Announcements
: New Funding Announcement — MPC Training Program in Population Health Science
The Minnesota Population Center (MPC) is pleased to announce the launch of a new five-year training program in Population Health Science, funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). This program, housed at the MPC, will train pre- and post-doctoral fellows in social and health science fields to build skills in interdisciplinary population health research. The focus and unique identity of this T32 training program is to train the next generation of population health scientists to consider the interactive effects of biological/genetic, social, economic, spatial, and policy factors on population health over multiple time scales. The program is co-led by Dr. John Robert Warren (Department of Sociology) and Dr. Theresa Osypuk (Division of Epidemiology and Community Health). Together with an outstanding team of 44 faculty mentors from four colleges and seven disciplinary departments, they will prepare five pre and two postdoctoral trainees to engage in a range of scholarship, coursework, professional development and intellectual activities to solve complex seemingly intractable population health problems. This program is funded by NIH grant T32HD095134: Interdisciplinary Population Health Science Training: Linking Multilevel Forces Across Time.
For more information about the predoc program, please visit z.umn.edu/PreDoc-PopHealth
For more information about the postdoc program, please visit z.umn.edu/PostDoc-PopHealth
For all other questions, contact Lindsey Fabian (fabian@umn.edu)
: New NIA-Funded Project Seeks to Understand the Connection Between Education and Cognitive Impairment
MPC Director and Sociology Professor Rob Warren has received a $12.8 million grant from NIA to study the impacts of education on cognitive functioning later in life (R01 AG058719- 01A1). The project brings together an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Columbia University to re-interview and collect genetic data from the 25,000 surviving members of the High School & Beyond Cohort—a nationally representative random sample of Americans interviewed repeatedly since they were in high school in 1980. Through analysis of the survey and genetic data, the team aims to understand the connection between education and cognitive function over the life course and to determine how racial, ethnic, and other social inequalities in education may lead to inequalities in rates of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of cognitive impairment.
To learn more about this study, read the University’s press release and Inquiry blog post. Hear from Dr. Warren about this research in the Star Tribune and on the 05/14/19 episode of KFAI's "Conversations with Al McFarlane."
: CLA Faculty Excellence Awards
Three MPC members were recently honored with CLA Faculty Excellence Awards.
Scholars of the College — Honors faculty whose work exemplifies the best in liberal arts scholarship and creativity.
Kathryn Grace
Rob Warren
Career Readiness Teaching Award — Recognizes outstanding contributions to undergraduate career readiness.
Carolyn Liebler
: Extreme Weather Disasters, Economic Losses via Migration, and Widening Spatial Inequality in the U.S.
MPC Member and Assistant Professor of Sociology Jack DeWaard has been awarded an NSF grant (SES - 1850871) for a new project entitled "Extreme Weather Disasters, Economic Losses via Migration, and Widening Spatial Inequality in the U.S." DeWaard and Co-PIs Katherine Curtis (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Elizabeth Fussel (Brown University) aim to conduct the first study of what they call economic losses via migrationfrom affected areas after extreme weather disasters in the U.S. Learn more about this exciting new project. [link to full story, this paragraph plus one below on the website]
In 2017, the U.S. set a new record of $313 billion in economic losses from sixteen billion dollar extreme weather disasters. Economic losses from extreme weather disasters are spatially concentrated in states like Florida and are remarkably stable over time. While there are many reasons that people stay in disaster-prone areas, others choose to migrate or are forced to leave, some temporarily and others permanently. As economic actors, migrants take with them myriad economic activities that constitute economic losses that have not been studied in previous research. This project will be the first to document the size of economic losses via migration from affected areas in the U.S. after extreme weather events. Because migration necessarily connects places to one another, the project will also document whether and to what extent such economic losses via migration contribute to changing spatial inequality in the U.S. as a whole. Project results will provide input into policies concerning how to mitigate the economic costs of extreme weather disasters in the U.S., thus contributing to disaster recovery and economic prosperity.
: Dr. Elizabeth Boyle Publishes New Study in the Journal of Marriage and Family
Elizabeth Boyle (MPC faculty member and professor of sociology) and Joseph Svec (Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University) recently published a paper in the Journal of Marriage and Family entitled Intergenerational Transmission of Female Genital Cutting: Community and Marriage Dynamics in which they examine characteristics of households and communities implicated in the intergenerational transmission of gender inequality and particularly female genital cutting. This study provides new insights into how women, families, and communities can disrupt the intergenerational transmission of behaviors associated with institutionalized gender inequality.