Michael White
Professor:
Sociology
Phone: +1 401 863 1083
Michael_White@Brown.EDU
Most of my research investigates issues that stand at the intersection of sociology and public policy. I wear the hat of a demographer, so I naturally lean toward population studies and the use of censuses and surveys. I am presently involved in a wide range of research projects in a variety of geographic settings. Current research on the United States includes studies of immigrant adaptation in schooling, family and the labor force. I am also working on new methods for analyzing residential segregation that can reflect the increasing ethnic diversity of contemporary America's urban areas. In developing societies I study the determinants of migration, urbanization, and their demographic and environmental consequences.
Interests
Areas of Interest:
Demography, immigration, social policy, Africa.
I arrived at Brown University in 1989. Most of my research investigates issues that stand at the intersection of sociology and public policy. I wear the hat of a demographer, so I naturally lean toward population studies and the use of censuses and surveys. I am presently involved in a wide range of research projects in a variety of geographic settings. Current research on the United States includes studies of immigrant adaptation in schooling, family and the labor force. I am also working on new methods for analyzing residential segregation that can reflect the increasing ethnic diversity of contemporary America's urban areas. In developing societies, I study the determinants of migration, urbanization, and their demographic and environmental consequences. In China and Vietnam, I examine the link between migration patterns and economic restructuring. Currently, I am very actively involved in field research in Ghana, where I coordinate an interdisciplinary project that brings demographers and biologists together to look at demographic change, health issues, and water quality along the coast. For the last several years I have taught Sociology 13 "American Heritage: Democracy, Inequality, and Public Policy." I also teach graduate courses in migration, sociological research methods, and other subjects. A list of publications and working papers appear elsewhere on this website. I have been a staff member of the Urban Institute and a fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, both in Washington D.C.
Degrees
Ph. D.
Awards
Recent Honors and Awards:
Sociological Research Association, 2011
Otis Dudley Duncan book award, Population Section, American Sociological Association, 2010
Phi Beta Kappa, Harvard College, 1975
Affiliations
Recent Professional Service:
IUSSP Panel on Impact of Internal Migration and Urbanization in Developing Countries 2010-
IPUMS-International NSF Advisory Board 2010-
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Population Sciences Committee, 2002-06 (chair, 2004-06)
Teaching
For undergraduates in most years I offer Soc 13, which introduces sociological approaches to policy issues. Among other course requirements, it asks students to produce a series of succinct policy memos on contemporary issues. At the graduate level, my teaching spans a range of sociological and demographic topics. I have offered courses in my own specialized areas of migration and urbanization, in demographic methods, and in the core graduate curriculum on principles of sociological analysis.
Funded Research
""Migration, HIV and Socioeconomic Change in South Africa" Lifespan/Tufts/Brown [NIH] Center for AIDS Research 2011-13 $40,000.
"Explaining Very Low Fertility in Italy" (D. Kertzer, PI), National Science Foundation, $250,000; National Institutes of Health; 2004-06; $787,957
"Urbanization, Health, and Environmental Quality in Coastal Ghana," National Institutes of Health; 2003-05; $200,000
"Urbanization and Environmental Impact in Coastal Ghana," MacArthur Foundation; 2000-03; $300,000
"First Year Doctoral Training for Students from Africa," PI, PSTC Training Grant; 2000-03; $270,000
Renewed 2003-05; $300,000
"Advancing Segregation Measurement," NSF; 1999-2003; $130,000
"Immigration and Early Life Course Transitions" (J. Glick, PI), NICHD; 1999-2002; $587,000
"The Kumasi [Ghana] Peri-Urban Survey" (element of PSTC award from Mellon Foundation, "Fertility in Developing Countries"); 1998-99; $25,000
"The Fate of Abandoned Children" (D. Kertzer, PI), NSF; 1996-98, $56,026
"Migration and Environmental Quality" (with L. Hunter), NICHD; 1995-97; $40,000
"Immigrant Adaptation," Interagency Personnel Agreement awarded to PSTC, Brown University; 1995-96; $61, 629
"Language Proficiency, Schooling and the Achievement of Immigrants," U.S. Department of Labor; 1995-96; $19,700
"Metropolitan Restructuring, Neighborhood Change, and Concentrated Poverty" (with H. Silver), NSF; 1992-96; $138,000
"The Substitution of Immigration for Internal Migration," Sloan Foundation; 1990-95; $55,000
"Integrated Analysis of Spatial Mobility" (with P. Mueser), NICHD; 1985-89; $314,000
"Neighborhoods in Urban Society," Russell Sage Foundation; 1982-84; $66,000
"The Changing Sociospatial Structure of the City" (D. J. Bogue, PI), NICHD; 1980-81; $38,000
"Internal Migration and Local Mobility within SMSAs" (D. J. Bogue, PI), NSF; 1980-81; $42,000
