Seminar organized by the IUSSP Scientific Panel on Historical Demography and hosted by the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi

CALL FOR PAPERS: Deadline for submission of abstracts: March 1st 2015

In recent years many new data sources have become available to historical demographers, which often include detailed geographical information allowing for sophisticated spatial analysis. Full-count data from national censuses with geographical identifiers at low levels of aggregation, even at the scale of the individual, as well as detailed historical maps of cities and countrysides are two examples of such developments. The linkage of contextual information to micro-level socioeconomic and demographic data further enrich these data sources and opens up a whole new range of possibilities for greatly improving our understanding of demographic patterns in the past. Spatial modeling of fertility and mortality change in the past, or of the diffusion of new behavior in family formation and partner selection could make major contributions for our understanding of the first demographic transition. The analytical possibilities afforded by utilizing a historical GIS offers a completely new perspective and knowledge about the interaction between climatic, environmental, socioeconomic and demographic processes relating to health, mortality, migration, and families in the past.

The aim of this seminar is to stimulate original research in historical demography making use of these new data resources and infrastructures to address the major themes of the discipline and to bring together researchers from various backgrounds interested in spatial analysis in historical demography.

Issues of interest include, but are not limited to:
1) Macro-level analysis such as cluster analysis, spatial modelling of aggregate data, multilevel models of spatial structures using GIS;
2) Micro-level analysis such as spatial analysis of life trajectories (marriage, fertility, mortality and migration), interactions between life courses and mobility, environment and social mobility;
3) Macro-micro interactions such as contextual effects on individual life courses.

Although most papers are expected to make empirical contributions, more theoretical or methodological papers are also welcome, as long as they deal with the main topic of the seminar. We encourage submissions covering a variety of geographical scales, from small areas to entire countries or group of countries.

Online Submissions: The IUSSP Panel on Historical Demography invites researchers to submit online, by March 1st 2015 an extended abstract (2 to 4 pages, including tables) or a full unpublished paper for consideration. Please include a short 200-word abstract on the first page of your submission. To submit and fill out the online submission form, please click here: online submission form (to be added in January – contact organizers listed below).

The seminar will be limited to a maximum of 20 completed papers. The working language of the seminar will be English. Abstracts and final papers should therefore be submitted and presented in English. Submission should be made by the author who will attend the seminar. If the paper is co-authored, please include the names of your co-authors in your submission form (in the appropriate order).

Applicants will be notified whether their paper has been accepted by April 1st 2015.

Authors of accepted papers must upload the full paper on the IUSSP website by August 31st 2015.

The Panel plans to publish a set of the papers presented at the seminar as a special issue of a peer-reviewed journal or in an edited volume.

There is no fee to attend the seminar but participants must cover their travel and accommodation costs. The meeting will take place in Quebec City, Canada. Participants will be advised of a selection of hotels nearby the venue.

For further information, please contact one of the seminar organizers:

Martin Dribe, Lund University (martin.dribe@ekh.lu.se)
Diego Ramiro, Spanish Council for Scientific Research (diego.ramiro@cchs.csic.es)
Hélène Vézina, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (hvezina@uqac.ca)
Don Lafreniere, Michigan Technological University (djlafren@mtu.edu)

International Conference on Population Geographies 2015

The Spatial Dimensions of Population

30 June to 3 July 2015

The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

Dear colleague,

We are delighted to announce that the 8th International Conference on Population Geographies will be held at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, from 30th June to 3rd July 2015. The call for papers is now open. The deadline for submissions is Monday 16th February 2015.

We invite papers from all fields of population geography and allied disciplines, especially contributions around the following themes:

Spatial demography
Migration and development
Ethnicity and segregation
Migration and the environment
Households and housing
Demography of the life course
Fertility and the family
Towards the end: death and dying
Ageing and morbidity
Indigenous populations
Official statistics
Exploiting big data
Data visualisation and communication
Demographic projections
Applications of demography
Population health

We also welcome proposals for other sessions and offers to organise or convene sessions.

Abstracts for papers and posters should be around 250 words and include the title, authors, affiliations, and contact email, and be sent to icpg2015@uq.edu.au. For all other aspects of the conference, contact icpg2015@absoluteevents.com.au.

Key dates

Monday 16th February 2015 – Deadline for submitting abstracts
Monday 9th March 2015 – Notification of acceptance.
Monday 16th March – Registration opens.
Monday 4th May – Deadline for Early bird Registration.
Other essential details of the conference including venue, accommodation, and travel will be made available progressively on the Conference website at: http://www.icpg2015.org

It is with great pleasure that Jeremy and I as Editors-in-Chief welcome you to Spatial Demography. We have collaborated with the PressForward project, at George Mason University, to build a home for this new journal outlet for demographers and others who use spatial data, methods, and theory. We anticipate your submissions to the journal at: submissions@spatialdemography.org. This journal has no submission or page-charge fees as is customary with nearly all journals today.

But this website is more than the typical academic journal published on a quarterly basis. We hope that you will register for the Forum area and post your thoughts about the work being done by others as well as yourself. Because so many forum areas are replete with spam postings, we are requiring nominal registration so as to keep spammers quiet there. Our privacy assurance is absolute: we will never share your information with anyone! Period. The four area Editors each have their own topical areas in the Forum in addition to others. We hope that you will dialog with your peers here so that a community of scholars can be created through this website. This was one of the issues identified in December 2011 by the NIH-sponsored meeting of Specialists at UC-Santa Barbara.

The journal will publish a quarterly issue with four per volume. But the Online First section will contain each article as soon as it is ready for public display. This will reduce the time-to-publication significantly. Commentary on published articles will take place in the Forum area, allowing authors to amplify their work, gaining insight as to building it forward toward better science. We will moderate those discussions to ensure civility in academic discourse.

In the planning stages, we will publish podcasts of interviews with interesting scholars doing work contributing to spatial demography. These interviews will be in the Connections (forthcoming) area of the website. Because they are licensed under the Creative Commons licensing model, they can be used as class material, for rebroadcast elsewhere, and so forth.

So come on in. The water’s fine!