Sara Curran

About

Sara R. Curran joined the faculty of the University of Washington's Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies and the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy & Governance in 2005. She holds the positions of Professor of International Studies, Professor of Sociology, and Professor of Public Policy & Governance. Additionally, she is an Adjunct Professor of Global Health and affiliate faculty of the Center for Global Studies, the Southeast Asian Center, the Technology and Social Change Group (TASCHA), and EarthLab. Curran earned her B.S. in Natural Resource Management from the University of Michigan, an M.S. in Sociology and Economics from North Carolina State University, and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She currently serves as director of the University of Washington's Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology and as Associate Vice Provost for Research in the Office of Research, where she chaired a Task Force on Advancing Equity in Research with activities planned to build on the report's recommendations in 2024. Her research focuses on demographic dynamics, gender, migration, and environmental issues across global contexts. Current projects include improving small area population estimates, studying social change and migration dynamics, examining the impacts of climate change and natural disasters on population change, and conducting applied research and training related to global studies. Curran has contributed…

Research topics

• Sociology
• Political Science
• Computer Science
• Medical education
• Economics
• Environmental planning
• Geography
• Engineering
• Pedagogy
• Environmental science

Selected publications

• The Transnationalized Social Question: Migration and the Politics of Social Inequalities in the Twenty-First Century

  Contemporary Sociology A Journal of Reviews · 2020 · 42 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Forest Restoration in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

  Annual Review of Environment and Resources · 2021 · 37 citations

  A series of international initiatives have set ambitious goals for restoring global forests. This review synthesizes natural and social science research on forest restoration (FR), with a focus on restoration on cleared land in low- and middle-income countries. We define restoration more broadly than reestablishing native forests, given that landholders might prefer other forest types. We organize the review loosely around ideas in the forest transition literature. We begin by examining recent t…

  PublisherDOI

• Redefining “abandoned” agricultural land in the context of reforestation

  Frontiers in Forests and Global Change · 2022-08-22 · 21 citations

  articleOpen access

  Global mapping efforts to date have relied on vague and oversimplified definitions of "abandoned" agricultural land which results in overestimates of the land area that is likely to support persistent increases in forest cover and associated carbon sequestration. We propose a new conceptualization of abandoned agricultural land that incorporates changes in landholding status over time into determining whether land should be considered as abandoned. In order to develop more realistic estimates of…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Managing and minimizing online survey questionnaire fraud: lessons from the Triple C project

  International Journal of Social Research Methodology · 2023-07-03 · 16 citations

  articleOpen access

  With the increasing sophistication of online survey tools and the necessity of distanced research during the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of online questionnaires for research purposes has proliferated. Still, many researchers undertake online survey research without knowledge of the prevalence and likelihood of experiencing survey questionnaire fraud nor familiarity with measures used to identify fraud once it has occurred. This research note is based on the experience of researchers across four…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Analyzing Tweeting Patterns and Public Engagement on Twitter During the Recognition Period of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Study of Two U.S. States

  IEEE Access · 2022-01-01 · 15 citations

  articleOpen access

  The abundance of available information on social media can provide invaluable insights into people's responses to health information and public health guidance concerning COVID-19. This study examines tweeting patterns and public engagement on Twitter, as forms of social media, related to public health messaging in two U.S. states (Washington and Louisiana) during the early stage of the pandemic. We analyze more than 7M tweets and 571K COVID-19-related tweets posted by users in the two states ov…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Administrative Core

  NIH · $10.4M · 2002–2027

• Developmental Infrastructure Core

  NIH · $12.4M · 2016–2017

• Population Research Training

  NIH · $2.3M · 2002–2018

Frequent coauthors

• Filiz Garip

  7 shared

• Wendy Cadge

  Brandeis University

  7 shared

• Christine Leibbrand

  University of Washington

  7 shared

• Meryl J. Williams

  6 shared

• Tundi Agardy

  6 shared

• Peggy Levitt

  Wellesley College

  5 shared

• Barbara Entwisle

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  5 shared

• Wolfgang Lutz

  International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis

  5 shared

Education

• PhD, Sociology

  University of North Carolina

  1994

• MS, Sociology

  North Carolina State University

  1989

• BS, School of Environmental Affairs and Sciences

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  1983

Similar researchers at University of Washington

• Ann Bostromh-48
• Sandra Archibaldh-34
• C. Leigh Andersonh-22