About

I joined the faculty of the University of Washington‘s Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies and the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy & Governance in 2005. I am Professor of International Studies, Professor of Sociology, and Professor of Public Policy & Governance. I am an Adjunct Professor of Global Health, affiliate faculty of the Center for Global Studies, the Southeast Asian Center. the Technology and Social Change Group (TASCHA), and EarthLab. I hold degrees from the Univ. of Michigan (B.S., Natural Resource Management), North Carolina State Univ. (M.S., Sociology and Economics), and the Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Ph.D., Sociology).

Currently, I serve as director of the UW’s Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology and UW Associate Vice Provost for Research in the Office of Research (AVPR).  As AVPR, I chaired a Task Force on Advancing Equity in Research. Our report was published here and our activities in 2024 will build on the report’s recommendations.

I research demography dynamics, gender, migration, and environment in many contexts around the globe. Current projects include: 1) improving small area population estimates; 2) social change and migration dynamics, 3) climate change, natural disasters, and population change, 4) several projects related to applied research and training, and 5) global studies research. I have authored work that appears in ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social SciencesDemography, Population and Development Review, Social Science Research, Social ForcesTeaching Sociology, Journal of International Women’s Studies, Ambio, Population & Environment, and Journal of Marriage and the Family Most recent c.v. [December 2023]

Current National Service

New Research Collaboration Launched.

Editorial Board Service

Geek fact.  I love learning about, thinking about, and teaching about social science research methods.  A book I edited with Ellen Perecman is now online through SAGE Research Methods A Handbook for Social Science Field Research.

Fun fact.

  • I’m a very small investor in the film Manchildwritten and directed by Ryan Koo (the son of DIck Bilsborrow and Helen Koo at the University of North Carolina, both demographers).  Manchild will be released on Netflix April 6, 2018.  You can learn more about the film and the filmmaker here.

Call for Papers.

Books I’ve read, reviewed and really liked!

Recent Opinions, Talks, Quotes, Policy Briefs, Profiles, and Blog posts

On March 16, 2023, The Seattle Times reported on OMB’s proposed racial and ethnic minimum standard categories and I offered a few perspectives on the importance of these changes to the federal statistical data infrastructure.

Recently, I moderated a discussion with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and U.S. Ambassador-at-large for Cybersecurity Nathaniel Fick. Watch/listen to the livestream recording of A Conversation with US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy R. Sherman: Technology and the Future of Foreign Policy [youtu.be], held on Oct. 27 and hosted by the Jackson School.

Recently, I joined my colleagues Professor Ali Mokdad, Kyle Crowder, Jody Early and others in writing an opinion for Think Global Health in their September 25th issue – “The Quest for Social Connection and Well-Being” – where we argue for renewed research on the role of social connection and how to observe its linkage to health and well-being. This article was selected as among the best in 2022!

The November 2021 issue of the UW’s College of Arts & Sciences Perspectives provides a profile of collaborative work on cybersecurity with Dr. Jessica Beyer at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies.

On November 2, 2021, the UW’s Population Health Initiative generously shared a profile about my motivations around interdisciplinary research and teaching.

On March 18, 2020, I joined with the Olympia World Affairs Council to offer a public lecture on World Population Trends and Development: Future Forecasts Concerning Poverty, Aging, and Climate.

On December 6, 2020, I joined Professor James Long for a discussion on the Political Economy Forum podcast program Neither Free Nor Fair where we discussed “Census–Counting Folks and Counting Votes.”

On October 9, 2020, I joined the UW Libraries’ annual Constitution Reading, where I spoke about the special place of the census in the U.S. Constitution. A YouTube recording is available here.

On September 24, 2020, I joined UW’s Office of Public Lectures Coexisting with COVID-19 on a panel “Stand Up and Be Counted” Joining her on the panel are Professor Lisa Manheim Marshall (Law) and Michele Storms (ACLU-Washington).

On January 28, 2020, I offered a few perspectives on the economic impacts of immigration and the implications of declining net migration trends among Mexican migrants to the U.S. to the online investment site: Wallet Hub.

On November 25, 2019, I participated in a Q&A with Global Perspectives on the goals for our new journal and the section addressing Social Institutions, Organizations and Relations.

On November 25, 2019, I co-authored a blog post with Derek Fulwiller and India Ornelas at IAPHS, regarding the UW’s Population Health Initiative.

On April 23, 2018, I penned an opinion in the Seattle Times regarding the addition of a citizenship question to the Census 2020 form.

On March 15, 2018, I gave a talk about the Rohingya crisis at the International Affairs Forum in Traverse City, Michigan.  Here are a few links to that talk: posted on the JSIS website, on the International Affairs Forum youtube channel.

On January 16, 2018, I was quoted in the New York Times regarding the risks and vulnerabilities of immigration statuses. “Michigan Father Deported After Living In U.S. for Thirty Years.”

On November 22, 2017, Jessica Beyer and I published a working paper on workforce preparedness, stemming from our cybersecurity initiative through the International Policy Institute.

On November 15, 2017, I delivered a talk on the Population Dynamics: Predictions to 2050 for a panel on Solving the Future Challenges of Population Growth sponsored by the MIT Enterprise Forum of the Pacific Northwest. You can see highlights of the panel here. Here is a copy of the slide deck, please do not cite or use without permission. Slide Deck.

On November 6, 2017, I delivered a talk on Climate Regimes and Trump for the Trump in the World Series for the University of Washington.

On March 14, 2017, I delivered the 10th D.B. Doran Annual Lecture on Population, Resources and Development at the Hebrew University.  You can view the talk here.  The program is hosted by Hebrew University’s Department of Sociology and Glocal MA Program .

Recent Publications

Misbah Hoque, Kisung Lee, Jessica L. Beyer, Sara R. Curran, Katie S. Gonser, Nina Lam, Volodymyr Mihunov, and Keijin Wang. 2022 “Analyzing Tweeting Patterns and Public Engagement on Twitter During the Recognition Period of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Study of Two U.S. States.” IEEE Access 10: pp.72879-72894. doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3189670.

Holl, Karen Davis, Mark Ashton, Jacob Bukoski, Katherine A Culbertson, Sara R. Curran, Thomas B Harris, Matthew D Potts, Yesenia L Valverde, Jeffrey R Vincent. “Redefining “Abandoned” Agricultural Land in the Context of Reforestation“, in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, section Forest Management./p>

Sara R. Curran “A Micro Perspective: Elaborating Demographic Contributions to the Livelihoods Framework.” International Handbook of Population and Environment. Springer 2022.”/p>

Vincent, Jeffrey, Sara R. Curran, and Mark Ashton “Forest Restoration in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.” Annual Review of Environment and Resources. 46. 2021.”/p>

Curran, Sara R. “Green- or Rose-Colored Lenses for Globalization Matters? Transdisciplinary Epistemic Practices and Paradigmatic Transformations in Ecologies and Equalities.” Globalizations. 2021./p>

Lui, Lake & Sara R. Curran. ““I Wish I Were a Plumber!”: Transnational Middle-Class Re-Construction Among Hong Kong Emigrants, Returnees, and Non-Migrants” Current Sociology. 68 (7): 872-890. 2020

Curran, Sara R. 2020. “Global Perspectives on Social Institutions, Organizations and Relations: Beyond Universalisms and Internationalisms” Global Perspectives. 1 (1): 13410.  

Current Grants

PI, NICHD-P2C, Population Research Infrastructure Grant, 2022-present

Multi-PI, NICHD/OBSSR-T32, Data Science, Demography & Population Health Training Program, 2020-present

PI, NSF Rapid, Covid 19 and the Demography of Disinformation, 2020-present

Current Service

Global:

Section Editor, Social Institutions, Organizations & Relations, Global Perspectives.

National:

Editor-in-Chief, Demography

Member, National Academies of Science Advisory Committee for US Global Climate Change Research, 2021-present

At Large Board Member, Consortium of Social Sciences Associations, 2022-present

Member, NASA’s User Working Group for Socioeconomic Data and Application Center (SEDAC), housed at CIESIN, Columbia University

University of Washington:

Associate Vice Provost for Research, UW Office of Research

Member, Steering Committee, EarthLab, UW College of Environment

Founding Faculty Advisor, Jackson School Journal of International Studies, 2009-present

Founder, JSIS Global Research Group, 2009-present

Member, Honors Program Director, Department of Sociology