Students
BSPS postgraduate student rep.
Joe Strong is a PhD candidate at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the BSPS postgraduate student representative. He attends BSPS council meetings to represent the views of BSPS student members, and can be reached at j.strong3@lse.ac.uk for any students wanting to discuss BSPS matters.
To any students studying population related topics (yes, you!), join BSPS! With your membership, you can:
Present your work at the annual BSPS conference, with the support of student member's bursaries from the organisation.
Get involved with the ‘PhD only’ conference, PopFest. The annual conference is a friendly environment to present and receive feedback from your peers.
Engage socially and professionally with a community of young researchers, and find out more about funding and career opportunities.
If you have any questions, thoughts or ideas, please contact Joe at j.strong3@lse.ac.uk or follow him on twitter @JoeStrongDemog
BSPS Masters Dissertation Prize 2023
Entries are invited for the 2023 BSPS Prize for the entry judged to be the best MSc. Dissertation on a demographic topic during the year 2022 (which would normally be at or around distinction level). Entries should be in PDF format, one PDF per entry please. Please note that all entries should be submitted by the institution awarding the degree, or by the supervising academic, and not by the authors themselves. A maximum of two entries per institution will be accepted. A word limit of 12,000 words per entry is encouraged, on the basis that it is very difficult to judge and compare entries of vastly differing lengths. However, longer dissertations may also be entered, with a section not exceeding the given word limit being nominated for judging. A cash prize of £300 is offered, which will be increased to £400 if there is a tie for first place and the Prize is split between two winners. The winner(s) will be announced at the BSPS Conference in September. For the purposes of this prize, demography is defined as
- the scientific study of human populations, especially with reference to their size, structure & distribution
- the scientific study of the determining processes, such as fertility, mortality and migration, and the relationship of these with the social, economic and cultural context within which they exist.
Entries should be received as email attachments by 30 April 2023 at the BSPS Secretariat - pic@lse.ac.uk
BSPS Masters dissertation award 2021
The winners of the 2021 BSPS Masters dissertation prize were announced at the 2021 virtual Conference. The award was made jointly to Isabelle Carter (LSE) for her dissertation: Challenging the assumption of linearity in the epidemiological transition of historical England and Wales and Corrina Horan (LSHTM) for her dissertation: The impact of Covid-19 lockdown on delivery of services by Marie Stopes International Clinics in Nepal’
Corrina’s dissertation is an innovative study of the effect of the Covid lockdown on sexual health and reproductive health services in Nepal, using fascinating microdata on service usage. It provides a contribution to population studies and demographic knowledge by increasing understanding of a new unmet need for contraception and abortion in light of Covid-19. The literature review is excellent and the author offers a very good account of the strengths and pitfalls of the analysis. The research design is novel, estimating multiple interrupted time series and summarising them with a meta-analysis. The presentation of material was of a very high standard indeed; despite the complexity of the study there is a lightness of touch in the text which makes this dissertation easy to read. The numerous excellent figures helped to make the results even more accessible. The judges hope to see it in published form soon.
The panel agreed that Izzi’s dissertation is also very well written and a pleasure to read. The research questions, posing an interesting challenge to the established demographic theory of the epidemiological transition, are clearly articulated. The author makes a clear contribution to population studies and demographic knowledge by examining the concept of a double burden of disease in relation to epidemiological transition, more often applied to modern Low and Middle Income Countries, to nineteenth century England and Wales. The literature review is comprehensive and engaging, and manages to convey the main theoretical concepts used with clarity. The work is ambitious in scope, convincingly arguing that one of the major theories in demography should be reconsidered. The results are fascinating and detailed, and we very much hope the author will publish them with visualisations of the key results, from the extensive tables of mortality rates by cause, gender and age, to make them accessible to the widest possible audience.