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GISD Program Guidelines and Requirements

The purpose of the Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Demography (GISD) is to provide graduate students with interdisciplinary training in the techniques and substance of demography. Through coursework, interactions with faculty and student peers across campus, and engagement with IPR (e.g. regular attendance at the weekly seminar series), participants will receive cutting-edge demographic training necessary to conduct rigorous research on population-related issues.

Demography is the study of how the three core population processes — fertility, mortality, and migration — interrelate with major societal institutions, such as family and economy. Demographic issues encompass some of the most pressing social issues of our time including population aging, unprecedented changes in the structure and functioning of the family, social inequality, and environmental challenges, to name a few. 

Owing to this wide breadth, the field of demography is inherently interdisciplinary, drawing from diverse fields such as anthropology, biology, economics, geography, history, medicine, public health, public policy, and sociology. But it also possesses a clear identity as a scientific field, with professional associations, annual conferences, and peer-reviewed journals dedicated to demography (broadly defined).

During the past decade, Ohio State has achieved prominence in demography with faculty hires under the Population and Health TIE and by the Institute for Population Research (IPR) securing a highly competitive infrastructure award from the National Institutes of Health in 2009.  IPR is on the forefront of tackling population and health issues, nurturing interdisciplinary faculty alliances across the university through its weekly seminar series, didactic workshops, and an active faculty seed grant program.

To these developments, the Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Demography (GISD) adds a much needed integrative graduate training program. The GISD will provide students with the opportunity to obtain comprehensive demographic training — both methodological and substantive.

Through coursework, interactions with faculty, and engagement with Ohio State's Institute for Population Research, the GISD will expose students to cutting-edge population and health research. Across departments and colleges, training in demography (both techniques and substance) will be an asset for graduate students from a wide variety of fields, and formal recognition of such study on the student’s transcript upon completion will improve prospects in the academic and non-academic job market.

The Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Demography (GISD) offers students advanced training in techniques and substance of demography through both required and elective coursework. The specialization’s two required courses are: (i) a proseminar and (ii) a methods course on fundamental demographic techniques. The required coursework will provide students with a basis in fundamental demographic techniques (via the methods course) and expose them to the most recent demographic scholarship (via the proseminar which will encompass IPR’s weekly seminar).

We have selected the elective courses in consultation with faculty, graduate studies chairs and department chairs of each respective department with two goals in mind. First, we have selected courses that contain significant demographic content. Second, we selected elective courses that will provide students with particular skill sets for their future careers in demography.

Students must successfully complete at least 10 but no more than 20 hours of graduate-level coursework. These hours must include at least three different courses, and at least 9 hours must be from outside the home graduate program but may include cross-listed courses (cross-listed courses that comprise this 9 hour minimum must be enrolled in outside the home department).

The specialization consists of the following components:

  1. A required three-credit (3) hour core seminar course (SOCIOL/PUBHLTH 8802). The seminar will meet twice a week and focus on the broad field of demographic research structured around four learning goals:
    • Introduce students to the seminal literature in the fields of demography and population health
    • Expose students to cutting-edge demographic research via participation in the weekly seminar series held by the Institute for Population Research (Tuesdays from 12:30pm-1:30pm)
    • Provide professionalization for students as they prepare for demographic and population health research careers
    • Teach students to critically assess the major literature in a sub-area of demography or population health in which they are interested and develop their own research proposal/paper on a topic of their own choosing
  2. A required three-credit (3) hour course in Demographic Analysis (SOCIOL 7753). A core component of demographic training is its methodological toolkit. This course will cover the materials and methods of fundamental demographic analysis.
  3. Electives (minimum 4 hours) will be drawn from the approved courses list, which consists of existing courses offered across the university that contain significant demographic content and/or provide technical training that will advance research on demographic topics.
  4. Over the full set of courses intended to count towards the student’s GISD curriculum, the following GIS guidelines, determined by the Graduate School, must be met:
    • A GIS involves TWO OR MORE graduate programs OUTSIDE of the student’s major graduate program
    • A GIS requires a minimum of TEN hours of graduate-level course work in at least THREE courses.
    • TWENTY hours of graduate-level course work is the maximum allowance for a GIS
    • NINE hours taken for the GIS must be completed OUTSIDE of the student’s home department in at least THREE courses
    • The student must receive a grade of “B” or better or “S” in each course comprising the GIS

View required and elective courses.

Details on how to enroll in the Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Demography.

If you have questions, contact Dr. Reanne Frank, the program's faculty advisor, or Diane Florian, IPR Events and Communications Specialist, Institute for Population Research.