Graduate Training in Demography

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Graduate Group in Demography at the University of Pennsylvania requests funds to provide training in demography to six pre-doctoral students. The current training program, for which renewal is requested, has six approved pre-doctoral positions, of which five have been funded. The pre-doctoral program is administered by the Graduate Group in Demography, 18 faculty members within the Population Studies Center with backgrounds in sociology, economics, demography, nursing, and medicine. The principal aim of the demography pre-doctoral program is to train independent researchers who are prepared to play leading roles in formal demography, social demography, population analysis, and the study of the health of populations. This goal is achieved through intensive instruction in the methods, theoretical approaches, and empirical results of demography and allied disciplines; and progressive incorporation of students into faculty research activities that will eventually lead to independent research. The training program reflects the Population Studies Center's emphasis on population change and health among disadvantaged groups-in the United States and in the developing world. The Graduate Group in Demography, with support from the NICHD, has demonstrated over several decades that it can recruit talented, promising students, and prepare them for productive careers. Ph.D.s from Penn with Demography degrees since 1996 account for 23 tenured or tenure-track academic positions. In the past ten years, 27 pre-doctoral students have been NICHD trainees. We show that the vast majority have started, or are on their way to strong careers in population and health. The recruitment and training of members of under-represented minorities-African- Americans in particular-has been a point of emphasis for the Population Studies Center. A "feeder program" that created a pool of well-socialized and trained minority candidates has begun to yield significant placements post-Ph.D. We believe that we are now in an effective "steady state" that can continue to recruit and train at a high level a reasonable number of population scholars, minority and non-minority alike.