The lobby of the PSTC buzzed with quiet pride as students, family, friends, and faculty gathered to celebrate the Master’s in Social Data Analytics (MSDA) class of 2026.

A new paper generated a fair amount of consternation and eye-rolling when the authors claimed that New Orleans, the largest city in Louisiana, is at risk of being surrounded by open water by the end of the century.

Celebrating the Class of 2026

On March 25, 2026, Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced the AI Data Center Moratorium Act, a bill that would pause all new large-scale AI data center construction until Congress passes legislation addressing AI safety, worker protections, and environmental standards.

Section 504 plans are one of the most important sources of disability services in schools. Why are well-off families their biggest beneficiaries?

Students who attend schools near data centers are more likely to see their math performance decline than those who don’t. Attending school near noisy airports is also associated with declines in math scores.

Every year Brown faculty, postdocs, and trainees present scholarly research papers and/or professional posters at the Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America. In addition, several researchers participate in the conference as chairs, panelists, or discussants. The PSTC compiles an annual list of these participants. Please consider attending sessions of our colleagues and students!

The enslavement of Native Americans is a lesser-known part of our national history. Linford D. Fisher wants to change that.

The PSTC has selected this year’s Seed Award recipients.

A new paper by Matthew Kraft, John Papay, Jessalynn James, and Manuel Monti-Nussbaum goes out of the realm of the fictionalized and looks at real world efforts to move high performing teachers into low performing schools.

Many American workers associate artificial intelligence (AI) with layoffs, less satisfying work, and tech billionaires becoming ever more wealthy at their expense. They may be right.

Millions of U.S. students attend a school close to a contaminated environmental site associated with an increased risk of cancer, birth defects and other negative health outcomes – with students of color disproportionately enrolled in these schools.

In an era marked by climate instability, economic inequality, political fragmentation and psychological distress, many thinkers have turned to a deeper question: what is it about human history and human nature that has brought us here – and how might understanding it help us build a better future?

It can control high blood pressure, improve mental health and reduce falls among older adults. A review of 187 randomized controlled trials covering nearly 30,000 people found exercise lowered mortality risk by 13 percent. Given the fact that people struggle to stick with exercise, the crucial question is: How can we design fitness programs that maximize long-term adherence?

A new study reveals that mindfulness practices may significantly reduce depression symptoms, particularly in people who have experienced early-life adversity, such as childhood abuse and neglect.

In 2009, the federal government launched a remarkable educational experiment. Effective teachers were paid large bonuses ($30,000, adjusted for inflation, over two years) to move into a low-performing, high-poverty school.

A Coventry couple had to cancel their flight to Colombia to finalize their child's adoption. The same thing happened to another couple in Wisconsin. An Ohio couple's Haiti adoption is on ice, and so is that of another couple in South Carolina.

Commonly cited statistics on the mortality risk of pregnancy when compared to abortion in the US are a vast undercount, according to a new study.

In the evolving landscape of authoritarian control, PSTC affiliate Han Zhang has introduced a compelling new framework for understanding how digital technology preserves regime stability.

The Oregon Legislature’s short session begins Monday, and education advocates are urging lawmakers to dig into the state’s high rate of high school absenteeism.

In the days since U.S. forces extracted Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela to face justice, much of the debate in Washington has focused on whether what was done was a good idea, or even legitimate. Unsurprisingly, that debate has split almost perfectly along party lines.

A new study suggests that the political environment in which a person grows up may influence their brain health decades later.

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize this year, a powerful symbol of the country’s democratic struggle.

It’s a sunny spring morning as Nakai Clearwater Northup stands amid white pine trees, near a river, surveying the land. Looking at his Narragansett homelands in southern Rhode Island, he says hunting and fishing here are plentiful.

A major research project taking place in the Mangochi District of Southern Malawi is shedding light on the challenging tightrope ultra-poor mothers walk between earning a living and raising healthy children.

New research on fluoride in U.S. drinking water challenges long-standing safety concerns and suggests that recommended levels may support stronger cognition in teenagers

The longstanding public health practice of adding fluoride to community drinking water is facing heavy scrutiny in the United States over questions about whether the benefits outweigh the potential risks. But new research challenges recent claims about the risks of fluoride in drinking water — and instead suggests that it may have additional positive effects.

Implementation continues to complicate even well-studied interventions

New England has a long and hidden history of enslaving people who were Black, but Native American enslavement was “the most dominant form of slavery, probably, throughout most of the 17th century,” Fisher says.

A new study of existing research has concluded there is no clear link between Tylenol use during pregnancy and the risk of a baby developing autism or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

In China’s social media universe, celebrities are often assumed to set the tone for millions of adoring followers. But a new study led by the University of Michigan shows the dynamic works the other way around.

High-impact tutoring may deserve the hype, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.

New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani is dividing education advocates with his calls to axe a gifted program in schools.

Many parents believe their children are getting plenty of sleep—but new research from Brown University suggests that notion may be far from the truth.

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on American society were complex. How the pandemic impacted racial and ethnic relations, and how differently its impact was felt by people of different races/ethnicities, of different socioeconomic classes, and in different “media silos,” are much-discussed topics.

On Wednesday, September 24, the PSTC community gathered to commemorate the beginning of a new academic year.

The Trump administration just made it $100,000 harder to bring talent into the United States. From now on, employers must pay a one-time $100,000 surcharge when they file an H-1B petition—the visa program companies use to hire skilled foreign workers.

Brown's MSDA program finds a new home!

The study of fiscal policies in 48 states going back to 1990 left its lead author feeling “surprised and depressed.”

With the right policies in place, Venezuelan migrants could help the Noboa administration revitalize the economy, two experts write.

Sociologist Susan Short gave a keynote address at the International Forum on Beijing +30: Gender Equality in Great Demographic Shifts. This UN event commemorated the thirtieth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

For many displaced by Hurricane Katrina, distance did not diminish their bond with the city they left behind, even as they built new lives.

A New Orleans native and hurricane survivor shares why he stayed in Georgia.

Twenty years after hurricane Katrina, this big question remains. What happened to the million people who fled? Most never returned. And their journey reshaped the south.

The United States is facing a dual crisis in declining educational outcomes and escalating climate impacts.

CIUG project shows Chennai as a city of contrasts, outwardly modern, yet still struggling with inequities in water and sanitation.

When thousands of New Orleans homes flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the city lost more than half its population overnight.

Chennai residents have high contact rates with councillors but the city ranks low in basic service delivery while a large number of people rely on intermediaries for service delivery, says a study

Cultural Anthropologist Jessaca Leinaweaver examines the various ways that children receive, are denied, and provide care.

The American Sociological Association announced its Inaugural Policy Outreach Fellows this week, and Emily Rauscher was named one of the 10 sociologists who will meet over the next year with the aim of honing skills in communicating with the media and translating complex scientific information from sociological research into plain language for policymakers and the public.