Samuel E. Kelly Distinguished Faculty Lecture

Established in 2005 and named in honor of the UW’s first vice president for the Office of Minority Affairs, the annual Samuel E. Kelly Distinguished Faculty Lecture is dedicated to acknowledging the work of faculty whose nationally-recognized research focuses on diversity and social justice.

Past, Present and Future Demographic Diversity in the U.S. and Washington

Featuring Dr. Sara Curran
Director, Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology, University of Washington

Thursday, October 17, 2024
Reception: 5:00 PM | Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center
Lecture: 6:00 PM | Alder Hall Auditorium

Registration includes a lecture reception with heavy hors d’oeuvres and beverages.
Dr. Curran’s lecture will be followed by a Q&A session.

About the Lecture

While the idea of “to be counted is to be seen”, is often taken for granted as foundational for democracy, who is counted and why has changed numerous times in our nation’s history. These changes have impacts big and small and implications on politics and policymaking.

Dr. Sara Curran will discuss past and present ways in which demographic diversity has been measured and why, and also the intersectional complexities of measuring demographic diversity. She will discuss the history, politics, and the statistics of changing demographic diversity in the U.S. and in Washington State, providing some perspectives on the implications of those dynamics. Dr. Curran will also briefly discuss some of the upcoming changes for observing demographic diversity in the future.

About Dr. Sara Curran

Sara Curran, Ph.D. is Professor of International Studies at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. She holds a joint appointment as Professor of Sociology, is Director at the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, another joint appointment at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, and is adjunct Professor in the Department of Global Health. Curran researches migration, globalization, gender, climate change and adaptation, and development. Curran employs a variety of research techniques, including qualitative field work, survey field work, regression modeling, mixed methods, and spatial and network analyses. She also is the faculty advisor for the Jackson School Journal and helps direct the Jackson School’s Applied Research Program.

Current National Service
Consortium of Social Science Associations, At-Large Board Member, 2022-present
National Academies Committee to Advise the US Global Change Research Program, Member.
Socio-Economic Data and Applications Center I SEDAC, CIESIN. Board Member, 2020-present.

New Research Collaboration Launched
With support from the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC), Jeffrey Vincent (Duke), Matthew Potts (Berkeley), and Sara Curran (UW) are leading a Pursuit that aims to understand better the relationship between forest restoration, economics, demography, and climate mitigation efforts in low and middle-income countries. Entitled: Migration, Marginal Agricultural Land, and Tree Cover Expansion in Low- and Middle-Income Countries, this project includes engagement with graduate students and interdisciplinary collaborations with colleagues from around the world, as well as stakeholders.

Editorial Board Service
Global Perspectives, University of California Press, 2016 to present. Founding Section Editor.
Journal of Population & Sustainability, White Horse Publishing, 2020 to present. Editorial Board.
Demography, Duke University Press, 2022 to present. Editor-in-Chief.

Registration includes a lecture reception with heavy hors d’oeuvres and beverages.

Questions?

For questions, contact OMA&D Advancement at morac@uw.edu.

Both the Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center and the Alder Hall Auditorium are accessible for people with limited mobility. This event will have ASL interpreters and CART captioning live. The recording of this event will have closed captioning.

Alder Hall auditorium has limited wheelchair-accessible seating. To request disability accommodation, contact the Disability Services Office at 206-543-6450 (voice), 206-543-6452 (TTY), 206-685-7264 (fax), or dso@uw.edu.

The University of Washington makes every effort to honor disability accommodation requests. Requests can be responded to most effectively if received as far in advance of the event as possible, preferably at least 10 days.

About Dr. Samuel E. Kelly

Dr. Samuel E. Kelly was hired as the first vice president for the newly formed Office of Minority Affairs in 1970. Also the first African American senior administrator at the UW, Dr. Kelly was an educational advocate who opened doors for hundreds of underrepresented students at the UW. Many of the programs and services that he established during his six-year tenure still exist today. Among his accomplishments was securing funding to house sites for both the Ethnic Cultural Center (renovated and renamed in his honor in 2015) and the Instructional Center in 1971. Dr. Kelly passed away on July 6, 2009.