Signature Activities

Each year, Penn State’s Population Research Institute and Social Science Research Institute, along with departments and centers in the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Health & Human Development, hold a two-day symposium focused on a key issue facing families. Each fall, about 200 scholars and policy experts attend what is now known as the National Symposium on Family Issues to consider a theme of multidisciplinary interest.

The Family Symposium is designed to focus on topics that appeal to (and are presented by) scholars from multiple disciplines who study family issues. Nine of the top scholars in the field of family research convene to present and critique research on the focal topic, consider future directions for research, and discuss how programs and public policy can effectively improve the state of families. The event gathers distinguished researchers, young scholars, and students in diverse fields such as family studies, child development, sociology, psychology, education, economics, anthropology, and policy studies, as well as health and human service providers and policy makers.

Past symposia have focused on issues such as: emerging methods in family research, African American families, diverging destinies of families in an era of increasing inequality, transitions to adulthood, and Hispanic children in immigrant families.

Attendees include Penn State students, faculty, and alumni; students and faculty from other institutions; community, state, and national policy makers; program staff; and social service administrators. The symposium is co-funded annually by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and a number of Penn State departments and centers, including the Population Research Institute and the Social Science Research Institute.

Students are exposed to some of the most important issues in family science and become better scholars and practitioners by learning about the dimensions and complexity of problems facing families. Each symposium includes a reception designed to encourage students to network with world-renowned family scholars. Graduate students are also invited to attend a luncheon with their choice of presenters.

The 2023 symposium was organized by Jennifer Van Hook, Director of the Population Research Institute, and Valarie King, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Demography, and Human Development. 

NSFI Book Series

Books based on each symposium bring the event to an even wider audience. The volumes have received favorable reviews and are used as reference works by faculty, students, and practitioners. The symposium is a landmark event each year in the ongoing study of families. It reaches a wide audience and affects the national conversation on a very important topic. View previous symposia and books.

For more information, please contact:

Carolyn Scott
css7@psu.edu

The De Jong Lecture is supported by the Caroline M. and Gordon F. DeJong Lectureship in Social Demography Endowment. It is administered jointly by the Department of Sociology and the Population Research Institute.

Gordon F. De Jong is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Demography and Senior Scientist with Penn State’s Population Research Institute.

Caroline M. De Jong is a former middle school teacher and 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.

View list of De Jong Lectures since 2006

For more information, contact:

Carolyn Scott
css7@psu.edu

Dr. Clogg was nationally and internationally known for his work in quantitative methods and demography, particularly on the analysis of rates, standardization methods, and latent structure analysis. Contributions from friends and colleagues led to the creation of the Clifford C. Clogg Memorial Lectureship fund. The fund was endowed in 1996. Leo Goodman gave the inaugural lecture on September 27, 1996.

A native of Oberlin, Ohio, Clifford C. Clogg earned his B.A. in sociology from Ohio University in 1971, an M.A. in sociology and an M.S. in statistics in 1974, and his Ph.D. in sociology in 1977, all from the University of Chicago. He joined Penn State as an assistant professor of sociology in 1976 and rapidly moved through the ranks until he was designated a Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Professor of Statistics in 1990.

Dr. Clogg wrote extensively on the statistical analysis of categorical data, covering loglinear models, cohort analysis, association models, and mobility tables. His research had received continuous funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) since 1979. Dr. Clogg served on the NSF advisory panel for the sociology program and on the NSF advisory panel for measurement, methods and statistics in the social sciences.

His honors included being named a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He was elected a member of the Sociological Research Association in 1987 and received the Paul F. Lazarsfeld Award from the Methodology Section of the American Sociological Association for his technical contributions to social research. He also received a Special Creativity Award from the National Science Foundation and a Significant Achievement Award from Ohio University.

Dr. Clogg provided considerable editorial service to the Journal of the American Statistical Association culminating in the coordinating and applications editorship (1989-1991). In addition, he was an active member of the American Sociological Association, the Population Association of America, and numerous other professional societies. This extraordinary level of external involvement did not keep Professor Clogg from being a key contributor to his two departments at Penn State. Besides fulfilling a double set of department duties, he supervised a total of twelve master degree students and thirteen Ph.D. students in statistics and sociology. These students now hold a variety of positions in government and academe.

Organized by the graduate students in the Dual-degree in Demography program

The Population Research Institute (PRI) Graduate Student Methodology Workshops were initiated in 1994 by Dennis Hogan, PRI Director, and Gordon De Jong, Director of the Demography Program, to enhance the breadth and depth of training in demographic methods for PRI's Dual-Title Graduate Degree students. The goals of the workshop series are to empower students to identify important methodological issues, to expand their analytical skills related to those issues, and to take responsibility for inviting noted lecturers with whom they ordinarily would not interact. In addition, the workshop gives students experience in developing and managing a scientific conference.

Previous workshop topics have included:

• Population Projections, 26th Annual Workshop, May 14, 2019
• Hard to Reach Populations, 25th Annual Workshop, May 16, 2018
• Mixed Methods, 24th Annual Workshop, May 16, 2017
• Agent-Based Modeling, 23rd Annual Workshop, May 17, 2016
• Biodemography of Exceptional Longevity, 22nd Annual Workshop, June 15, 2015

PRI Family and Gender Working Group

The Family & Gender Working Group is a vibrant community with research interests across all aspects of family demography and gender disparities, including union formation and transitions, family inequalities (gender, race, class, etc.), and family health and wellbeing.

Contact: Kristina Brant, kbrant@psu.edu

PRI Population Health Working Group

The group’s interests are broadly in population health, approached from a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives.

Contact: Lindsay Fernandez-Rhodes (fernandez-rhodes@psu.edu) and Danielle Rhubart (dcr185@psu.edu) 

NIH Grant Writing Working Group

This group is for those who are actively planning or writing an external grant with a PDB (Population Dynamics Branch) focus.

Contact: Sarah Damaske, sarahdamaske@psu.edu

PRI Migration & Diversity Initiative Working Group

The Migration Working Group is a new working group this year focused on migration that will promote interdisciplinary connections and collaborations.

Contact: Jorge Ballinas, jxb969@psu.edu and Thoa Khuu, thoa.khuu@psu.edu

PRI Climate Change and Health Working Group

The Climate Change and Health (CCH) Working Group is a new group focused on the intersection of climate change and health, and health-related social and demographic processes (e.g., migration, fertility). This group is a part of a broader set of CCH activities that are funded by a new NIH supplement to the P2C.

Contact: Brian Thiede bct11@psu.edu