Angela M O'Rand

I joined the Duke University Sociology faculty in 1979. I am affiliated with the Duke University Population Research Institute's Center for Social Demography and Ethnography, the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development as a Senior Fellow and the Center for Genome Ethics, Law and Policy. I am also the Director of Duke University's Focus program for first-year students. I teach regularly in Focus courses that address themes related to biology and society (e.g. Evolution and Humankind) and in graduate seminars focused on the demography of aging and inequality. Among the courses I teach regularly are Social Inequality (SOC 111), Science and Technology in a Global Context (SOC 156), Biology and Society (SOC 101B)and Stratification and the Life Course (SOC 228).

Contact Info 

Location: 268 Soc-Psych

Office Phone: 919-660-5629

Office Fax: (919) 668-2729

Email Address:  

Mailing Address: Department of Sociology Duke University Box 90088 Durham, NC 27708

Education:

• Ph.D., Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1974
• M.A.(Honors), University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon,, 1969
• B.A.(Honors), University of the Pacific, Stockton, California,, 1967

Areas of Interest:
Stratification/Mobility,
Life Course Studies,
Population Aging,
Social Organization of Science

Research Summary:
My major research interests focus on patterns of inequality across the life span, with a special interest in the temporal diversity of life transitions and their consequences for later life. Over twenty eight years I have examined workplace policies related to wage and benefit structures and the impact of workers' educational, work and family histories on wage and fringe benefit outcomes. The changing employment relationship and the re-organization of retirement institutions (especially pensions) have been a central concern of my research. Most recently, I have turned to the cumulative impact of economic adversity on midlife health risks, such as heart attack. This research has uncovered the persistent effects of childhood adversity on midlife heart attack risk, especially among women. I am expanding this focus over the next 5 years.

Curriculum Vitae

Representative Publications   (More Publications)

1. Hughes, M. E. and A. M. O’Rand, The Lives and Times of the Baby Boom. (2004), Census 2000 monograph. New York: Russell Sage/Population Reference Bureau .
2. O’Rand, A. M. and Hamil-Luker, Jenifer, “Processes of cumulative adversity linking childhood disadvantage toincreased risk of heart attack across the life course.”, Journal of Gerontology—Social Sciences, vol. 60B (October, 2005), pp. 117-124 .
3. Shuey, Kim and O’Rand, A. M., "New risks for workers: Gender, labor markets and pensions.", Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 30 (2004) .
4. Elman, Cheryl and O’Rand, A. M., “The race is to the swift: socioeconomic origins, adult education and mid-life economic attainment.”, American Journal of Sociology, vol. 110 no. 1 (2004) .
5. O’Rand, A.M., “The future of the life course: Late modernity and life course risks.”, in Handbook of the Life Course, edited by J. T. Mortimer and M. Shanahan (2003), pp. 693-701, New York: Plenum .