The Population and Development Program (PDP) seeks to facilitate research on population dynamics. In pursuit of this goal, it promotes collaboration among scholars of diverse disciplines in the Cornell community who teach and conduct research on population issues and relationships. The PDP also supports graduate training in demography for students from throughout the world and an undergraduate concentration in population studies.
Cornell provides a wealth of highly articulated international centers of teaching, research and interchange that advance PDP's work. The Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies (CIS) serves as the focal point for international studies at Cornell and currently oversees six Title VI National Resource Centers in the areas of Latin American Studies, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Slavic and East European Studies, and Western Societies. Thirteen other development and topical studies programs, including the PDP, also participate in CIS programs. The CIS network offers faculty and students rich opportunities to interact both on campus and internationally with development experts knowledgeable about diverse geographic and cultural areas and about the role of population in the political, social, environmental, and economic processes shaping development and human welfare.
Linkages between population studies and other fields are also furthered by Cornell's establishment of two centers: the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD) and the Center for the Environment (CFE). Both of these centers represent ambitious efforts to bring diverse perspectives, including those on population issues, to the problems of food, sustainable development, and environment. Collaboration between PDP and other units at Cornell, particularly the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center, the Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research (CISER), and the Community and Rural Development Institute, also advances understanding of the role of demographic processes in families, communities, and other aspects of institutional life in the United States.
Based in the Department of Development Sociology, the Program assists the Field of Development Sociology in administering a Graduate Training Program in Population and Development and maintains a Population Library that gives faculty and students access to a wide range of population materials. PDP Associates are situated in 9 Cornell departments and private demographic companies in Ithaca and Virginia.
