Africa Initiative

Susan Short is the Robert E. Turner Distinguished Professor of Population Studies and Professor of Sociology at Brown University. Short's research sits at the intersection of gender, demography, and global population health. She is an expert in population and population policy and is especially interested in how changing social, political, and demographic environments are related to health and well-being. Among other topics, she has written on women's work, time use, reproductive health, and child well-being. She has written about these topics in the U.S., China, Lesotho, and other countries. Her recent work integrates social and biological perspectives to investigate the processes through which social contexts and experiences are embodied over the life course, producing variation in health and well-being. Her work has been featured in a wide range of publications including Demography, Population and Development Review, Population Research and Policy Review, the American Sociological Review, and the American Journal of Public Health. Short is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.