SPRING 2025 COURSES FOR POPULATION STUDIES MINOR
FW 5051 - Analysis of Populations (4 Cr.)
Regulation, growth, general dynamics of populations. Data needed to describe populations, population growth, population models, regulatory mechanisms.
HMED 8025 - Measuring Historical Mortality and Morbidity (3 Cr.)
This class is a graduate level overview of the quantitative study of health in the past. We begin with an overview of relevant demographic theory and then examine the social science and historical literature measuring changes in sickness and death since the 1900s. Depending on student interest, the class may focus on a collaborative research project. The geographic focus of the class will be North America and Western Europe with student interest shaping the focus from year to year.
PA 5043 - Economic and Demographic Data Analysis (2 Cr.)
Economic/demographic data analysis techniques for planning. Exposure to most important data sources. Conceptual understanding of range of methods/hands-on experience in applying these methods.
PA 5281 - Immigrants, Urban Planning and Policymaking in the U.S. (3 Cr.)
This course examines the impact of contemporary immigration in the U.S. on urban planning and public affairs. Through a review of canonical scholarship and contemporary research, it engages several issues including migration theory, an exploration of immigrant settlement patterns, labor market outcomes for immigrants, and community development in immigrant communities. The course concludes with a focus on how urban planners and public policy makers can work more effectively with immigrants in the U.S.
PA 5390 - Topics in Advanced Policy Analysis Methods: Demography & Aging Seminars and Workshops (1 Cr.)
The Minnesota Population Center and the Life Course Center’s weekly Demography and Aging Seminar exposes students to cutting-edge research from scholars based at the University of Minnesota and throughout the world. The Friday Workshops focus on professional development and skills building such as learning to write a conference paper abstract, or present work in progress or give feedback in Paper Hatchlings. The main workload for this course is attending the seminars and workshops.
This class will be held in Willey Hall room 70. Population trainees will attend ALL DATES. All other students (not Population trainees) will attend all Mondays but only selected Fridays. Current schedules, including dates and topics, will be listed here: Mondays: https://pop.umn.edu/events/seminar-series and Fridays: https://pop.umn.edu/events/mpc-workshop.
PA 8312 - Analysis of Discrimination (4 Cr.)
Policy analysis/other applied social sciences as tools for measuring/detecting discrimination in market/nonmarket contexts. Application of modern tools of labor econometrics/race relations research to specific problems of market/nonmarket discrimination.
PA 8331 - Economic Demography (3 Cr.)
Classical theory, advanced econometric methods, recent empirical work, and available datasets for research in economic demography. Topics include the economics of mortality, fertility, migration, marriage, women's labor supply, intra-family bargaining, and age structure. Students develop critical analysis and academic discourse skills through in-depth discussions and replications of papers, presentations, referee-style writing assignments, and a term paper.
PUBH 6605 - Sexual, Reproductive, and Perinatal Public Health (2 Cr.)
Overview of perinatal, sexual, and reproductive health surveillance, programs, services, and policies in the U.S., with an emphasis on vulnerable populations and methods to assess and interpret perinatal, sexual, and reproductive health data.
PUBH 6845 - Using Demographic Data for Policy Analysis (3 Cr.)
How to pose researchable policy questions, locate existing data, turn data into a usable format, understand data documentation, analyze data, communicate findings according to standards of the professional policy community. Quantitative issues.
SOC 8890 - Advanced Topics in Research Methods: Sex, Death, and Mobility: Population Modeling (3 Cr.)
Populations are made up of people whose lives are changing all the time: growing up; moving around; having kids; gaining and losing jobs and spouses; entering and leaving schools and prisons; getting sick; and dying. This course covers population modeling techniques from the demographic tradition, organized around these kinds of life changes. These techniques excel at describing social and epidemiological changes occurring along multiple time scales simultaneously; identifying the inequalities lurking beneath population averages; and figuring out what population a research question is really about. The course assumes no prior knowledge of demography and will cover a range of applications from across the social and health sciences.