars will be open to both CPC members and Social Epidemiology program members.
Abstract:
Exposure to childhood adversity is common and associated with a host of negative developmental outcomes as well as differences in neural structure and function. It is commonly posited that these social experiences “get under the skin” in early childhood, increasing long-term risk through disruptions to biology. In this talk I propose a novel approach to studying the link between adversity, brain development, and risk for psychopathology, the dimensional model of adversity and psychopathology (DMAP). In this model we propose that adversity exposure can be defined according to different dimensions which we expect to impact health and well-being through different neural substrates. Whereas we expect deprivation to primarily disrupt function and structure of lateral association cortex (e.g., dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and superior parietal cortex) and thus complex cognitive processing such as executive functioning. In contrast, we expect threat to alter structure and function of subcortical structures such as the hippocampus and amygdala and midline regions associated with emotion regulation such as the ventral medial prefrontal cortex and thus, associated emotion reactivity and automatic regulation processes. In a series of studies I test the basic tenants of the DMAP concluding that initial evidence, using both a priori hypothesis testing and data-driven approaches is consistent with the proposed model. I conclude by describing future work addressing multiple dimensions of adversity and potential adjustments to the model.
Bio:
Margaret Sheridan is an Assistant Professor in the Clinical Psychology Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the director of the Child Imaging Research on Cognition and Life Experiences Lab (CIRCLE Lab). Margaret’s research examines typical and atypical neurodevelopment of the prefrontal cortex and related systems supporting development of executive function across age. In particular within the CIRCLE lab we examine how early life experiences ranging from maltreatment to poverty or institutionalization impact neural development leading to risk for externalizing psychopathology. Our work has demonstrated that exposure to a variety of early life adversities are related to deficits in function of the prefrontal cortex and that different exposures may impact neural development in specific ways. In particular exposures to threat or violence may impact neural development and thus risk for externalizing psychopathology differently than exposures characterized by a lack of social interaction, cognitive enrichment, and complex linguistic experience. The CIRCLE lab uses multiple neuroimaging methods (e.g., EEG/ERP, fMRI, structural MRI) and multiple behavioral methods (e.g., cognitive testing, structured clinical interview, in home observation) to achieve these goals.
This event will be held on Zoom. You can register here. We will post a recording after the talk. You can see previous events here.

Craig Hadley: Food insecurity and mental wellbeing: What role does culture play in explaining the association?
2021-03-26 12:00 - 13:00
On March 26, 2021, Craig Hadley, Winship Distinguished Research Professor at Emory University, will present “Food insecurity and mental wellbeing: What role does culture play in explaining the association?” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2020-21 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series. This year, the CPC Interdisciplinary Research Seminars will be open to both CPC members and Social Epidemiology program members.
Abstract:
Uncertain access to food, or food insecurity, plagues low income households around the world and is especially prevalent and persistent in the Global South. Scores of studies have shown that food insecurity is consistently and robustly associated with poorer mental health. Scholars from public health nutrition and the social sciences have pitched two broad explanations for this association. One set of explanations links food insecurity to poor dietary quality which is posited to erode mental health. A second set of explanations focuses on the social and cultural aspect of foods and suggests that food insecurity disallows individuals from achieving normative consumption behaviors, which leads to stress and poor mental wellbeing. In this talk, I discuss a project from Ethiopia and Brazil that attempts to tease apart these competing explanations and outline some of the challenges inherent in doing so. I conclude by offering some thoughts on how to meaningfully integrate culture into studies of health and wellbeing.
Bio:
Craig Hadley is Professor of Anthropology at Emory University with research interests that center around the social and cultural production of health. He has worked in Tanzania and Ethiopia for two decades with a focus on carrying out mixed methods studies that explore the social determinants of health. He is increasingly interested in the ways in which the meaning people attribute to feelings, objects, and events impact their wellbeing.
This event will be held on Zoom. You can register here. We will post a recording after the talk. You can see previous events here.

Cassandra Davis: Moving from research to practice: A reflection on hurricanes, schools, and stakeholders
2021-03-19 12:00 - 13:00
On March 19, 2021, Cassandra Davis, Research Assistant Professor of Public Policy at UNC, will present “Moving from research to practice: A reflection on hurricanes, schools, and stakeholders” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2020-21 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series. This year, the CPC Interdisciplinary Research Seminars will be open to both CPC members and Social Epidemiology program members.
Abstract:
In 2020 alone, FEMA declared ten major disaster declarations due to a hurricane or tropical storm across eight states and one U.S. territory. Research suggest that our current decade will see more hydrological hazards will greater intensity as compared to years prior. With this detrimental shift in our communities, how will schools fare in supporting the academic and emotional needs of their students and educators. In this presentation, Dr. Davis will share findings from her study that investigated the impact of hurricanes on educators and students in Texas and North Carolina. She will conclude with her process on engaging stakeholders at the regional, state, and federal levels.
Bio:
Cassandra R. Davis, Ph.D., is a research professor in the Department of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on the environmental disruptions to schooling, specifically the impact of natural disasters on low-income, communities of color. Dr. Davis’ goal is to support educators, community leaders, and policymakers to improve responses, preparedness, and recovery in areas with the highest need. Her most recent project focus on the impact of COVID-19 on schooling communities and First-generation college students. From 2017-2020, Dr. Davis received funding from the National Science Foundation to explore the impacts of Hurricanes Florence (2018), Harvey (2017), and Matthew (2016), on schools, educators, and students. Dr. Davis has also collaborated with school districts to assist them with understanding and applying best practice strategies on topics related to recovering from natural hazards, improving graduation rates of underrepresented groups, supporting students with learning differences, identifying opportunity and achievement gaps amongst students, assessing the quality of professional development training for school personnel, and investigating ways to improving school-parent engagement.
This event will be held on Zoom. You can register here. We will post a recording after the talk. You can see previous events here.

Michal Engelman: Deaths, Disparities, and Cumulative (Dis)Advantage: How Social Inequities shape an Impairment Paradox in Later Life
2021-03-05 12:00 - 13:00
On March 5 2021, Michal Engelman, an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will present “Deaths, Disparities, and Cumulative (Dis)Advantage: How Social Inequities shape an Impairment Paradox in Later Life” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2020-21 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series. This year, the CPC Interdisciplinary Research Seminars will be open to both CPC members and Social Epidemiology program members.
Abstract
Research on health across the life course consistently documents widening racial and socioeconomic disparities from childhood through adulthood, followed by stabilization, convergence,or cross-overs in later life. This pattern appears to contradict expectations informed by cumulative(dis)advantage theory, but may be a function of differential mortality risks earlier in the life course. Using the Health and Retirement Study, we characterize the functional impairment histories of a nationally-representative sample of 8,464 older adults between 1992-2016. Employing non-parametric analyses and discrete outcome multinomial logistic regressions, we examine how midlife health and social position influence subsequent health change, mortality and attrition at older ages. Exposures to disadvantages earlier in the life course are strongly associated with poorer functional health in midlife and with mortality. However, a higher number of functional limitations in midlife is negatively associated with the accumulation of subsequent limitations for white men and women and for Black women, but not Black men. The impact of social exposures such as educational attainment and marriage on later life health also differs across race and gender groups. The apparent convergence in later-life functional impairment across groups defined by race, gender, and socioeconomic status emerges from the impact of social and health inequities on earlier mortality. Higher exposure to disadvantages and a lower protective impact of advantageous exposures lead to higher mortality among Black Americans, a pattern which in turn masks persistent health inequities later in life.
Bio
Engelman is a demographer and gerontologist studying the dynamics of population aging and the determinants of longevity and well-being at older ages. Her work examines trajectories of health throughout the life course and their connection with changing aggregate patterns of mortality and morbidity over time. She is currently analyzing the implications of historical population change for contemporary health inequalities and developing a conceptual framework linking demographic and clinical notions of frailty and resilience with the sociological concept of cumulative disadvantage.

This event will be held on Zoom. You can register here. We will post a recording after the talk. You can see previous events here.

John Batsis: The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts? The Importance of Fat and Muscle in the Aging Process.
2021-02-26 12:00 - 13:00
On February 26, 2021, John Batsis, an Associate Professor, Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gillings School of Global Public Health, will present “The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts? The Importance of Fat and Muscle in the Aging Process” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2020-21 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series. This year, the CPC Interdisciplinary Research Seminars will be open to both CPC members and Social Epidemiology program members.
Abstract:
With the population of adults aged 65 years and older increasing, so is the prevalence of obesity and the risk of developing age-related loss of muscle mass and strength, termed sarcopenia. These two disease entities independently increase a person’s risk for impaired physical function, disability, and death. Yet, a subset is classified as having sarcopenic obesity which is thought to be at higher risk for synergistic complications from both sarcopenia and obesity. This presentation will initially describe the importance and consequences of obesity, sarcopenia, and the consequences of the two in older adults. The emerging literature on health promotion will be presented along with the critical gaps and existing barriers that need to be overcome to advance the field and translate findings into clinical practice.
Biography:
Dr. Batsis is a geriatrician and health services researcher that recently joined the faculty at UNC Chapel Hill in September 2020. Previously, he was on faculty at Dartmouth-Hitchcock and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth since 2008. He has considerable experience in large datasets analyses where he has evaluated important relationships between the changes observed in fat and muscle with aging (obesity and sarcopenia) on important outcomes relevant to older adults, including mortality and physical function. His specific interests are in the synergistic impact of obesity and low muscle mass and strength, sarcopenic obesity, and has published extensively in this field. Dr. Batsis recently is a participating member on an International Consensus Definition workgroup for this syndrome.
His recent work has focused on translating large-dataset epidemiology-based work to clinical trials in older adults. He is focusing on obesity and the use of technology to improve one’s health. Dr. Batsis has a keen interest in health promotion through the lifecourse and has focused his interests in body composition changes during weight loss efforts. He has written explicitly on the importance of close monitoring in this population. Importantly, he leverages his ongoing experience in providing clinical care in the outpatient and nursing home settings to older adults with multimorbidity and frailty which inform his research work.
Dr. Batsis is currently funded by the National Institute on Aging and has published over 140 papers. He has received several clinical and research accolades having received the New Investigator Award from the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) and was selected to the prestigious TidesWell Emerging Leaders in Aging Program for mid-career faculty in geriatrics. He is heavily involved at the national level as a long-standing member of the research committee of AGS and the Gerontological Society of America, and was a member of The Obesity Society’s Clinical Committee. He recently was appointed to the editorial boards of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society and the Journal of Gerontological Medical Sciences.
This event will be held on Zoom. You can register here. We will post a recording after the talk. You can see previous events here.

Matt Hauer: Causal Inference in Population Trends: Searching for Demographic Anomalies in Big Data
2021-02-19 12:00 - 13:00
On February 19, 2021, Matt Hauer, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Florida State University who studies the impacts of climate change on society, will present “Causal Inference in Population Trends: Searching for Demographic Anomalies in Big Data” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2020-21 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series. This year, the CPC Interdisciplinary Research Seminars will be open to both CPC members and Social Epidemiology program members.
Abstract
The proliferation of big data, wider access to advanced computing platforms, and the development of powerful statistical algorithms can uncover hidden anomalies in social data, previously dismissed as noise. Here, we combine causal inference techniques and abductive reasoning to identify fertility and mortality anomalies on twenty years of complete demographic data in the United States. We uncover real, “hidden” baby booms/busts and mortality spikes/dips, distinguishable from regular trend variations. We identify more than 22 and 156 fertility and mortality anomalies, totaling more than 200k and 600k anomalous births and deaths, respectively. Notable detectable mortality anomalies include the September 11 2001 terrorist attack in New York and the emergence and acceleration of the opioid epidemic in New Hampshire. Notable fertility anomalies include the “missing births” in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina and the reduction in fertility behavior after the September 2008 stock market crash in Connecticut, amongst others. The combined causal inference and abductive reasoning approach can be readily adapted to find other, undiscovered social phenomena or to evaluate the efficacy of important public policies
Bio
I’m an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Florida State University and a faculty affiliate in the Center for Demography and Population Health. My expertise is at the intersection of demography, migration, population projections, and climate change. My recent review article on Sea Level Rise and Human Migration describes one of the most costly and permanent consequences of climate change.
I have twice received the E. Walter Terrie Award for the best paper on Applied Demography, in 2015 Florida State University named me a Top 30 Under 30 Young Alumni, and the University of Georgia awarded me an Excellence-in-Research Award for my dissertation on sea level rise and human migration. More than 270 media outlets have covered my research including Time Magazine, the New York Times, the Guardian, the Washington Post, and National Geographic. My publications appear in a diverse set of journals including Nature Climate Change, Demography, Environmental Research Letters, Demographic Research, Population and Environment, Statistical Modelling, and Population Research and Policy Review, among others. Prior to arriving at FSU, I spent nearly a decade directing the Applied Demography Program at the University of Georgia. https://mathewhauer.com/

This event will be held on Zoom. You can register here. We will post a recording after the talk. You can see previous events here.

CPC Hackathon 2021
2021-02-12 13:30 - 17:30
Friday, February 12, 2021
1:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Zoom
Register your team to participate by Wednesday, February 3rd using this form.
FAQs
What is the CPC hackathon?
Each year, CPC predoctoral trainees and postdoctoral scholars come together to form interdisciplinary teams and work on developing a research design for a population focused issue or problem. The goals for the hackathon are to stimulate interdisciplinary collaboration among trainees, develop and exhibit your research design skills, and have fun.
What is the problem/issue that we will be hacking to solve?
The problem/issue will focus on a population-oriented topic. However, the details of the problem/issue will not be announced until the beginning of the event. You will then have the afternoon to work on the issue/problem and prepare a presentation based on your design to a panel of faculty judges.
Who can attend the event?
This event is open to all trainees (Population Science and Biosocial). However, team registration is required.
Is there a limit on how many teams that can sign up for the event?
Yes, only six teams will be allowed to participate in the Hackathon, so register early!
What are the requirements for developing a team?
The requirements for team formation include:

Each team should consist of 3-4 trainees
Teams cannot have more than 1 postdoctoral scholar
Teams cannot have more than 1 trainee that is in their first year of graduate studies at UNC
There must be at least 2 disciplines represented on each team

What is the deadline to register my team for the event?
All teams must be registered by 5:00 PM on Wednesday, February 3rd. Register your team here. Please designate one member from your team to fill out the form on behalf of all of the team members.

How will teams get judged?
Each team will have 5 minutes to pitch their idea and 5 minutes for questions and answers. Your presentation can include PowerPoint slides, audience participation, or whatever you think will best communicate your team’s solution. Be as creative as you want!

Who will be judging our presentations?
We have assembled an interdisciplinary judging panel of 3 CPC faculty fellows who are experts in population research.

What will be the judging criteria?
Presentations will be judged based the following criteria:

Does the presentation effectively address the question?
How creative is the research design?
How clear and focused is the research design?
What is the likelihood that the design actually has the potential to push population science forward in this area of study?

What does my team receive if we win the competition?
The prize package consists of an estimated $400 in cash value…. as well as some prizes donated by fellow CPCers that are truly priceless. The package will be announced the day of the event!

Is there any prep required before the event?
Once you assemble your team and register for the event, there is nothing else that you will need to do until the day of the event.

Wait, we’re going to do this over Zoom?
Yes! Following introductions, teams will split off to separate breakout rooms. We’ll then reconvene for presentation and awards.
Questions?
For more information about the Hackathon, please contact Abigail Haydon.

Chris Wildeman: Does Incarceration Shape Trust in the State, Community Engagement, and Civic Participation?
2021-02-12 12:00 - 13:00
On February 12, 2021, Chris Wildeman, Professor of Sociology at Duke University, will present “Does Incarceration Shape Trust in the State, Community Engagement, and Civic Participation?” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2020-21 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series. This year, the CPC Interdisciplinary Research Seminars will be open to both CPC members and Social Epidemiology program members.
Abstract
In this article, we provide the most complete assessment to date of how incarceration is associated with trust in the state, community engagement, and civic participation in the United States. Our analysis uses data from the Family History of Incarceration Survey (FamHIS) and is rooted in the theoretical and normative observation that, while highly salient and immensely disruptive, incarceration is one of many factors that might influence community and civic engagement and that incarceration can be mobilizing or demobilizing, potentially leading to net zero effects. Ultimately, the results support three conclusions. First, own incarceration is associated with a deep distrust of state institutions even after adjusting for a host of confounders and matching on observed characteristics. Second, family member incarceration is associated with distrust of state institutions, but these differences are roughly half the magnitude of the associations tied to own incarceration. These first two conclusions strongly mirror findings from existing research, suggesting that the FamHIS data can provide reliable estimates of how incarceration shapes community engagement and civic participation. Finally, and in a significant break from most research in this area, neither own incarceration nor family member incarceration is associated with any of the 14 indicators of community and political participation we consider in any of the 84 models we run on participation (14 outcomes, 3 models per outcome, models including own incarceration and family member incarceration). Although the cross-sectional nature of our data precludes strong causal claims, we see this finding as providing vital evidence that while there may be heterogenous effects of incarceration on community engagement and civic participation, it appears that these heterogenous effects largely cancel each other out.
Bio

Christopher Wildeman is Professor of Sociology at Duke University and Professor at the ROCKWOOL Foundation Research Unit. His work focuses on the prevalence, causes, and consequences of contact with the criminal legal system and the child welfare system for families.

This event will be held on Zoom. You can register here. We will post a recording after the talk. You can see previous events here.

Ken Bollen and Iliya Gutin: What longitudinal model should I choose?
2021-02-05 12:00 - 13:00
On February 5, 2021, Ken Bollen and Iliya Gutin will present “What longitudinal model should I choose?” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2020-21 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series. This year, the CPC Interdisciplinary Research Seminars will be open to both CPC members and Social Epidemiology program members.
Abstract:
With the growing availability of longitudinal data comes the question of what model to use? In an ideal world, theory and substantive arguments would be sufficiently clear to dictate one. But in practice, there is little guidance and academic fads or the practice in researchers’ fields typically affect model choice. We illustrate how a general longitudinal model (LV-ALT) can help researchers in their selection. The LV-ALT model can specialize to other popular models such as the classic random or fixed effects, growth curve models, autoregressive, latent difference scores, and a variety of other hybrid structures. The LV-ALT model can help to defend the choice of one of these traditional models or it can suggest new hybrid models to consider. We illustrate our results with Add Health NLYS79 data on self reported health and an analysis from a forthcoming Demography paper.
Bios:
Kenneth A. Bollen is the Henry Rudolph Immerwahr Distinguished Professor of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience and the Department of Sociology. He is a Fellow of the Carolina Population Center and oversees the Methods Consulting Services. He has been at UNC since 1985. From 2000 to 2010, he was the Director of the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science.
Bollen’s primary research focus is the creation and application of new statistical tools for the social and behavioral sciences with specializations in structural equation models, latent variables, and longitudinal modeling. Most of his current applications are in population and health studies. Google Scholar lists over 110,000 citations to his work. His methodological contributions have been recognized by lifetime achievement awards in two disciplines, Sociology (Paul F. Lazarsfeld Memorial Award for Distinguished Contributions in the Field of Sociological Methodology, 2000) and Psychology (Career Award for Lifetime Achievement. Psychometric Society, 2018). In 2019, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Uppsala University (Sweden). He is the former Chair of the National Science Foundation Advisory Committee for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences and is an elected Fellow in a number of scholarly organizations.

Iliya Gutin is a doctoral candidate in sociology and predoctoral trainee at the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, having received his BA in Sociology at the University of Chicago and then worked at the NORC research organization as a research analyst. His current work focuses on the conceptualization, definition, and measurement of health, illness, and disease in medical and social research, and how these decisions influence what it means to be “healthy” in a highly-dynamic and stratified society. Specifically, his dissertation examines clinical, epidemiologic, and subjective ambiguity in our understanding of body weight as a health risk, and how we can better account for this uncertainty in studying population health. Iliya hopes to continue this kind of work throughout his career, collaborating with health researchers across different disciplines and backgrounds to achieve closer and more meaningful linkages between the health concepts, issues, and disparities we are interested in and the measures we have access to our data.

This event will be held on Zoom. You can register here. We will post a recording after the talk. You can see previous events here.

By the Book Event :: Feb 03 :: Living on the Edge: An American Generation’s Journey through the Twentieth Century
2021-02-03 12:00 - 13:00
The authors of Living on the Edge, Richard A. Settersten Jr., Glen H. Elder Jr., and Lisa D. Pearce, are joined in conversation with Stephanie Coontz to discuss their new book!
Drawing from the iconic longitudinal Berkeley Guidance Study, Living on the Edge: An American Generation’s Journey through the Twentieth Century reveals the hopes, struggles, and daily lives of the 1900 generation. Most surprising is how relevant and relatable the lives and experiences of this generation are today, despite the gap of a century. From the reorganization of marriage and family roles and relationships to strategies for adapting to a dramatically changing economy, the challenges faced by this earlier generation echo our own time.
Living on the Edge offers an intimate glimpse into not just the history of our country, but the feelings, dreams, and fears of a generation remarkably kindred to the present day.
Join us for a panel discussion on this timely subject on Wednesday, February 3, at 12PM Eastern. REGISTER HERE.

Elizabeth Wrigley-Field: The Deaths America Treats as Normal
2021-01-29 12:00 - 13:00
On January 29, 2021, Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and a Faculty Member of the Minnesota Population Center, will present “The Deaths America Treats as Normal” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2020-21 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series. This year, the CPC Interdisciplinary Research Seminars will be open to both CPC members and Social Epidemiology program members.
Abstract:
This talk explores racial disparities in mortality during U.S. pandemics, using the 1918 flu and COVID-19 pandemics to develop general frameworks for understanding inequality in pandemic experiences—and what they reveal about inequality during ordinary, non-pandemic times. The first part of the talk considers racial disparities during the most devastating respiratory pandemic of the 20th century, the 1918 flu; shows that those disparities were surprisingly small; and develops new hypotheses, grounded in social immunology, to account for this anomaly. The second part of the talk pivots from 1918 to 2020. During the 1918 pandemic, U.S. white mortality was still lower than U.S. Black mortality had been nearly every year. Today, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the same pattern holds: for white mortality in 2020 to reach the best-ever Black mortality levels would take 400,000 excess deaths among whites. Using pandemic mortality as a measuring stick for racial disparities offers a new perspective on the measures we do — and do not — embrace in order to combat racial inequality. I use demographic mortality models to make a new, demographically based case for reparations for racism.
Bio:
Elizabeth Wrigley-Field is a sociologist and demographer at the University of Minnesota, specializing in racial inequality in mortality and historical infectious disease. She is also a quantitative methodologist, developing models designed to clarify relationships between micro and macro perspectives on demographic relationships.
This event will be held on Zoom. You can register here. We will post a recording after the talk. You can see previous events here.

Fenaba Addo: Wealth Inequality in Young Adulthood: Higher Education, Racial Disparities, and Middle Class Status
2021-01-22 12:00 - 13:00
On January 22, 2021, Fenaba Addo, an Associate Professor of Public Policy at UNC, will present “Wealth Inequality in Young Adulthood: Higher Education, Racial Disparities, and Middle Class Status” as part of the Carolina Population Center’s 2020-21 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series. This year, the CPC Interdisciplinary Research Seminars will be open to both CPC members and Social Epidemiology program members.
Abstract:
For whom is higher education an engine of economic mobility? How should we value post-secondary education in a society with extreme wealth inequality and skyrocketing student loan debt? The message that post-secondary education is one of the strongest predictors of socioeconomic mobility, for Black and Latinx young adults in particular, is quite pervasive. It was not until recently, however, that we as society begin to grapple with amount of debt that individuals are having to take on in order to complete their post-secondary degrees. Using data of youth born in the early 1980s, this new research examines racial inequality in wealth in young adulthood, its relationship with higher education, and what is means to be middle class.
Bio:
Fenaba R. Addo is an Associate Professor of Public Policy. Her work examines debt and wealth inequality with a focus on family, relationships, and higher education. She received her Ph.D. in Policy Analysis and Management from Cornell University and holds a B.S. in Economics from Duke University. Prior to joining UNC, she was the Lorna Jorgensen Wendt Associate Professor of Money, Relationships, and Equality (MORE) in the Department of Consumer Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
This event will be held on Zoom. You can register here. We will post a recording after the talk. You can see previous events here.
