Boston-Area Health Scholars (BAHS) brings together social scientists, epidemiologists, medical scholars and other faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students who study health, broadly defined. The group began in Fall 2019 as a forum for bringing together medical sociologists from the greater Boston area to present their research, discuss new articles, and participate in professional development workshops. This group, Boston-Area Medical Sociologists (BAMS), expanded its focus to include a broader range of scholars, and was renamed BAHS in Fall 2021. The group originally represented scholars from Boston-area schools including Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis, Brown,  Harvard, Northeastern, Simmons, UMass-Boston, and more. We now have participants from throughout the U.S. who participate via Zoom. BAHS is eager to return to its original “live” format, meeting monthly in the BU Sociology department for dinner, drinks, and discussion! Please sign up for BAHS here, and reach out to Deborah Carr (carrds@bu.edu) for further information, or to speak at an upcoming event.

Spring 2023 Events.

Tuesday April 4, 2023. 3:30-5 pm This session will feature researchers who are presenting their work at the mid-April annual meetings of the Population Association of America. If you are interested in presenting your work at this PAA practice session, please contact Deborah Carr (carrds@bu.edu). Audience members are encouraged to provide feedback to the presenters. We will meet via Zoom at this link.  Presentations will include:

  • Leah Abrams (assistant professor of community health, Tufts University). “Job Transitions and Mental health Outcomes among US Adults Aged 55 and Older during the COVID-19 Pandemic.”
  • Robbee Wedow (assistant professor of sociology, Purdue University).  “Patterns of Item Nonresponse Behavior to Survey Questionnaires are Systematic and Have a Genetic Basis.” 
  • Deborah Carr (professor of sociology, Boston University), Leping Wang (graduate student, sociology, Boston University), and Pamela Smock (professor of sociology, University of Michigan.” Gender Differences in the Economic Consequences of Life-Long Singlehood among Older White U.S. Adults.”

Tuesday February 28, 2023. 4-5:30 p.m. We will hold a discussion on the topic “Choosing a Peer-Review Journal for your Research.” Panelists Deborah Carr (BU), Joseph Harris (BU) and Sara Shostak (Brandeis) will provide a brief overview of strategies for identifying potential homes for your research. We will then open the floor for discussion, when attendees can provide an overview of their latest paper, and brainstorm together about finding an appropriate target journal, and framing the paper so that it is appealing to the target journal’s editor, reviewers, and readers. We will meet via Zoom at this link.

More events… to be announced.

Fall 2022 Events.

Thursday December 15, 2022. 3-4:30 p.m. This session will feature two works-in-progress focused on sensory impairments and disability in later life. Alyssa Goldman (assistant professor of sociology, Boston College) will discuss “Sensory Health and Functional Limitations among Older Adults in the United States: A Neighborhood Context Approach.” Shinae Choi (former visiting scholar, Center for Innovation in Social Science, Boston University and associate professor of consumer science, University of Alabama) and Deborah Carr (CISS director, and professor of sociology, Boston University) will discuss “Disability and Health Care Services Use Among Older Americans During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Is Telehealth a Substitute or Supplement to Traditional Care?” The event will take place at this Zoom link.

Spring 2022 Events

Thursday February 24, 2022. 5-6:30 p.m. Alyssa Goldman (assistant professor of sociology at Boston College) and Nell Compernolle (research scientist at NORC at the University of Chicago) will present their latest work “Social Network Size, Real-Time Loneliness, and Gender: Buffer or Risk Factor, and for Whom?” This project uses a new dataset that collected ecological momentary assessments from older adults living in Chicago using smartphones over the course of three one-week periods, and enables an exploration of social networks and “real-time” loneliness. Click here for the Zoom link.

Wednesday March 30, 2022. 4-5:30 p.m. Tiffany Joseph (associate professor of sociology and international affairs at Northeastern University) will discuss the introduction to her book manuscript Not All In: Race, Immigration, and Healthcare Exclusion in America’s City on a Hill. She will discuss the theoretical framework of racialized legal status that motivates the book project. The book reveals how intersectional forms of discrimination undermine the effectiveness of policies intended to improve health coverage and access for socially disadvantaged populations. Register here to attend the Zoom session and to receive the chapter draft.

Thursday, April 28, 2022.  4:30-6 p.m. Lacee Satcher (assistant professor of sociology and environmental studies at Boston College) will present on her new project “Are There Regional Differences in Mental Health among Black Americans? An Exploration of Explanatory Mechanisms.” Click here for the Zoom link. 

Fall 2021 Events
Thursday November 18, 2021. 4:30-6 pm. Yue Qin, formerly at Boston College and now a doctoral candidate in sociology at University of Wisconsin-Madison,  presented her work “Relationship with Parents and Chinese Adults’ Depression in Mid and Later life.” This is a collaborative project with Professors Sara Moorman (Department of Sociology, Boston College) and Jooyoung Kong (School of Social Work, University of Wisconsin). Click here for Zoom link.

Some of our recent research presentations have included:

  • Leah Abrams (Sloan Postdoctoral Fellow on Aging and Work, Harvard Pop Center). “Job Transitions and Mental Health Outcomes among US adults aged 55 and Older during the COVID-19 Pandemic.”
  • Ailish Burns (doctoral candidate, sociology, Brown University). “A Longitudinal Perspective of Weathering: Race, Age, and Maternal Health.”
  • Xuemei Cao (doctoral candidate, sociology, SUNY Albany). “Seeking Transnational Social Protection during a Global Pandemic: The Case of Chinese Immigrants in the United States.”
  • Neil Gong (assistant professor, sociology, University of California-San Diego). “Sons, Daughters, and Sidewalk Psychotics: Madness and Inequality in Los Angeles.”
  • Ya-Ching Huang (doctoral candidate, sociology, Boston University) and Alya Guseva (associate professor, sociology, Boston University). “The Moral Economy of Home-Made Masks in the Times of COVID-19.”
  • In Jeong Hwang (doctoral candidate, sociology, Harvard). “Health Consequences of Grandmotherhood in South Korea”
  • Yue Qin (doctoral candidate, sociology, Boston College). “Adult Children’s Intergenerational Mobility and Older Adults’ Mental Health: A US-China Comparison”
  • Kristen Tzoc (doctoral candidate, sociology, Boston University). “Do (Un)met Career Expectations Influence Early Adulthood Depressive symptoms? A Longitudinal Study.”
  • Caoyifu (“CZ”) Zhou (doctoral candidate, sociology Boston University). “Widowhood, Prosocial Behaviors, and Mental Health: Gender and Race Differences.”

Professional development panels have included:

  • Grant Proposal Writing Workshop
  • Publishing in Peer-Reviewed Journals Workshop