2nd Annual De Jong Lecture in Social Demography

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Social Class Health and Mortality Differentials: Are There Important Selection Effects?

Presented by Alberto Palloni, Northwestern University

Alberto Palloni is Board of Trustees Professor in Sociology and a faculty associate of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. Dr. Palloni, who received his B.A. from Catholic University in Chile and his Ph.D. from the University of Washington, spent over 25 years in the Department of Sociology and the Center for Demography and Ecology at the University of Wisconsin. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and past president of the Population Association of America. During his distinguished career, he has served in advisory and consulting capacities to the National Research Council, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations. His approximately 100 publications cover a wide range of topics, with current scholarship focusing on the relation between early health status and social stratification, the spread of HIV/AIDS, families and households in Africa and Latin America, aging and mortality, and mathematical models and statistical applications. Support for Dr. Palloni's research has come from NSF, NIH, NIA, the Rockefeller and Robert Wood Johnson foundations, and the Pan American Health Organization, among other sources. In 2006 he received the highly selective NIH MERIT Award, which will provide continuous funding for his work over the next decade.

Discussants:

Dalton Conley is University Professor of the Social Sciences and Chair of Sociology at New York University. He also holds appointments at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and the National Bureau of Economic Research. The first sociologist to win NSF's prestigious Alan T. Waterman Award (in 2005), Dr. Conley is the author of several books, including Being Black, Living in the Red and The Starting Gate: Birth Weight and Life Chances. His research examines the determinants of economic inequality within and across generations.

Duane Alwin is McCourtney Professor of Sociology and Demography and Director of the Center on Population Health and Aging at Penn State. A fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, Dr. Alwin has been recognized by the Institute for Scientific Information as “one of the world’s most cited authors.” His numerous publications, which include Political Attitudes Over the Life Span and Margins of Error: A Study of Reliability in Survey Measurement, reflect his interests in human development, social change, individual health and well-being, and research methodology.

Program:

1:30 Opening Remarks - Barrett Lee, Professor of Sociology and Demography, Penn State and Nancy Landale, Professor of Sociology and Demography and Director, Population Research Institute, Penn State

1:35 Social Class Health and Mortality Differentials: Are There Important Selection Effects? - Alberto Palloni, Board of Trustees Professor in Sociology, Northwestern University. Introduced by Leif Jensen, Professor of Rural Sociology and Demography, Penn State

2:30 Break

2:40 Discussants

Dalton Conley, University Professor of the Social Sciences and Chair, Department of Sociology, New York University. Introduced by Molly Martin, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Demography, Penn State

Duane Alwin, McCourtney Professor of Sociology and Demography and Director, Center on Population Health and Aging, Penn State. Introduced by R.S. Oropesa, Professor of Sociology and Demography, Penn State

3:30 Floor Discussion

4:00 Reception - You are invited to share refreshments and conversation with lecture participants and attendees in the Faculty Staff Club of the Nittany Lion Inn.

Lecture Sponsors

The De Jong Lecture is supported by the Gordon F. and Caroline M. De Jong Lectureship in Social Demography Endowment, administered jointly (and supplemented as necessary) by the Department of Sociology and the Population Research Institute at Penn State.

View Previous De Jong Lectures

Gordon F. De Jong is Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Demography, Director of the Graduate Program in Demography, and Senior Scientist with the Population Research Institute at Penn State. Caroline M. De Jong, a former middle school teacher, has been involved in numerous community, church, and university-related organizations including the American Association of University Women, Stay-and-Play Nursery School, Presbyterian Women, and the Center County Board of Elections.