ucla sociology phd

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Yael Warshel’s book, Experiencing the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Children, Peace Communication and Socialization, published by Cambridge University Press, has been named a finalist for the Next Generation Indie Book Awards for Current Events. The award (pictured in the attached) will be handed out at the upcoming Next Generation Indie Book Awards Ceremony in San Diego June 28, 2024.

This virtual book launch will celebrate the publication of The Routledge Handbook of Refugee Narratives (2023), co-edited by Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi and Vinh Nguyen. This open-access Handbook presents a transnational and interdisciplinary study of refugee narratives, broadly defined. Interrogating who can be considered a refugee and what constitutes a narrative, the thirty-eight chapters included in this collection encompass a range of forcibly displaced subjects, a mix of geographical and historical contexts, and a variety of storytelling modalities. This book launch will feature presentations from eight of the volume's authors: Bishupal Limbu, Asha Varadharajan, Regina Marie Mills, Veronika Zablotsky. Himadri Chatterjee, Emily Hue, Hadji Bakara, and Erin Goheen Glanville.

March 16th, 2023 12:30pm - 1:45pm

Featured book: Leisy J. Abrego, Duke University Press (with Genevieve Negrón-Gonzales). The widely recognized “Dreamer narrative” celebrates the educational and economic achievements of undocumented youth to justify a path to citizenship. While a well-intentioned, strategic tactic to garner political support of undocumented youth, it has promoted the idea that access to citizenship and rights should be granted only to a select group of “deserving” immigrants. The contributors to We Are Not Dreamers—themselves currently or formerly undocumented—poignantly counter the Dreamer narrative by grappling with the nuances of undocumented life in this country. Theorizing those excluded from the Dreamer category—academically struggling students, transgender activists, and queer undocumented parents—the contributors call for an expansive articulation of immigrant rights and justice that recognizes the full humanity of undocumented immigrants while granting full and unconditional rights. Illuminating how various institutions reproduce and benefit from exclusionary narratives, this volume articulates the dangers of the Dreamer narrative and envisions a different way forward. More...

Featured book: Cecilia Menjívar, The Oxford Handbook of Migration Crises (with Marie Ruiz and Immanuel Ness). The objective of The Oxford Handbook of Migration Crises is to deconstruct, question, and redefine through a critical lens what is commonly understood as "migration crises." The volume covers a wide range of historical, economic, social, political, and environmental conditions that generate migration crises around the globe. At the same time, it illuminates how the media and public officials play a major role in framing migratory flows as crises. The volume brings together an exceptional group of scholars from around the world to critically examine migration crises and to revisit the notion of crisis through the context in which permanent and non-permanent migration flows occur. More...

Featured book: Kelly Lytle Hernández's book, City of Inmates: Conquest, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Caging in Los Angeles, 1771–1965 Los Angeles incarcerates more people than any other city in the United States, which imprisons more people than any other nation on Earth. This book explains how the City of Angels became the capital city of the world’s leading incarcerator. Marshaling more than two centuries of evidence, historian Kelly Lytle Hernández unmasks how histories of native elimination, immigrant exclusion, and black disappearance drove the rise of incarceration in Los Angeles. In this telling, which spans from the Spanish colonial era to the outbreak of the 1965 Watts Rebellion, Hernández documents the persistent historical bond between the racial fantasies of conquest, namely its settler colonial form, and the eliminatory capacities of incarceration. More...

Featured book: David Yoo's edited volume, The Oxford Handbook of Asian American History (with Eiichiro Azuma) The  Oxford Handbook of Asian American History  offers the first comprehensive commentary on the state of the field, simultaneously assessing where Asian American studies came from and what the future holds. In this volume, thirty leading scholars offer original essays on a wide range of topics. The chapters trace Asian American history from the beginning of the migration flows toward the Pacific Islands and the American continent to Japanese American incarceration and Asian American participation in World War II, from the experience of exclusion, violence, and racism to the social and political activism of the late twentieth century. The authors explore many of the key aspects of the Asian American experience, including politics, economy, intellectual life, the arts, education, religion, labor, gender, family, urban development, and legal history. More...

Featured book: Cecilia Menjívar and Leisy Abrego's book, Immigrant Families (with Leah Schmalzbauer) There is no quintessential immigrant experience, as immigrants and their families arrive with different levels of economic, social, and cultural resources, and must navigate various social structures that shape how they fare.  Immigrant Families  highlights the hierarchies and inequities between and within immigrant families created by key axes of inequality such as legal status, social class, gender, and generation. Drawing on ethnographic, demographic, and historical scholarship, the authors highlight the transnational context in which many contemporary immigrant families live, exploring how families navigate care, resources, expectations, and aspirations across borders. Ultimately, the book analyzes how dynamics at the individual, family, and community levels shape the life chances and wellbeing of immigrants and their families. More...

Featured book: Roger Waldinger's edited volume, A Century of Transnationalism: Immigrants and their Home Connections (with Nancy L. Green) The burgeoning literature on immigrant transnationalism is one of the academic success stories of our times. Yet having reminded scholars that migrants, in leaving home for a new life abroad, inevitably tie place of origin and destination together, scholars of transnationalism have also insisted that today's cross-border connections are unprecedented. This collection of articles by sociologically minded historians and historically minded sociologists takes aim at that contention. Looking back over the past century and more, the book highlights both the long-term persistence and the continuing instability of home country connections. More...

Featured book: Ruben Hernandez-Leon's book, Skills of the "Unskilled": Work and Mobility among Mexican Migrants (with Jacqueline Hagan and Jean-Luc Demonsant) Most labor and migration studies classify migrants with limited formal education or credentials as “unskilled.” Despite the value of migrants' work experiences and the substantial technical and interpersonal skills developed throughout their lives, the labor-market contributions of these migrants are often overlooked and their mobility pathways poorly understood. Skills of the “Unskilled” reports the findings of a five-year study that draws on research including interviews with 320 Mexican migrants and return migrants in North Carolina and Guanajuato, Mexico. The authors uncover these migrants’ lifelong human capital and identify mobility pathways associated with the acquisition and transfer of skills across the migratory circuit, including reskilling, occupational mobility, job jumping, and entrepreneurship. More...

Featured book: Lorrie Frasure-Yokley's book, Racial and Ethnic Politics in American Suburbs Racial and Ethnic Politics in American Suburbs examines racial and ethnic politics outside traditional urban contexts and questions the standard theories we use to understand mobility and government responses to rapid demographic change and political demands. This study moves beyond traditional scholarship in urban politics, departing from the persistent treatment of racial dynamics in terms of a simple black-white binary. Combining an interdisciplinary, multi-method, and multiracial approach with a well-integrated analysis of multiple forms of data including focus groups, in-depth interviews, and census data, Racial and Ethnic Politics in American Suburbs explains how redistributive policies and programs are developed and implemented at the local level to assist immigrants, racial/ethnic minorities, and low-income groups - something that given earlier knowledge and theorizing should rarely happen. Lorrie Frasure-Yokley relies on the framework of suburban institutional interdependency (SII), which presents a new way of thinking systematically about local politics within the context of suburban political institutions in the United States today. More...

Featured book: Marjorie Faulstich Orellana's book, Immigrant Children in Transcultural Spaces: Language, Learning and Love Immigrant Children in Transcultural Spaces speaks to critical social issues and debates about education, immigration, multilingualism and multiculturalism in an historical moment in which borders are being built up, torn down, debated and recreated, in both real and symbolic terms; raises questions about the values that drive educational practice and decision-making; and suggests alternatives to the status quo. At its heart, it is a book about how love can serve as a driving force to connect people with each other across all kinds of borders, and to motivate children to engage powerfully with learning and life. More...

Featured book: Carola Suarez-Orozco's edited volume, Transitions: The Development of Children of Immigrants (with Mona M. Abo-Zena and Amy K. Marks) How are immigrant children like all other children, and how are they unique? What challenges as well as what opportunities do their circumstances present for their development? What characteristics are they likely to share because they have immigrant parents, and what characteristics are unique to specific groups of origin? How are children of first-generation immigrants different from those of second-generation immigrants? Transitions offers comprehensive coverage of the field’s best scholarship on the development of immigrant children, providing an overview of what the field needs to know—or at least systematically begin to ask—about the immigrant child and adolescent from a developmental perspective. More...

Featured book: Min Zhou's book, The Asian American Achievement Paradox (with Jennifer Lee) Asian Americans are often stereotyped as the “model minority.” Their sizeable presence at elite universities and high household incomes have helped construct the narrative of Asian American “exceptionalism.” While many scholars and activists characterize this as a myth, pundits claim that Asian Americans’ educational attainment is the result of unique cultural values. In The Asian American Achievement Paradox, sociologists Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou offer a compelling account of the academic achievement of the children of Asian immigrants… While pundits ascribe Asian American success to the assumed superior traits intrinsic to Asian culture, Lee and Zhou show how historical, cultural, and institutional elements work together to confer advantages to specific populations. An insightful counter to notions of culture based on stereotypes, The Asian American Achievement Paradox offers a deft and nuanced understanding of how and why certain immigrant groups succeed. More...

Featured book: Roger Waldinger's book, The Cross-Border Connection: Immigrants, Emigrants, and Their Homelands International migration presents the human face of globalization, with consequences that make headlines throughout the world. The Cross-Border Connection addresses a paradox at the core of this phenomenon: emigrants departing one society become immigrants in another, tying those two societies together in a variety of ways. In nontechnical language, Roger Waldinger explains how interconnections between place of origin and destination are built and maintained and why they eventually fall apart. …Although widely studied, cross-border connections remain misunderstood, both by scholars convinced that globalization is leading to a deterritorialized world of unbounded loyalties and flows, and by policy makers trying to turn migration into an engine of development. Not since Oscar Handlin’s classic The Uprooted has there been such a precisely argued, nuanced study of the immigrant experience. More...

Featured Article

The UCLA distinguished professor of sociology answers questions about the current state of global migration...

A conference in Roger Waldinger's honor, to be held at UCSD on May 5, with...

Catherine Crooke, a talented Ph.D. student in sociology, is thriving at UCLA with the support...

Sophia Ángeles and Tianjian Lai have each been awarded a $20,000 Haynes Foundation doctoral award...

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• # 12 in Economics  (tie)
• # 17 in Development Economics
• # 11 in Econometrics
• # 12 in Industrial Organization
• # 8 in International Economics
• # 14 in Labor Economics  (tie)
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• # 11 in English  (tie)
• # 8 in 18th Through 20th Century British Literature  (tie)
• # 5 in American Literature After 1865  (tie)
• # 6 in American Literature Before 1865
• # 11 in Literary Criticism and Theory  (tie)
• # 8 in Medieval / Renaissance Literature  (tie)

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• # 5 in History  (tie)
• # 10 in African-American History  (tie)
• # 7 in African History  (tie)
• # 6 in Asian History  (tie)
• # 4 in Cultural History  (tie)
• # 5 in European History  (tie)
• # 2 in Latin American History
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• # 9 in Women's History  (tie)

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• # 6 in American Politics
• # 7 in Comparative Politics  (tie)
• # 14 in International Politics  (tie)
• # 16 in Political Methodology
• # 12 in Political Theory

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(310) 825-4331

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• # 3 in Psychology  (tie)
• # 4 in Behavioral Neuroscience
• # 5 in Cognitive Psychology
• # 6 in Developmental Psychology  (tie)
• # 3 in Social Psychology

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(310) 825-2961

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• # 6 in Sociology
• # 5 in Historical Sociology
• # 6 in Sex and Gender  (tie)
• # 4 in Social Stratification  (tie)
• # 7 in Sociology of Culture  (tie)
• # 7 in Sociology of Population

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Walter Allen

Professor Walter Allen, Ph.D.  is the Allen Murray Cartter Professor of Higher Education and Distinguished Professor of Education, Sociology, and African American Studies. His research focuses on educational inequality, social institutions, and social policy. Professor Allen has extensive experience in institutional review and assessments and has served as external team leader for Quality Assurance reviews of higher education institutions. He has also served as advisor and consultant to academic, government, business, and the courts on issues of diversity and equity. ​Dr. Allen earned Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in Sociology from the University of Chicago and the B.A. degree at Beloit College (WI). He grew up in Kansas City, Missouri under Jim Crow segregation. ​Professor Allen’s over 200 publications include the following books: Mitigating Inequality: Research, Policy and Practice in an Era of Massification and Stratification (2015); Higher Education in As the World Turns: Global Higher Education (2012);Towards a Brighter Tomorrow: College Barriers, Hopes and Plans of Black, Latino/a and Asian American Students in California (2009); Till Victory is Won: The African American Struggle for Higher Education in California (2009; Higher Education in a Global Society: Achieving Diversity, Equity and Excellence (2006); Enacting Diverse Learning Environments: Improving the Climate for Racial/Ethnic Diversity in Higher Education (1999); College in Black and White: African American Students in Predominantly White and Historically Black Public Universities (1991); and The Colorline and the Quality of Life in America (1989). His published articles appear in the: British J. of Sociology, Harvard Educational Review, American Educational Research J., International J. Qualitative Studies in Education, J. of Negro Education, Rutgers Race & Law Review, J. General Internal Medicine, J. Higher Education, Presentations before professional associations include: International Sociology Association; American Educational Research Association; American Sociological Association; Association for Study of Higher Education; American Public Health Association; Population Association of America; American Statistical Association; America Association for Advancement of Science, American Psychological Association, Latin American Studies Association and Law Schools Admissions Council. Media interviews include: The Oprah Winfrey Show; McNeil-Lehrer Reports; CBS Sixty Minutes; NBC Evening News with Tom Brokaw, British Broadcasting Corporation, GLOBO (Brazil), Jet Magazine, Le Nouvel Observateur, Chicago Tribune, Black Enterprise, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and U.S. News and World Reports. Professor Allen is consultant to courts, communities, business and government. He was expert witness in key affirmative action and higher education desegregation court cases: Coalition for Excellence and Equity in Maryland Higher Education v. Maryland; Grutter and Gratz v. U Michigan; Castenada v. UC Bd. of Regents; US and Ayers v. Fordice; US and Knight v. Alabama. He has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Changing US Population and Labor Force and the United Nations Committee for Elimination of Racial Discrimination (Geneva). He has also been a consultant to universities in the US, South America, Africa, China, the West Indies, Russia and Europe. Professor Allen’s honors include: Fulbright Scholar Awards to Zimbabwe, Moldova, Russia and Israel; UCLA and University of Michigan Teaching Awards; Distinguished career awards from the American Educational Research Association, the American Sociological Association, the Association of Black Sociologists and the Association for Study of Higher Education. He is honored in Marquis “Who’s Who in the World” (2015) and “Outstanding Intellectuals of the 21st Century” (2014). He has also received civic awards from the Los Angeles County Supervisors, the Mayor of Los Angeles and the Mayor of Kansas City, MO. Walter Allen is married to Attorney Cathy R. Daniels (deceased) and is the proud father of two daughters and two sons, as well a doting grandfather to eight grandchildren – five boys and three girls.

Faculty Pages:

UCLA Sociology

Faculty | Department of African American Studies (ucla.edu)

Walter Allen (gseis.ucla.edu)

PhD in Social Welfare

About Our Doctoral Program

Chair Todd Franke, PhD 

Our doctoral program in social welfare at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs is among the finest in the nation. Each year, we select a small group of scholars from diverse disciplines to join us for a rigorous, tailored study program that includes personalized instruction and applied research experience. Expert mentors guide our doctoral students during their time in the program, and our graduates go on to secure academic positions at top-tier research universities across the world.

Our department has an active plan to address racism and anti-Blackness which can be viewed here . We invite PhD students who are interested in anti-racism work to join us as we continually seek to reflect on and improve our educational and scholarly practices in social work.

Students take advantage of the rich learning resources in the Social Welfare Department and other departments within the Luskin School during their time at UCLA. A distinct advantage of our program is its connection to the larger UCLA campus. Each year, students can take courses in allied disciplines, including medicine, nursing, public health, psychology, and sociology. The purpose of this interdisciplinary approach is to enable our students to develop substantive and methodological knowledge consonant with cutting-edge scholarship in their area of specialization.

Throughout the program, we offer professional development seminars and workshops on a variety of topics. In recognition of the considerable knowledge and skills required of those contemplating academic careers, our students are encouraged to publish in scholarly journals, present at national conferences, and submit extramural proposals to support their independent research. Through these efforts, our students enter the job market with competitive records of scholarly productivity. Students are invited to join our job seekers program in their final year, which provides personalized mentorship to success in the academic job market.

Financial aid packages include full tuition plus stipends in the first four years in the form of fellowship support and paid teaching assistantships. Full-time students will be expected to enroll in twelve units of study each quarter. It is possible to complete the program in four years, although some take a year longer. We also offer a small combined MSW/Ph.D.** program in which prospective students without a master’s degree in social welfare can apply for acceptance into a program of study that leads to both the MSW and the Ph.D. degrees.

The pandemic exerted tremendous pressure on American society, including higher education. It forced a host of changes to how we live, teach and conduct research. Some of our adaptations have accelerated already existing trends, like online teaching and the increase in remote mentoring and advising. Much of the most lasting impact may turn out to be invisible. While it’s likely that the coming-of-age generation will bear long-term consequences, it’s less clear what those might be relative to the Academy. Today’s young scholars may think of health and job flexibility differently from earlier generations, as more common good than something intrinsically personal. Our department is prepared to help our students consider all their options

The due date for application materials is December 15th. For more information, please contact me by email at [email protected]  or by phone at (310) 206-6102. We look forward to receiving your application and welcome your questions of inquiry.

The program has several significant features. Research training, both formal and experiential, is at the core of the program. Flexibility is provided to help students attain in-depth competence in a substantive area of social welfare. Students progress from a common foundation in scholarship and research methods toward a high degree of individualized specialization. This common foundation emphasizes the acquisition of analytic tools needed to understand, appraise and advance knowledge in social welfare. With these analytical tools, the students select a specific area of specialization and develop expertise in that area. Considerable emphasis is placed on the individualized instructional relationship between students and faculty mentors. The learning process involves more than classroom instruction. Students are expected to work closely with faculty in their roles as scholars and researchers. The program is interdisciplinary and students are encouraged to use the rich learning resources of the entire University.

Full-time students usually will be expected to enroll in twelve units of study each quarter. There are approximately two years of coursework prior to the dissertation. Although diversity of backgrounds makes it difficult to predict, students are expected to complete the program in about four years.

Financial Aid

The Doctoral Program of the Department of Social Welfare provides various sources of financial aid, including fellowships, tuition waivers, research and teaching assistantships, and training grants. The basic financial aid package for all new students accepted into the program consists of tuition coverage and at least two years of stipend support.  Additional funding is possible after year two through research and teaching assistantships, private fellowships, competitive campus grants, among other sources. Our students are typically funded for at least the first four years of study.

Eugene V.   Cota-Robles Fellowship   provides 4 years of support for entering doctoral students from cultural, racial, linguistic, geographic and socioeconomic backgrounds that are currently underrepresented in graduate education and who are interested in a career in college or university research and teaching.  Applicants must submit a Diversity Statement by December 15.  Instructions are available at Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship | UCLA Graduate Programs.

UCLA Graduate Student Financial Support Travel Grants

• Graduate Research Mentorship Programs
• Graduate Summer Mentorship Programs
• Dissertation-Year Fellowships

Other tuition and stipend award packages are available from the following sources: 

• Luskin Graduate Fellowship Fund
• Olive M. Stone Scholarship Endowment
• Leon and Toby Gold Endowed Fellowship in Care of the Elderly
• James and Judy Bergman Endowed Fellowship

Doctoral students who are interested in acquiring experience in teaching as preparation for an academic teaching role are provided with the opportunity to assist faculty members in the instruction of selected undergraduate and graduate courses. Interested students are encouraged to apply for teaching assistantships after completion of the second year in the program.

The UCLA Financial Aid Office administers grants-in-aid and loans to students. The Fellowship and Assistantship Office of Graduate Division administers University fellowships and is a source of information and application materials for fellowships offered by private foundations and agencies.

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Graduate & Professional Education

Explore UCLA’s master’s and doctoral degree programs offered in 130+ academic and professional fields of study.

UCLA’s graduate programs have a reputation for producing professionals, researchers and leaders who have a major impact on the world.

With more than 40 programs ranked among the best in the nation, UCLA gives today’s graduate students the cutting-edge resources and mentorship they need to go out and leave their own indelible mark.

And with the second largest city in the U.S. in our backyard, learning extends beyond the classroom. Engaging with the community while being part of a well connected academic system that is respected throughout the world creates an educational experience that cannot be replicated anywhere else.

Influential Faculty

From Nobel Prize winners and Pulitzer Prize awardees to MacArthur Fellows and recipients of the Fields Medal and Turing Award, UCLA faculty members are experts in their fields. They are among the most often cited faculty in the world and their research and discoveries have a global impact. Graduate students are given every opportunity to learn from and work alongside these inspiring professors and researchers.

Terence Tao

Fields Medal-winning math professor and the James and Carol Collins Chair in the College of Letters and Sciences

Jennifer Jay

Professor of civil and environmental engineering and department vice chair of graduate affairs

Distinguished professor, chair of chemistry and biochemistry, and faculty-in-residence

Support for Research

UCLA graduate and professional students take on thousands of original research projects every year, working as part of a team or independently. Their research may create scientific and medical advances, address urgent societal problems or deepen understanding of arts and cultures.

Interdisciplinary Study

UCLA graduate and professional scholars have long collaborated across the boundaries of their respective academic fields in the pursuit of discoveries and solutions that don’t always fit neatly in one box or the other. Dozens of research centers and institutes foster interdisciplinary research as well. And Organized Research Units (ORUs) are created for the purpose of bridging the gaps between traditional disciplinary boundaries.

Wherever you look around campus, collaboration is happening both organically and as a result of these concerted efforts to bring more than one school of thought under the same roof.

Studying in Los Angeles

When you pursue graduate studies at UCLA, you have the opportunity to experience the professional world in a global city like no other. Los Angeles is teeming with variety, energy and industry. The best of food, arts, culture, sports and entertainment are right outside your door at UCLA. The economies of Los Angeles and California are among the world’s most dynamic: If California were a country, it would have the fifth largest economy in the world, behind Germany and ahead of India.

Financial Support for Graduate Students

UCLA is dedicated to offering support to graduate students from both the United States and beyond. Students from abroad make up over 20 percent of our graduate community of 14,000 scholars and come from over 90 countries.

Financial support funds are available to graduate students in many forms: grants, fellowships, traineeships, teaching assistantships and graduate student researcher appointments. Support based solely on need is also provided through the Financial Aid & Scholarships Office in the form of work-study and loans. Graduate programs at UCLA also offer employment opportunities to graduate students, including teaching and research assistantships.

• Doctoral Programs in CHS and Sociology for students specializing in Demography

The California Center for Population Research (CCPR) is a newly established center at UCLA for basic social science and public health research on human populations and comprises 90 faculty researchers from the disciplines of sociology, economics, community health sciences, geography, policy studies, and history. In collaboration with CCPR, two UCLA departments – Sociology and Community Health Sciences (CHS) — offer doctoral (PhD and DrPH) students the opportunity to specialize in demography. Doctoral students in Economics and several other departments can also specialize in demography by special arrangement and the Economics Department will soon have its own program for students specializing in demography.

Students specializing in demography complete the normal course requirements in their home department, take specialized courses in demographic methods, theory and research, become part of the CCPR community, and have multiple opportunities to work with CCPR faculty on major research projects.  Fellowship support is also available for well qualified doctoral students specializing in demography. The doctoral programs with specialization in demography in Community Health Sciences and Sociology are described below.

Doctoral Specialization in Demography in Community Health Sciences and Sociology

Students planning on specialized training in demography generally apply to CHS if their interests are more centrally in the area of public health and to Sociology if their interests are more centrally in social science. Demography students in each department complete departmental requirements for the doctoral degree which are described for CHS on http://www.ph.ucla.edu/chs/degree_programs_offered.htm and for the Sociology Department on  http://www.sociology.ucla.edu/content/program  . Demography students in both departments also complete the following.

Specialized Demography Courses

Doctoral students in both departments complete a two-quarter graduate course sequence on Theory and Research in Demography.  This course is a critical examination of population theories and major empirical research in demography.   Students also complete one or more graduate courses in demographic methods which equip them with basic tools of demography, and in statistical research methods.  In addition to providing solid groundwork at an advanced level in demography and population studies, these courses also provide a vehicle for demography students in different departments to get to know each other and CCPR affiliated faculty.

Students in each department also take several electives in demography.  Students can choose from courses on fertility and family planning, health and mortality, the demography of China, family demography, immigration, economic demography, the demography of women, reproductive health, the demography of Los Angeles, and many other areas.

Population Training Program

Demography students also regularly attend the CCPR Training Seminar, which meets weekly.  This seminar includes presentations of demographic research, both completed and in progress, by CCPR Faculty, other UCLA researchers who are doing work of demographic interest, off-campus visitors to UCLA, and advanced graduate students.  In addition, the seminar is used for presentations on ethical issues in social research, for publicizing new data resources and extramural funding opportunities, and for didactic workshops on topics not covered in formal courses.  Advanced graduate students are expected to present their own work in this seminar series.

Research Apprenticeship

Demography students in both department also complete a research apprenticeship with one of the CCPR affiliated faculty.  The objective is for the student to learn the craft of demography research through hands on experience through close collaboration with one or more experienced  demographic researchers.

Attending Professional Meetings

An essential component of specialization in demography is regular attendance at professional meetings.  Students generally attend the annual meetings of the Population Association of America and, after their first year of graduate study, to present a paper or poster at those meetings.

Qualifying Exams and Dissertation

Demography students generally complete a qualifying or field exam in demography.  Subsequently they develop a dissertation topic on a demographic issue, under the supervision of their faculty committee.

Career Paths for Students Specializing in Demography

Student who complete their doctoral degree in CHS or Sociology with a specialization in demography generally go on to careers as:  (1) professors and researchers  in social science departments or public health schools at universities, (2) government researchers at institutions such as the U.S. Census Bureau, the Centers for Disease Control, the National Center for Health Statistics, and the National Institutes of Health, (3) applied and policy careers with government or private agencies such as the state of California, federal agencies, social welfare organizations, and population-related organizations.   CCPR-affiliated faculty work closely with students as they are completing their dissertations to decide the type of position they are looking for and to make contacts with potential employers.  Many doctoral trainees initially take a post-doctoral fellowship in demography after graduate school, in order to launch their research career before taking a position as a faculty member or researcher.

CCPR-Affiliated Faculty at UCLA

How to Apply to Doctoral Programs Specializing in Demography at UCLA

The graduate admissions process for all departments and schools at UCLA is described at http://www.gdnet.ucla.edu/prospective.html .   Students applying to CHS in the School of Public Health or to the Sociology Department who want to be considered for specialization in demography should make sure to indicate their interest in demography in their application materials.

For further information on the demography specialization in Sociology contact Prof. Jennie Brand ( [email protected] ) and in CHS contact Prof. Anne Pebley ( [email protected] ).

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Remembrance of Miriam Orleans, PhD, 1926-2024

minute read

Miriam (Mim) Orleans, PhD, Professor Emerita of the University of Colorado School of Medicine, passed away on September 28, 2024, at the age of 97. Through her work as a researcher, educator, and mentor, Dr. Orleans dedicated her life to improving public health, with a particular focus on maternal and child health.

Dr. Orleans earned her Bachelor’s degree in 1947 at Rutgers University, her Master’s degree in Sociology at the University of Kentucky in 1948, and her Doctoral degree in Sociology/Philosophy of Science at the University of Wisconsin in 1954. She began her academic career in the Department of Sociology at Occidental College, and then moved to positions at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the School of Nursing, Medical Sociology, and Pediatrics, eventually landing in the UCLA School of Public Health. In 1970 she left UCLA for a fellowship at St. Thomas’s Hospital Medical School in London, England, In 1972, she joined the University of Colorado School of Medicine’s Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics (which would eventually become the Colorado School of Public Health). Dr. Orleans led the Epidemiology and Community Health Section from 1989 until she retired from the Department in 1994.

Dr. Orleans was passionate about maternal and child health. As a medical sociologist, she conducted research on pre-term delivery, lactation, prenatal care, and management of high-risk pregnancies with colleagues at the School of Medicine and Kaiser-Permanente Colorado. Dr. Orleans was particularly interested in the safety of fetal monitoring technology; she was a founding member of the International Society for Technology Assessment in Health Care and served on its board. She had editorial responsibilities for Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care and Education and International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care. She served on several committees and boards in Colorado, including the Colorado Violence Prevention Advisory Committee and the Colorado Child Fatality Review Committee at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. With Albert Havercamp, M.D. and Dennis Lezotte PhD, Dr. Orleans developed the perinatal database for Kaiser Permanente in 1991.

While a fellow at St. Thomas’s Hospital Medical School in London in 1970-71, Dr. Orleans developed an abiding dedication to the idea that randomized controlled trials were essential to safe and effective medical care, which led to her involvement in the development of the Cochrane Collaboration, an enduring international network that produces systematic reviews to help doctors and patients make informed health decisions.

Dr. Orleans’ work continues to positively affect health care delivery and has inspired many former students, young faculty, and those serving in the medical and public health communities. However, her lasting legacy will be through those fortunate enough to have called her their mentor, colleague, and friend, who try to emulate her lessons. Said Judy Baxter, M.A., retired faculty member and colleague in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics, “Mim modeled the way, for everyone, though especially women, to be curious, critical thinkers, to ask tough questions, to study thoroughly in order to give well-articulated opinions, to listen, to collaborate, and to give fully from one’s heart and head. She believed in us and our ability to individually and collectively make a difference, and by her example inspired many to meet her expectation.”  

Marilyn Leff, PhD, MSW, MSPH, a former student who continued her collaboration with Dr. Orleans during her career at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, wrote the following, “Mim was instrumental in my transition from medical social worker to epidemiologist, a most unlikely career path.  We worked on several different child health projects together.  Mim's work came from her value of wanting the world to be a better place for all peoples and a drive to find out what worked best in health care for all. She was not afraid to debunk and ask critical questions.  She taught me that caring is important and that caring leads to the questions you ask and the necessary rigor in one's thinking and work.  I will miss our ongoing conversations and demands to know the evidence. This is the legacy that she has left for me --- caring and rigor.”

Dennis Lezotte, PhD, Professor Emeritus and Founding Chair of the Department of Biostatistics and Informatics at the Colorado School of Public Health, said, “I was one of the fortunate faculty members who had the opportunity to collaborate with Mim in the classroom, on research projects, and national and community committees. She was my staunch advocate, my career-long mentor and dear friend.”

Dr. Orleans will be remembered for her infectious sense of humor, welcoming nature, and her ability to make anyone feel at ease. She loved a good conversation and was always ready to listen, discuss, and offer advice. Vibrant until the end, she loved playing the piano and was still taking lessons, as well as enjoying book club and social engagements with friends.

Dr. Orleans is survived by her husband of 52 years, Peter Orleans, with whom she shared a partnership built on mutual respect, adventures, and abiding love. They travelled extensively after retirement, settling for three years in their own apartment in Paris.

She is also survived by her son Jonathan Thacker Morris and his wife Elissa of Portland, Oregon; her daughter Alison Thacker Morris Vogt of Twisp, Washington; her stepdaughter Laura Orleans and her husband Charles York of New Bedford, Massachusetts; her sister Patty Bortman of Kensington, California; and nine grandchildren: Kai, Tierney, and Rhionne Morris; Posy, Reed, Lily, and Sage Vogt; and Emma and Isaac York. She was predeceased by her stepson, Marc Orleans.

Donations may be made in Dr. Orleans’ memory to the Miriam Orleans Graduate Research Assistance Fund at the Colorado School of Public Health or to Doctors Without Borders (MSF) . Please make checks to The University of Colorado Foundation. In the memo line write “Miriam Orleans Fund #D-0039522”. Checks can be mailed to: The University of Colorado Foundation, PO Box 17126, Denver, CO 80217. If giving online, go to giving.cu.edu , under gift designation, select “other” from the drop down menu and enter:   The Miriam Orleans Graduate Research Fund, Code- D-0039522. For more information, please contact Travis Leiker, assistant dean of external relations, at [email protected] or call 303.817.5744.

Topics: ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz , CSPH , Maternal & Child Health

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