Within the current context of global climate change, the study of how environmental changes are shaping individual behaviors related to human migration, mortality, and fertility is among the most pressing issues confronting population research and policy. CDE and the Applied Population Laboratory at UW-Madison will co-host an exciting conference – Demographic Responses to Changes in the Natural Environment – on the UW campus, October 24-25, 2019. Supported by an NICHD grant and organized by Katherine Curtis, Malia Jones and Marcy Carlson, this conference is designed to bring together scholars conducting research at the intersection of environmental studies and demographic processes. Conference presentations will be organized around themes associated with environmental change (e.g., drought, sea level rise, and catastrophic events) and will bring focused attention to comparisons across developing and developed contexts.
Following the conference, organizers plan to release a special issue of the journal Population and Environment (edited by UW alum, Elizabeth Fussell) and a public-facing research brief series to broadly disseminate cutting-edge research at the population-environment nexus to stakeholders including policymakers, program and community leaders, and the general public.
Conference keynote speaker Barbara Entwisle, University of North Carolina, is a leading scholar in the field of population-environment interactions; she studies social context and demographic and health behavior and outcomes and has led the development of application of new methodological tools and approaches. Her address will focus on environmental change and household dynamics.
All are welcome to attend. You can register for the conference online here.