loading . . . "What's Popping?" - The Quarterly Newsletter of the Population Studies Center - Summer 2026 "What's Popping?" - The Quarterly Newsletter of the Population Studies Center - Summer 2026
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PSC's Summer newsletter includes updates about the center & great resources for population scientists
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WHAT’S POPPING?
June 2026
Letter from the Director
Dear colleagues,
Summer has arrived in Ann Arbor, and the Center is shifting into that wonderful time of less email and more iced coffee and ice cream at our monthly coffee chats: Join us for flash talks this season with Nafeesa Andrabi, Kerri Cross, and Angu Khan!
The challenges on the federal front remain and PSC folks are engaged in many ways, from connecting with our partners at the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Census Bureau and other federal agencies in pursuit of data protection and rescue, to postcarding our elected officials to address the threat to the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate at the National Science Foundation.
Closer to home, it was a busy winter and spring, filled with an inaugural training session for PSC faculty mentors for our training program led by Training Director Yasamin Kusunoki, a PAA meeting in St. Louis that I was honored to co-organize with PAA president Marcy Carlson, and the crafting of renewal applications for the NIA and NICHD T32 grants that support our PSC training program. You’ll be hearing more about some exciting developments emerging from those proposals, including a new Alumni Advisory Board for the Training Program.
May your summer allow for rest, renewal, and some writing, and please drop by if you are in town!
Sarah Burgard, PSC Director
They’re off!
Read more about each of our 2026 graduates and onward-going postdoctoral fellows:
Isabel Brooks
Wesley Correll-King
Zoey Chopra
Alexander Fertig
Sara Feldman
Charles Katulamu
Esther Lee
Tammy Lee
Akilah Patterson
Cayley Ryan-Claytor
Meifeng Yang
… or view all the announcements!
PAA St. Louis
PSC affiliates gave 69 presentations at the Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America May 6-9 in St. Louis! Top shared content from PAA included: Patricia Drenth’s poster on positive childhood experiences (video), Janet Wang’s presentation on worker “overqualification,” and PSC/SRC research on whom Americans hold responsible for caregiving.
Advocating for Social Science
Want to do something now?
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Comment now on the Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance OMB-2025-0034. Science advocate Jeremy Berg provides a template.
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Use COSSA’s Save SBE Toolkit and find updates and resources from PAA.
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PSC’s postcarding campaign has communicated about the value of social science in every state. Our volunteer affiliates sent more than 600 postcards to representatives, and more cards are available for pickup in the ISR atrium. Start here to join the effort. Thanks to Cynthia Buckley for hosting a postcarding event, and to Indiana University and OSU for expanding the call.
Mentoring the Mentors
PSC held its first dedicated training session for mentors this spring with a March event: “The Art and Science of Mentoring: Fostering Growth in Interdisciplinary Research.”
This well-attended, 90-minute training was designed to meet NIH/NIGMS requirements, covering three of their specified competencies: Aligning expectations, maintaining effective communication, and fostering independence. We will cover the remaining three competencies in the coming year: Assessing understanding, enhancing professional development, and articulating a mentoring philosophy and plan.
The pilot event introduced NIH expectations and worked through three case studies written to highlight common experiences for our interdisciplinary demography community. Mentors had the opportunity to think through common scenarios (e.g., communication breakdown, differing expectations) and to translate what they learned to specific action steps to take forward.
Pictured above: PSC mentor Philippa Clarke sits with postdoctoral mentee Shane Burns, at PAA. PSC will roll out a video series this fall showcasing our strengths in mentorship.
PSC News and Updates
Research Experiment: Sharing a Family Photo Helps Migrant Workers Elicit Employer Empathy
Who should pay for older adults’ care? Caregivers answer differently
Lingering legacy: Brazil’s ‘dictatorship gen’ faces premature aging
“Barbara saw something in me I didn't see in myself when I first started my collegiate career. I am grateful for her mentorship, friendship, and sense of humor over the years. She is remarkable.”
With words from colleagues and mentees, we celebrated the career of Barbara Anderson, Ronald A. Freedman Collegiate Professor of Sociology and Population Studies, this April.
Below: PSC postdoc Isabel Brooks gets her PSC “Demographic Event” onesie at a baby shower held at ISR.
Grant Acknowledgements
Are you publishing work that was initiated during your time at PSC? You can make sure your publications are in compliance and find language on how to acknowledge the grant on the PSC website. Recent papers acknowledging the P2C Center or T32 Training grants include:
1. Patterson SE, Caywood K, Friedman EM, Freedman VA. Beliefs about Levels of Care
Responsibility for Older Adults in Need: Differences by Relationship and the Presence of
Dementia. Alzheimer's & dementia. Behavior & socioeconomics of aging. 2026 January 20;2(1). PubMed PMID: 42099565; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC13148321; DOI: 10.1002/bsa3.70066.
2. Dupree JM, Kitaevich J, Agostino C, Murali S, Borah L, Castle SK, Kirkland A. When states require fully insured employers to cover in vitro fertilization (IVF), what do self-insured employers provide?. J Assist Reprod Genet. 2026 Feb;43(2):615-621. doi: 10.1007/s10815-025-03756-3. Epub 2025 Dec 13. PubMed PMID: 41389272; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC12765564.
Support the Training Program
The PSC Alumni Graduate Support Fund provides early-stage research awards to promising PSC trainees. This fund, initiated in 2012, is made possible by the generosity of PSC alumni. To learn more about how to support PSC, please contact our development team.
Congratulations to PSC trainees Sammer Nair-Desai, Kelsi Caywood, Cayley Ryan-Claytor, and Gabrielle Young, and PSC affiliates Shu Xu and Sarah Patterson, on receiving 2026 ISR Next Generation Awards!
Give now
Class Notes
Want to know what your past classmates are up to? We love to hear from you about what’s going on in your life— send us a few sentences (and an optional photo) and we’ll share in future newsletters.
Call for PDHP Small Grants
Our Population Dynamics and Health Program (PDHP) offers resources to support population scientists and advance population research, including small grants for faculty research and an intensive mentoring program to support proposal development.
Affiliate with PDHP and apply now for:
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Methods Development Small Grants to develop, test, and implement new methods in new or existing projects
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Mini Grants for Computing and Secure Data Analysis, supporting affiliates in need of computing resources, including setting up secure workspaces for sensitive data.
Upcoming Events
Keeping it POPPIN all summer:
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PSC Coffee Chats: Tuesdays at 2, June 30, July 21, August 18
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PDHP Office Hours: June 25 (2-3), July 23 (11-2), August 10 (1-2)
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PDHP Workshop: Causal Inference in Observational Studies: June 19
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PDHP Workshop: Model to Meaning: July 20
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and more!
Details for all events
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PDHP
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Copyright (C) 2026 U-M Institute for Social Research Population Studies Center. All rights reserved.
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