Brian Thiede

Assistant or Associate Professor of Rural Sociology APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS: CURRENT PENN STATE EMPLOYEE (faculty, staff, technical service, or student), please login to Workday to complete the internal application process. Please do not apply here, a...

My program is hiring in population health, at the assistant or associate level. See below and please feel free to email me with any questions.

psu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/PSU_Ac...

New preprint w/ @brianthiede.bsky.social and the Nye lab of @unc-emes.bsky.social!:

Marine Heatwaves and Undernutrition in Low- and Middle-Income Countries osf.io/preprints/so...

Climate Change, Environmental Hazards, & Population Dynamics: 1st Climate Conference @mpidr.bsky.social discusses connections between environmental #Hazards #Sustainability & the impact on #SocialInequalities #Mortality #Migration #Fertility #HumanCapital #Health:
www.demogr.mpg.de/en/news_even...

New paper on flooding and birth rates in Bangladesh with @valmuellerasu.bsky.social (and others):

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

New paper, led by former Penn State Rural Sociology graduate student Cara Adrien, on environmental shocks and child fostering:

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

It was so fun to talk about our book "Migration and Displacement in a Changing Climate" with Hannah! You can listen to the conversation here. @universitypress.cambridge.org @rmcleman.bsky.social @kayly.bsky.social
newbooksnetwork.com/migration-an...

Ecology & Society: “The future for pastoralists is dark unless something is done”: illuminating the constraints and opportunities for a climate-resilient future for Kenyan pastoralists Despite pastoralists’ contributions to local food systems in arid and semi-arid regions of the world, resource constraints, conflict, and climate emergencies are threatening pastoralists’ abilities to...

Check out our new paper on how pastoralists are coping with resource constraints, conflict, and climate extremes. In collaboration with Borana & Turkana pastoralists we used photo elicitation and interviews to understand their constraints and resources to adapt. ecologyandsociety.org/vol30/iss2/a...

Woods

From parenthood to planet care? The evolution of environmental and climate concerns during family formation - Population and Environment We examine the effect of childbirth on parents’ environmental and climate concerns, focusing on potentially dynamic changes in concerns within a time span of 2 years before and up to 10 years after bi...

Right on time for #WorldEnvironmentDay🌍:
Does having a child make parents care more about the planet?

Together with @guzoch.bsky.social, I found: not always—and not in the same way for everyone.

📄 New study in Population and Environment:
doi.org/10.1007/s111...
#ClimateChange #Parenting #Sociology

🚨 The end of an era for global health data — and a defining crossroads.

In Jan 2025, the DHS Program—the backbone of health & demographic data in 90+ countries—was terminated after US aid cuts of up to 84%.

Our researchers & global collaborators reflect on it in a recent pre-print🧵

New paper in Population and Environment by Choquette-Levy et al. examining how farmers’ information sources, social capital, and previous exposure to climate hazards shape climate risk perceptions and livelihood decisions.

Available here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

New paper in Population and Environment by Choquette-Levy et al. examining how farmers’ information sources, social capital, and previous exposure to climate hazards shape climate risk perceptions and livelihood decisions.

Available here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Observed average temperate trends, expressed as multiples of historical standard deviations for maize-growing regions and seasons, 1974–2023.

About 45% of summer cropland and 32% of winter cropland around the world have warmed significantly in the last 50 years, according to a study. Climate change has lowered yields of wheat, maize, and barley by 10%, 4%, and 13%, respectively. In PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Mismeasured weather and the challenges of satellite data

Mismeasured weather & satellite data: Patrick Behrer summarizes new work on the performance of 9 of the most commonly used earth observation datasets. "Depending on which you use, the estimated impact of weather on agricultural outcomes varies, sometimes wildly"
blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

‼️Still time to submit your abstract (250 words) to #BSPS in Swansea on 2-4 September by Friday 9 May! 🌱📪

📣Call for Papers‼️Only 2 weeks left!
Conference "Climate Change, Environmental Hazards and Population Dynamics"
Speakers: J.Ballester, J.Kephart, R.Muttarak, V.Mueller, B.Thiede & D.Balk!
📅Nov 11–12, 2025
🗺️ @mpidr.bsky.social
📰Submission Deadline: May 15, 2025
www.demogr.mpg.de/en/news_even...

Our work on Air Quality Monitoring Deserts featured in @pnas.org Bluesky!

Rothrock in the spring is hard to beat.

Questionnaire on the use of the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data Please click the link to complete this form.

Users of the Demographic and Health Surveys, please take the United Nations Statistics Division DHS impact survey (form.jotform.com/250913880478...) regarding recent cuts. Replies inform future planning and advocacy. All responses are confidential and presented only in aggregate.

Excited to have @clarklgray.bsky.social as our @pop.psu.edu seminar speaker today, talking about "Measuring Climate Vulnerability using Big Population Data":

pop.psu.edu/events/pri-b...

Thrilled to see our new paper "Climate Change, Extreme Weather Events, Food Security, and Nutrition: Evolving Relationships and Critical Challenges" in the Annual Review of Nutrition! Check it out! shorturl.at/qHxNz

Register now for the PRI Methods Workshop on hard-to-reach populations held May 13.

tinyurl.com/2025gradmeth...

‪Working paper led by Jorden Jackson (w/ @clarklgray.bsky.social): osf.io/ryfdm_v1.

We use linked historical US census data to examine the impacts of weather shocks on socioeconomic attainment in the early 1900s.

(2) Grant & Curtis: "Fertility intentions in rural Malawi after Cyclone Idai" (link.springer.com/article/10.1...)

Two new papers in POEN on population-environment dynamics in Malawi:

(1) @heatherrandell.bsky.social et al. "Environmental change, aquatic conditions, and household food security" (link.springer.com/article/10.1...)

#PAA2025 meeting has been the best I can remember for environmental demography.
Great to see @valmuellerasu.bsky.social, @heatherrandell.bsky.social, @brianthiede.bsky.social and many others 😊

Details for the #PAA2025 run below, thanks to @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social for organizing 😊 and if you’re a demog runner come join us on Strava! strava.app.link/oxhaD2a5gSb