Ag student travels to Arctic for research training in a climate-changed region
The Arctic is filled with picturesque scenery and communities of people closely connected to the land and its history. Like many areas of the world, it’s also a region threatened by climate change. But the Arctic is especially vulnerable, with its temperatures rising four times more quickly than in…
Increased area income improves birthweight rates, researchers find
Higher incomes are often correlated with healthier pregnancies and babies, but is it really the money that matters? Sedimentary rocks that formed 390 million years ago, surprisingly, help provide the answer, at least for those who live above the Marcellus Shale formation, according to a team led by…
New Book: Texas-Style Exclusion: Mexican Americans and the Legacy of Limited Opportunity
New Book: Texas-Style Exclusion: Mexican Americans and the Legacy of Limited Opportunity
In Texas-Style Exclusion, Population Research Institute Director Jennifer Van Hook (Pennsylvania State University) and sociologist James D. Bachmeier (Temple University) compare how Americans have responded to…
Social media users probably won’t read beyond this headline, researchers say
Congratulations. Reading this far into the story is a feat not many will accomplish, especially if shared on Facebook, according to a team led by Penn State researchers. In an analysis of more than 35 million public posts containing links that were shared extensively on the social media platform…
New SSRI Working Group - Collaborative on Population Aging Disparities
Collaborative on Population Aging Disparities
The Collaborative on Population Aging Disparities (CoPAD) is an SSRI-funded working group that focuses on new and growing sources of inequality among aging adults, with attention to the ways that population dynamics and life course processes interact to…
How do formerly incarcerated individuals navigate community reentry?
Fifty years of punitive criminal justice policies have created a growing population of older incarcerated individuals who are now eligible for community release but lack the social or economic capital to rebuild their lives, according to a team of researchers from Penn State and the University of…
Social Science Research Institute accepting applications for inaugural SJRC Equity Fellows
The Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) is seeking applications for their inaugural Social Justice Research Council (SJRC) Equity Fellows for the 2025-26 academic year.
SJRC Equity Fellows are expected to engage in work, together or individually, that aligns with the…
Contest explores artificial intelligence’s strengths, flaws for medical diagnoses
Penn State’s Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence (CSRAI) will host “Diagnose-a-thon,” a competition that aims to uncover the power and potential dangers of using generative AI for medical inquiries. The virtual event will take place Nov. 11-17.
The challenge is open to…
Penn State hosting community engagement and applied research symposium Nov. 7–8
A symposium centering around community engagement and applied research will take place Nov. 7–8 at Penn State University Park.
The event — hosted by faculty in the rural sociology program in the College of Agricultural Sciences and titled “Community-University Partnerships for Radical Community…
Conference to focus on moral decision-making research
Penn State’s Consortium on Moral Decision-Making and Moral Psychology Research Group are cohosting a conference Nov. 15-17 to highlight interdisciplinary research on moral and ethical decision-making.
There will be two keynote talks by Penn State alumni researchers beginning at…
Ask an expert: Immigration and the 2024 presidential election
Immigration remains a top concern for American voters, and a topic fueling much debate in the news and on social media. Penn State News spoke with Jennifer Van Hook, distinguished professor of sociology and demography and director of SSRI's Population Research Institute, about immigration and the…
New immigration and families publication available
Following Penn State’s 31st National Symposium on Family Issues, Springer has released the latest edition in the book series based on the symposium, “Immigration Policy and Immigrant Families.”
Jennifer Van Hook, director of Population Research Institute (PRI) and distinguished professor of…
New project to learn from, support Indigenous communities facing climate change
Natural disasters due to climate change have impacted over 2 billion people since the year 2000, with those in Arctic and Pacific communities disproportionally affected. An international team, including researchers from Penn State, has been awarded $1 million to compare climate risks and…
19th annual De Jong Lecture in Social Demography taking place Oct. 15
Dean Spears, associate professor of economics at the University of Texas-Austin, will be presenting the 19th annual De Jong Lecture in Social Demography on Oct. 15, 9 a.m.-noon, in the HUB-Robeson Center Room 233B and on Zoom.
Spears talk, “The World’s Population May Peak in Your Lifetime. What…
Center for Socially Responsible AI invites seed funding proposals
Penn State’s Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence (CSRAI) invites short proposals for its annual seed funding program. Applications will be accepted through Nov. 1, with projects expected to start in spring 2024 and last up to two years.
Complete details on the program…
Australia offers lessons for increasing American life expectancy
Despite being home to some of the world’s most dangerous animals, Australia has led the English-speaking world in life expectancy for the last three decades. As for other high-income Anglophone countries, the Irish saw the largest gains in life expectancy, while Americans have finished dead last…
Pregnant women may not be drinking enough water, researchers report
Maternal under-hydration during pregnancy is associated with a range of negative birth outcomes, including low levels of adequate amniotic fluid and plasma, disrupted fetal brain development and risk of low birth weight, according to guidelines from the American Pregnancy Association and…
$5M grant to engage Indigenous communities in climate change research
Indigenous communities around the globe face profound threats from climate change, biodiversity loss and land degradation. Now, an international team that includes researchers from Penn State have been awarded $5 million by the U.S. National Science Foundation, along with funding from Canada, the…
Global Social Science Research Impact Grants
Through a partnership between the Center for Global Studies and the Social Science Research Institute, Global Social Science Research Impact Grants support tenured and tenure-track social science faculty at University Park with a grant of up to $5,000 to advance global social science…
Professor’s new book examines universities’ role in advancing science
The last century has been a remarkable period of scientific discovery. And one of the primary drivers of it? Universities like Penn State, according to Professor of Sociology, Education and Demography David P. Baker.
That’s the main takeaway of “Global Mega-Science: Universities, Research…
Damaske featured on in Atlantic article on retirement
Retirement Gets Harder the Longer You Wait
For men like Joe Biden—highly educated, employed past 65, strongly tied to work—stepping away can pose its own risks to health and happiness.
By Charley Locke
When President Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he was ending his campaign for…
Impacts of protests focus of new research funding
Protests can direct attention toward an injustice, but some activist group tactics may turn people away rather than align them with the cause. A team of researchers at Penn State are launching a project to better understand how protests and other activist group approaches impact how people think…
MPI Issues Latest Estimates of the Size and Origins of the U.S. Unauthorized Immigrant Population
The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) today released its latest estimates of the size of the unauthorized immigrant population in the United States, pegging the number at 11.3 million in mid-2022. That figure is up from 11.2 million in 2021 and 11.0 million in 2019. Penn State's Migration…
Faculty success and equity workshop registration now open
Registration is now open for the “Initiative for Faculty Success and Equity Workshop (IFSE)” to be held from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 19, at the Penn Stater Hotel and Conference Center.
The workshop — sponsored by the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI), the Office of the…
Thiede named interim director of PRI’s CSA Core
Brian Thiede, associate professor of rural sociology and demography, has been appointed as the interim director of the Computational and Spatial Analysis Core (CSA) of the Population Research Institute (PRI) at Penn State. His appointment begins July 1.
Thiede is a demographer and…