Population Studies and Training Center

Research

PSTC researchers are recognized locally and internationally as leaders in the scientific study of human populations. They advance health and well-being around the world through investigating key life processes in six signature research themes.

Whether it is through their work on maternal mortality, educational disparities, or migration as a result of war or climate change, our researchers recognize that health and well-being reflects demographic processes and broader social and political contexts.

Our faculty associates investigate human behavior through economic, social, spatial, health, and anthropological demography lenses. While most faculty associates hail from the social science disciplines of Anthropology, Economics, and Sociology, the PSTC's links to the School of Public Health, the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, the Warren Alpert Medical School, and the departments of Education, History, and Political Science all provide rich opportunities for innovation and collaboration.

Research Themes

With leading experts in migration and urbanization, intergenerational mobility, economic development, and families, children, and health, along with growing expertise in population and environment, our research addresses many current and critical global challenges, producing evidence that supports efforts to improve public health and inform public policy.

Children, Families and Health

Experiences in families play key roles in determining socioeconomic opportunities, education outcomes, health, and wellbeing around the globe. PSTC works to improve the welfare of children and families through the study of marriage, cohabitation, and fertility; childcare, adoption, and elder care; the impacts of education access and experience; intergenerational inequality; access to work; and life course health.

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Migration and Urbanization

As some of the world's leading experts in migration and urbanization, our researchers are working to use new data and methods to understand the roles of migration and urbanization in climate change, development, health and disease, social movements, and other critical issues, addressing these challenges with extraordinary geographic and disciplinary reach.

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Population, Development and Environment

Our researchers are working to build a deep understanding of the bidirectional causal relationships between population change and environmental change, through developing innovative measures and models of environmental change, and working with novel sources of data to develop solutions for a more sustainable world.

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Social Foundations of Health Disparities

Economic development disrupts demographics, altering familial relationships and societal networks. Conversely, demographic shifts influence development. Population science addressing these intricacies ensures development fosters sustained, equitable welfare enhancement, including health and wellbeing. PSTC scholarship in this area is distinctive in its disciplinary and geographic breadth, and diverse methodologies.

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Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS

More than 30 years into the AIDS epidemic and AIDS remains the leading cause of death among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa. In the U.S., social inequalities are reflected in significant disparities in maternal mortality. The PSTC engages issues of reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, and gender with collaborations that emphasize population science and span anthropology, economics, sociology, medicine, and public health.

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Project Categories

Local is global in that what we do and discover in one community can translate to many others. Our researchers have been at the forefront of producing relevant science on global population challenges for more than 50 years, with research and fieldwork currently being conducted in more than 20 nations, focusing on issues from health and development to environment and spatial structures. Through this type of global social science, we aim to influence the trajectory of population studies and policies to improve health, well-being, and equality around the world.