The Department of Comparative Human Development invites applications for a social scientist whose research focuses on individuals in the context of migration and multicultural societies; scholars may approach this topic from one of a number of disciplinary perspectives. Topics of particular interest include but are not limited to: migration and the life course, socialization and intergenerational transmission in multicultural settings, bilingualism and learning, gender, kinship and sexuality; citizenship ideologies and attitudes towards cultural difference in host countries (e.g., tolerance, human rights, pluralism, social intelligence, etc.) and mental health. The ideal candidate will have an ambitious and innovative research program with strong theoretical and empirical components. A goal of this search is to increase the diversity of the faculty in the Department, and we therefore welcome applicants who come from groups historically underrepresented in the discipline, such as Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian, or Alaskan Native.

The Department of Comparative Human Development is an interdisciplinary program at the critical edge of thought and research in the social sciences. Faculty and students conduct interdisciplinary, holistic, and comparative research focused on individual lives within various, changing, and heterogeneous contexts. They draw on methods and concepts from anthropology, biological and developmental psychology, educational research, sociology, and statistics. They are committed to examining humans as simultaneously sociocultural, biological, and psychological beings who change over developmental and historical time. For more information please see our website: https://humdev.uchicago.edu.

The successful candidate will be appointed as either an Assistant Professor, or as a Provost Postdoctoral Fellow with an initial one or two-year appointment at the faculty rank of instructor. Candidates are expected to have the PhD in hand, and no more than two years of postdoctoral experience, by the time the appointment begins. This initial period is intended to serve in lieu of a postdoctoral appointment for the same period, during which Provost Fellows will teach one course per year. At the end of the initial term, Provost Fellows will ordinarily be promoted to Assistant Professor.

Applicants must apply online at the University of Chicago’s Academic Career Opportunities website: https://tinyurl.com/y7blnufw. Applications must include: 1) a cover letter; 2) a current curriculum vitae; 3) three letters of reference; 4) a research statement addressing current research and future plans for research; and 5) a teaching statement addressing teaching experience and philosophy. Writing samples may be requested at a later date.

The main objective of this consultancy is to assist with methodological developments and improvements, further maintain, update and optimize the child and adolescent mortality database, assist in generating child and adolescent mortality estimates, support preparing for country consultations, preparing for the child mortality reporting under the supervision of the Statistics Specialist in the Data and Analytics Section, Division of Data, Research and Policy.

Minimum requirements and competencies:

• An advanced university degree (Master’s) in demography, statistics
• Minimum 3-5 years of professional experience in the area of demographic and statistical analysis.
• Knowledge of methods of demographic analysis and child mortality estimation.
• Advanced experience in statistical programming with R.
• Excellent communication and writing skills and detail-oriented.
• Ability to take initiatives and work independently.
• Creativity and enthusiasm.
• Ability to work well in a team environment.
• Fluent in English

The Sociology Department is comprised of thirteen full-time faculty engaged in a wide range of research activities who often involve undergraduate students in their research. The Center for Social Science Instruction is housed within the Department and provides assistance to faculty and students with computing and statistical analysis. The Department also maintains a significant international focus and has sponsored a number of faculty-led study abroad programs. The Sociology Department supports Western’s mission to bring together individuals for diverse backgrounds and perspectives in an inclusive, student-centered university that develops the potential of learners and the well-being of communities, and encourages applications from diverse candidates. The Department does not offer a master’s degree. For more information about the Department, please see https://chss.wwu.edu/sociology.

About the Position

• Teach undergraduate courses within the department’s existing curriculum
• Develop new courses in the candidate’s area of expertise within the field of social demography, broadly defined
• Ability and willingness to teach Department’s core courses in statistics and research methods
• Participation in curricular planning of the Department’s Bachelors of Science in Sociology degree
• Fulfill teaching responsibilities in ways that provide equitable and inclusive learning environments for all students
• Active engagement in scholarship, including scholarly publications
• Active participation in service activities within the Department, University, and discipline

Theme: “Harnessing Africa’s Population Dynamics for Sustainable Development: 25 Years after Cairo and Beyond” In 1994, 179 governments adopted the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), which underscores the integral and mutually reinforcing linkages between population and development. The ICPD programme was reinforced by other global agreements including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that were adopted during the Millennium Summit in 2000.

Overall, Africa has made considerable progress towards achieving various development goals since the adoption of the MDGs. Some of the significant strides made include reducing maternal, infant, and HIV-related deaths, enhancing women’s representation in national parliaments, enrolling more children in primary school, bridging the gender gap in primary school enrolment, improved access to safe drinking water, saving millions of lives through targeted investments in fighting malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis among others. These achievements underscore the important role that national commitment, supported by global partnerships can play in realizing development objectives. Despite the various improvements that have been made, considerable challenges remain and need to be addressed urgently. Indeed, the progress observed is not even across the continent or within countries, with significant disparities between and within countries, between women and men, between rural and urban residents, and between the poorest and the wealthiest in the continent. Other challenges relative to the environment, non-communicable diseases, civil unrest, etc. constitute significant threats to Africa’s development.

Building on the momentum generated by the MDGs and seeking to address their unfinished business, the international community adopted the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and its related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September 2015, an ambitious and transformative agenda to eradicate poverty in all its forms and dimensions by 2030. Eradicating poverty, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and a requirement for achieving sustainable development in its three dimensions – economic, social and environmental.

As a complement to the 2030 Agenda, Africa took a decisive step by formulating and adopting in 2013 the Agenda 2063: The Africa we want, a framework to guide Africa’s development in the next 50 years, aiming to transform the continent into “An integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in international arena”. The Agenda 2063 presents a broader scope of developmental objectives expected to guide actions of governments, international development partners and civil society. At the same time, most African countries have adopted comprehensive long-term development plans to guide their socio-economic transformation. Last but not least, the Addis Ababa Declaration on Population and Development (AADPD), adopted by 53 African countries in 2013, provides a key framework for addressing population and development issues in Africa. Its rich set of commitments can simultaneously support Africa’s efforts to harness a demographic dividend, advance human rights and meet sustainable development goals. The AADPD rests on six thematic pillars: dignity and equality; place and mobility; health; partnership and international cooperation; data and statistics; and governance.

It is noteworthy that the continent’s population dynamics, including the size, distribution and composition of the population, will influence prospects for sustainable development. The challenge that remains is effective implementation of various policies and actions to ensure that Africa’s population growth, structure and distribution do not undermine efforts to reduce poverty, ensure food security, preserve the environment, and improve education, employment, and health while ensuring that successes of the MDGs are sustained towards realizing the SDGs. Today, Africa’s high child dependency burden, resulting from the continent’s youthful population (about 41% of the continent’s population was less than 15 in 2017) is widely recognized as a major barrier to its socioeconomic development. Despite significant declines in fertility levels and mortality among children, women on average continue to have more children than they desire, and many children continue to die before their fifth birthday across the continent, often from preventable diseases. As highlighted by the AADPD that reaffirmed the continent’s commitment to the ICPD Program of Action beyond 2014, the way forward to sustainable development requires significant policy shifts including timely implementation of effective policies, for example, those that aim to help countries realize the demographic dividend which provides an incredible opportunity for accelerated economic growth. Already, African countries have embraced the demographic dividend as a potential critical booster to their sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development.

Furthermore, although the continent is the least urbanized in the world, it is also rapidly urbanizing albeit in an uncontrolled manner and by 2050, the majority of Africans will be living in urban areas. As indicated by the adoption of a standalone goal on cities and urban areas in the 2030 Agenda, urbanization has been recognized as a key driver of economic growth and socioeconomic transformation, if well managed. Evidently, significant efforts will be needed to ensure Africa benefits from its rapid urbanization.

Overall, it is evident that despite the progress made since the adoption of the 1994 ICPD programme of action, considerable challenges remain and if efforts do not go into addressing the various challenges, the gains made recently in advancing the continent’s transformation may be reversed.

The Eighth African Population Conference will bring together scientists from various disciplines, policymakers, practitioners, civil society organizations, international organizations, donors and other stakeholders from Africa and across the world to discuss the most pressing population and development issues confronting the continent and also examine opportunities and best practices that can be leveraged for the continent’s sustainable development. Twenty-five years after the ICPD in Cairo, this UAPS conference will offer an opportune platform for all these stakeholders to engage and discuss how Africa can harness its unique population dynamics for sustainable development, while proposing multidisciplinary solutions to Africa’s development challenges. Papers will respond to the following questions: From the 1994 ICPD programme of action to the 2015 SDGs, what worked? What did not work and why? Three elements will be key in measuring the conference’s success: the quality of the papers presented, the level of participation and ultimately the contribution of the conference deliberations to addressing Africa’s development challenges in the next decade and beyond.

The landscape for family life is ever changing. The strategies needed to maintain family economic stability, health and general well-being vary across space and place. Although the rural-urban divide is often portrayed as the most important geographic distinction, there is tremendous diversity across rural communities. Families in rural areas come from diverse backgrounds, and communities vary in the degree to which they can support healthy families and child well-being. The 2018 National Symposium on Family Issues will focus on the challenges facing families in rural areas and the unique strategies invoked by families in rural areas today.

Featured Topics:

• What are the family roles, relationships and development pathways unique to those in rural areas?
• How do the conditions of work and family life in rural communities impact well-being?
• What are the current economic and health challenges facing families across diverse rural areas?

Visit our website for more information and to register. The Symposium is open to everyone but registration is required.

The Second Biennial Conference on Population and Public Policy, presented by the International Association of Applied Demographers, hosted by the University of New Mexico Geospatial and Population Studies, and actively supported by the University of Houston’s Hobby Center for Public Policy, will be held at the historic Hotel Albuquerque, February 8-9, 2019. Abstract submission and conference registration as well as hotel booking at the conference site may all be accomplished at the conference website.

Immigration is a major focus of the conference, which will also include panels on New Mexico-specific issues. The plenary speaker will be Douglas Massey, Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University and author of Brokered Boundaries: Creating Immigrant Identity in Anti-Immigrant Times (Russell Sage 2010). An award and cash prize of $500 will be given for the best student paper. The award is named for Guillermina Jasso (PhD, Johns Hopkins), Silver Professor and Professor of Sociology at New York University and author (with Mark Rosenzweig) of The New Chosen People.

The conference has received generous support from Mckibben Demographics; Cropper GIS; The Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University; and the College of Business Administration, University of Nebraska Omaha. The deadline for submitting abstracts is October 15^th. Complete papers will be due after the first of the year, before the start of the conference. This interdisciplinary gathering of researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and students is an excellent platform for sharing recent innovations, trends, challenges and solutions to population and public policy issues.

 

Job Description:

We are pleased to announce a new postdoctoral fellow position with the Ohio Policy Evaluation Network (OPEN) at the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio. OPEN conducts rigorous, impactful, and forward thinking social-science research on the reproductive health of Ohioans. Our program is comprised of multiple interdisciplinary research projects which assess reproductive health outcomes, equity, access, cost, and autonomy in the context of federal and state laws and policies. The research team includes faculty, staff, and students from Ohio State University, University of Cincinnati, Case Western Reserve University, and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

 

Details:

We seek an exceptional scholar with a strong background and interest in reproductive health research, including health policy, abortion, and contraception for a postdoctoral fellowship position at University of Cincinnati. The postdoctoral fellow will work closely with Michelle McGowan (Pediatrics and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies) and Danielle Bessett (Sociology) on a qualitative study focused on abortion clinic closures and legal vulnerabilities in Ohio and Kentucky. We expect data collection to be challenging and data analysis to be complex.  The postdoctoral fellow will also be involved in analysis and interpretation of findings, and working with PIs and co-investigators to develop a dissemination plan for the findings of the Kentucky clinic case study that is most impactful.

 

This position will provide postdoctoral research training and support (per NIH postdoctoral fellow salary rates) for one year, renewable for a second year upon satisfactory performance. The position also includes funds for travel to conferences for research dissemination and professional development.

 

Eligibility:

Eligible applicants are US citizens or permanent residents specializing substantively in reproductive health research, who have earned a PhD or equivalent degree in sociology, women’s, gender & sexuality studies, anthropology, public health, bioethics, or a related field by January 2019. Experience with qualitative methods and data analytic techniques is required. Excellent written and verbal communication skills; an ability to multitask and function independently; good decision making and leadership qualities; strong networking and outreach skills; effective community relation skills; and a strong desire to advance public health knowledge in Ohio and Kentucky are also highly valued attributes. Preferred characteristics include experience with ethnographic or qualitative case study approaches; experience with multidisciplinary team research and grant funded projects; basic knowledge of reproductive health landscapes in Kentucky, Ohio or nearby states; demonstrated productivity in terms of published journal articles.

 

Minimum Qualifications:

Applicants must have earned a PhD or equivalent degree in sociology, women’s, gender & sexuality studies, anthropology, public health, bioethics, or a related field by January 2019. Experience with qualitative methods and data analytic techniques is required

 

Application Process:

Qualified and interested applicants must complete our online application process by visiting https://job.uc.edu (Search Requisition #31866).  In addition to the application, applicants must submit a current copy of their curriculum vitae; please use the additional documents function and attach a cover letter expressing their knowledge, experience and interests in reproductive health research and details about training and work experience to date; one writing sample; and send contact information for two academic references to Dr. Danielle Bessett (bessetde@ucmail.uc.edu). Applicants who have not yet completed their Ph.D. must also include a letter from their Committee or Department Chair specifying the date of the dissertation defense.

The Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, invites applications for a tenure-track appointment to the faculty at the Assistant Professor rank, with an expected start date of July 1, 2019.

We seek applications from intellectually rigorous and exciting scholars who focus on public policy and who can teach innovative courses to our diverse student body. We are especially interested in candidates who are trying to address infrastructure-related policy problems (including transportation, housing, communications, energy, water, cities, and health care) and who will engage with University-wide data science efforts.

The Goldman School encourages applications from individuals of any scholarly discipline whose research focuses on these questions, including those in public policy, political science, economics, statistics, sociology, civil engineering, urban affairs, management, or demography, or data scientists with roots in computer science, schools of information, and other fields. The Goldman School is interested in candidates who will contribute to diversity and equal opportunity in higher education through their research, teaching, and service. Preference will be given to scholars who have demonstrated the potential to make significant research contributions and who have a clear interest in teaching in the core of the School’s Masters in Public Policy professional program. Public-sector experience is also desirable.

The Department of Sociology invites applications for
a tenure-track Assistant Professor position,
commencing August 1, 2019. Exceptionally
qualified candidates may be considered at the
Associate level.
We are looking to expand our strength in the area of
demography. Within this substantive area, all
research foci are of interest. However, research
focusing on health is particularly welcome. We seek
applicants with strong quantitative skills as
demonstrated by a record of applying cutting-edge
statistical methods to important questions in
population dynamics.
The successful candidate will be associated with the
Centre on Population Dynamics. Ability to teach in
the graduate option offered in Population Dynamics
(including demographic methods) is expected. For
more information about our Department, visit our
website at www.mcgill.ca/sociology.
If the successful candidate satisfies the specific
eligibility conditions of the program, the candidate
may be supported by the University for nomination to
a Tier 1 or a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair (CRC) in
Demography, which provides protected time for
research within a full-time academic appointment.