Member of the Month: Maggie Hicken
Sue BevanMaggie is a Research Assistant Professor (tenure track) in the Social Environment and Health Program/Survey Research Center/Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. She is a Social Demographer and Epidemiologist. She joined IAPHS in 2016. Learn more about Maggie on her website or follow her on twitter @mhicken. You can also follow her lab on twitter: University of Michigan RacismLab: @RacismLab.
Tell us a little about yourself, where are you from, where did you go to graduate school, what makes you jump out of bed each morning?
I grew up in Nebraska, but also spent a lot of time in North Carolina before moving to Michigan for graduate school. I love being an interdisciplinary researcher, especially at UM ISR, where this type of research is really supported.
How do you define yourself as a population health professional?
I think the first word that describes me within population health boundaries is transdisciplinary. While my doctoral degree is in public health, I had the good fortune to be trained in the interdisciplinary Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan. The emphasis of my training was on the science and theory, no matter the discipline – so much so that I recall not really understanding these disciplinary boundaries after graduating. Of course, I have grown to understand how research is crafted in different disciplines, but I still maintain that original transdisciplinary core, integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches from across the social and biomedical sciences along with the arts and humanities. I have found that this approach — and its potential to better clarify the social determinants of health inequities and identify intervention points — is what makes science so exciting and powerful.
Member of the Month: Michael Esposito
Sue BevanMike is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Michigan, Survey Research Center and Institute for Social Research. He is a sociologist and demographer by training. He joined IAPHS in 2016. Learn more about Mike at his website: www.mhesposito.com or follow him on twitter @mhespo.Tell us a little about yourself, where are you from, where did you go to graduate school, what makes you jump out of bed each morning?
I’m from Kansas City, Missouri originally. I did my undergraduate degree at the University of Missouri and my PhD at the University of Washington. (You couldn’t pick two more disparate places.) Besides fear of unemployment, the opportunity to “solve problems” gets me out of bed in the morning. Academia, thankfully, supplies a steady-stream of difficult intellectual puzzles that are fun to solve; it keeps me going!
How do you define yourself as a population health professional?
I’m a “heavily-quantitative, race and population health scientist.” I’m a researcher first, behind university walls, but certainly hope that my work is useful for the public!
What disciplines do you engage with and are there disciplines that you would like to engage with?
The scholars that I work with most are demographers, sociologists, and epidemiologists. I’d like to engage more with folks from the humanities; the lateral-thinking and critical-skills that those disciplines stress—and that are sometimes secondary in social-science programs—would, I think, make their scholars valuable, fun collaborators.