Recent News
News from Dean Wallerstein - Maxwell Professor Christine Himes named director of the Center for Policy Research.
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"I am delighted that Christine Himes has accepted my invitation to become the next director of the Center for Policy Research," says Dean Mitchel Wallerstein. "She is a long-time faculty member of CPR, and has built an impressive record of scholarship, pedagogy, and administration during her 14 years in the Maxwell School’s Department of Sociology. Chris served for five years as the Chair of the department, during which time she impressed me with her effective management skills and strong leadership abilities. I am confident on this basis that Professor Himes will bring new energy and vision to the Center and help it to move forward with its important work. I also would like to thank Professor Douglas Wolf for his leadership as Interim Director of CPR. Doug was able to bring to bear his long experience and his knowledge of CPR in shepherding the Center through this transition. He will hand off the leadership responsibilities with the organization in stable condition." Himes has worked and published in the areas of family care giving, demography and population projections, and patterns of health and mortality in later life. Her recent research has focused on the role of obesity in health and functioning at older ages. She has served as a consultant to the Bureau of the Census and to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. In 2007, she was honored as SU’s United Methodist University Scholar/Teacher of the Year. Himes received her Ph.D. in demography and sociology from the University of Pennsylvania.
Usdansky Study Published.
Margaret Usdansky, assistant professor of sociology, recently had a study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family. The report examined depictions of single-parent families in samples of popular magazines and social science journals. The study showed that critical depictions of divorce plummeted in magazines and journals during the 20th century. The decline was not driven by any increase in favorable depictions of divorce, but the virtual disappearance of normative debate over whether divorce was good or bad reflected an ambivalent acceptance of divorce. Read more.
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