VIDEO Lisa Berkman – Demography Is Not Destiny: Social Resilience in the 21st Century | Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Lisa Berkman, PhD
Director, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies; Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy, Epidemiology, and Global Health and Population,
Harvard School of Public Health

Recent publications & news

USA Today reports: What does the recent drop in life expectancy in the U.S. tell us?

July 27, 2021
During the pandemic in 2020, life expectancy in the U.S. suffered the biggest drop since World War II, declining by 1.5 years with Black and Hispanic populations seeing even larger drops. According to former post-doc fellow Jennifer Karas Montez who is interviewed by USA Today, the downward trend in U.S. life expectancy and the increasing … Continue reading “USA Today reports: What does the recent drop in life expectancy in the U.S. tell us?”
Study finds those who expected to be working at age 62 (but then weren’t) suffered from increase in depressive symptoms

July 8, 2021
Harvard Sloan Fellow on Aging and Work Leah Abrams, PhD, is an author on a paper published in The Journals of Gerontology, Series b that finds that middle-aged adults who experienced an “unexpected work exit” suffered from more depressive symptoms, whereas working longer than planned was not associated with an increase in these symptoms (except … Continue reading “Study finds those who expected to be working at age 62 (but then weren’t) suffered from increase in depressive symptoms”
Op-ed: How the “darker, unsettling narrative” of extreme racist hatred can shed light on what is “average”

June 22, 2021
This op-ed in the Toronto Star penned by former Harvard Bell Fellow Fahad Razak, MD, and contributor Lisa Berkman, PhD, explores the concept that what is viewed as extreme within a population may shed light on the average. Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash
Graduate Student Affiliate In Jeong Hwang wins prestigious award for research paper

June 17, 2021
In Jeong Hwang, a doctoral student in sociology at Harvard University, has been awarded a first place prize from Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan for her Master’s-level paper titled “Grandparenthood, Grandparenting, and Working Longer: Do the Genders of Grandparent and of Grandchild’s Parent Matter?” Congratulations, In Jeong … Continue reading “Graduate Student Affiliate In Jeong Hwang wins prestigious award for research paper”
Christina Cross in The Harvard Gazette: “Why living in a two-parent home isn’t a cure-all for Black students”

June 9, 2021
Harvard Pop Center Postdoctoral Fellow Christina Cross, PhD, has penned an op-ed in The Harvard Gazette in which she shares her forthcoming research on why a two-parent household is not a panacea for better educational outcomes for low-income Black students. Dr. Cross points to President Biden’s proposed American Families Plan as an example of a … Continue reading “Christina Cross in The Harvard Gazette: “Why living in a two-parent home isn’t a cure-all for Black students””

VIDEO Lisa Berkman – Demography Is Not Destiny: Social Resilience in the 21st Century

USA Today reports: What does the recent drop in life expectancy in the U.S. tell us?

Study finds those who expected to be working at age 62 (but then weren’t) suffered from increase in depressive symptoms

Op-ed: How the “darker, unsettling narrative” of extreme racist hatred can shed light on what is “average”

Graduate Student Affiliate In Jeong Hwang wins prestigious award for research paper

Christina Cross in The Harvard Gazette: “Why living in a two-parent home isn’t a cure-all for Black students”

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