More than 40% of street drug samples tested in Rhode Island contained the animal tranquilizer xylazine, according to a new analysis out of Brown University.

There is an educator shortage in the United States, but it is crucial to understand the details. First, this is about more than teachers.

The job of a pope is, compared to that of secular leaders, enviably straightforward. He is absolute ruler of a tiny sovereign state with a vast spiritual diaspora. Where the job starts to get more complicated is in times of global crisis, when popes are expected to provide moral leadership, not just to fellow Catholics but to the whole world.

A conversation with physician and public-health researcher Megan Ranney on why the link between mental illness and mass shootings isn’t as clear as we might assume.

The state of women’s health in the US is shocking — even to us, medical sociologists and demographers with a history of studying gender and health.

Oded Galor's book, "The Journey of Humanity: The Origins of Wealth and Inequality," has been included on The Times' list of Best Philosophy and Ideas Books of 2022.

This October, Professor of Population Studies Mike White and PSTC Postdoctoral Research Associate Chantel Pfeiffer gathered with fellow researchers from the Migrant Health Follow Up Study (MHFUS) for a mini-conference at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) School of Public Health in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Despite an increase in wildfire risk spurred by climate change, Americans are moving to wildfire-prone areas and prioritizing lower housing costs and amenities such as temperate weather and recreational opportunities over risk of natural disasters.

PSTC Faculty Affiliate Dr. Megan Ranney explains the nationwide antibiotic shortage.

The Times of India interviews PSTC Researcher Elizabeth Fussell about key trends in climate migration.

Public health experts explain the recent overwhelming wave of illness that is pushing hospitals and emergency rooms to capacity or beyond.

PSTC Anthropologist Kate Mason discusses the origins of the Pandemic Journaling Project and engaging with archival activism.

PSTC Economist Emily Oster advocates for shifting our energies toward solving problems the pandemic revealed or created and away from arguing over choices made during the uncertainty of a novel public health crisis.

As part of his ongoing work with the Land Degradation Neutrality Project (Tools4LDN), Interim Director of Spatial Structures in the Social Sciences (S4) and Assistant Professor of Population Studies Kevin Mwenda and his colleagues hosted a series of virtual pilot workshops with collaborators in Colombia to assess how current datasets can be better used to monitor the impacts of global land degradation.

Today’s climate emergency is reminiscent of the past population growth crisis: Both represent existential challenges requiring sustained global efforts. Our success on the population issue holds key lessons for addressing the climate crisis as well.

School officials, educators, and public health experts discuss how to offset learning loss for America’s schoolchildren post-pandemic.

The nearly decade-old Veterans Affairs registry to track burn pit illnesses and help veterans get care for those injuries is achieving neither of those goals, according to research from independent health experts, who are recommending major changes to the effort.

PSTC Sociologist Emily Rauscher has received funding from the Gilead Foundation to study how specific uses of school funds affect education and health outcomes.

PSTC Economist Oded Galor discusses how ancient factors like geography, culture and diversity impact today’s wealth inequality.

Eric Loucks, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Mindfulness Center at Brown University, offers ideas on how to begin a meditation regimen.

Mark Lurie, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the International Health Institute at Brown University, has received funding from the National Science Foundation to develop a complex simulation model for predicting and preventing future pandemics.

PSTC Economist Emily Oster highlights disparities within the overall decline in student test score growth due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Associate Professor of Education and Economics Matthew Kraft discusses compelling evidence for the implementation of high-cost, intensive, long-term tutoring as a tool in academic recovery from the pandemic.

PSTC Epidemiologist Mark Lurie explains how a major new Brown University initiative—the Center for Mobility Analysis for Pandemic Prevention Strategies, or MAPPS—could avoid another public health crisis like COVID-19.

PSTC Sociologist and Demographer Elizabeth Fussell explains why people remain in places threatened by climate crises, despite the hazards, in this USA Today investigative series.

Associate Professor of History Linford Fisher has received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to investigate and document Indigenous enslavement in the Americas between 1492 and 1900.

PSTC Economist Matthew Turner explains how proposed "congestion pricing" would disincentivize travel. “People reschedule their trips, or take them by a different mode, or don’t take them at all,” he said.

For the first time in the Center’s history, this semester, undergraduate students will be eligible to pursue the PSTC’s new Migration Studies Certificate.

Drawing upon his recent paper co-authored by Annenberg Institute post doc Josh Bleiberg, PSTC affiliate Matt Kraft explains the difficulty of studying the teacher labor market in real time and the need for better data systems.

The tribal collaborative database project, led by PSTC affiliate Linford Fisher, seeks to understand settler colonialism and its impact through the lens of Indigenous enslavement and unfreedom.

Professor Omar Galárraga's work is featured at the 24th International AIDS Conference on "Behavioral Economics and Conditional Incentives to Strengthen HIV Treatment and Prevention: Actioning the Science"

This summer, the Population Studies and Training Center (PSTC) launched a new undergraduate research initiative.

"Those who were deployed at bases where burn pits were used clearly had exposure to agents that are known to be harmful," said PSTC Epidemiologist David Savitz, speaking about the negative health outcomes associated with military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan where burn pits were used to dispose of waste from 2010 to 2015.

Assistant Professor of Population Studies Maria Steenland has received funding from the National Institutes of Health to investigate whether postpartum outcomes vary between foreign-born and U.S.-born low-income women.

Over the last year, the PSTC is pleased to have welcomed several new staff members.

PSTC faculty member & dean of public health Dr. Megan Ranney talks about the importance of treating gun violence the same way we treat other public health crises – before it lands people in the ER.

PSTC Researcher Elizabeth Fussell gave the keynote address at last month's meeting of the Geographical Sciences Committee at the National Academies of Sciences.

In a podcast produced by the Brookings Institution, PSTC Economist Anna Aizer discussed how economic shocks can have outsize effects on children, interrupting their growth and development.

PSTC Anthropologists Kate Mason and Andrea Flores, in collaboration with anthropologist Sarah Willen, are investigating the effects of the pandemic on first-generation college students and their parents.

Dear Graduates...

Brown researchers found that Ethiopian youth who develop high career expectations in early adolescence are more likely to delay first sex, a key predictor of age at first marriage for young women.

Dr. Megan Ranney says exposure to gun violence at school can have lifelong consequences for students and communities.

The PSTC Undergraduate Fellows Program is an eight-week, paid summer fellowship that aims to prepare current Brown undergraduates to engage in rigorous empirical research in population studies, public policy and related fields, in support of the center’s mission to produce evidence in support of efforts to improve public health and inform public policy. 

Anthropology trainee Argenis Hurtado Moreno has been named a 2022 Ford Foundation PreDoctoral Fellow.