Jennifer Karas Montez
University Professor, Sociology
Gerald B. Cramer Faculty Scholar in Aging Studies
Director of the Center for Aging and Policy Studies
Co-Director of the Policy, Place, and Population Health Lab
Faculty Associate, Aging Studies Institute
Aging Studies Institute
Degree
Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin, 2011
Specialties
Demography; political economy and population health; life course and aging
Courses
SOC 101:
Introduction to Sociology
SOC 714:
Intermediate Social Statistics
SOC 800: Human Conquest of Disease & Early Death
SOC 813:
Advanced Social Statistics
Biography
Jennifer Karas Montez earned a PhD in Sociology with a Demography specialization from the University of Texas at Austin in 2011. Afterwards, she spent two years at the Harvard School of Public Health as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholar, and then two years at Case Western Reserve University as an Assistant Professor of Sociology, before joining the Department of Sociology at Syracuse University.
Montez’s research investigates the troubling trends in population health in the United States since the 1980s and the growing influence of state policies and politics on those trends. A major focus of this work has been understanding why the trends are particularly worrisome for women, for people without a college degree, and for those living in states in the South and Midwest. Her research has been funded by the NIH, NSF, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship.
Montez directs the NIA-funded Center for Aging and Policy Studies, co-directs the NIA-funded Network on Life Course Health Dynamics and Disparities, and co-directs the Policy, Place, and Population Health (P3H) Lab at Syracuse University. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Population Association of America and Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science; and serves on the editorial boards of Demography, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, and The Milbank Quarterly.
Publications
A
sample of publications (see CV for complete list):
Jennifer
Karas Montez. 2020. “US
State Polarization, Policymaking Power, and Population Health.” The Milbank Quarterly 98(4):1033-1052.
Jennifer
Karas Montez, Jason
Beckfield, Julene Kemp Cooney, Jacob M. Grumbach, Mark D. Hayward, Huseyin Zeyd Koytak, Steven H. Woolf, & Anna Zajacova. 2020. “US State Policies, Politics, and Life
Expectancy.” The
Milbank Quarterly 98(3):668-699.
Jennifer
Karas Montez, Mark
D. Hayward, and Anna Zajacova. 2019.
“Educational Disparities in U.S. Adult
Health: U.S. States as Institutional Actors on the Association.” Socius: 5:1-14.
Jennifer
Karas Montez, Anna Zajacova, Mark D. Hayward, Steven H. Woolf, Derek Chapman,
& Jason Beckfield. 2019. “Educational Disparities in Adult Mortality across
U.S. States: How Do They Differ and Have They Changed Since the Mid-1980s?” Demography 56(2):621-644
Jennifer
Karas Montez. 2017. “Deregulation, Devolution, and State
Preemption Laws’ Impact on U.S. Mortality Trends.” American Journal of Public Health 107(11):1749-1750.
Jennifer Karas Montez, Anna Zajacova, and
Mark D. Hayward. 2017. “Disparities in Disability by Educational Attainment
across U.S. States.” American Journal of
Public Health 107(7):1101-1108. PMCID: PMC5463211
Jennifer Karas Montez, Mark D. Hayward,
and Douglas A. Wolf. 2017. “Do U.S. States’ Socioeconomic and Policy
Contexts Shape Adult Disability?” Social
Science & Medicine 178:115-126. PMCID: PMC5388855
Jennifer Karas Montez, Anna Zajacova, and Mark D. Hayward. 2016. “Explaining
Inequalities in Women’s Mortality between U.S. States.” SSM
- Population Health 2:561-571. PMCID: PMC5049881.
Jennifer
Karas Montez, Pekka Martikainen, Hanna Remes, and Mauricio
Avendano. 2015. “Work-Family Context
and the Longevity Disadvantage of U.S. Women.” Social Forces 93(4):1567-1597. PMCID: PMC5070483
Jennifer
Karas Montez and Mark D. Hayward. 2014. “Cumulative Childhood
Adversity, Educational Attainment, and Active Life Expectancy among U.S.
Adults.” Demography 51(2):413-435.
PMCID: PMC4465758
Research Projects
Center for Aging and Policy Studies
Policy Place and Population Health Lab (P3H lab)
Recent Invited Lectures
2021
“Disparities
in Midlife Mortality” webinar panel discussion organized by the National
Academics of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.
“US
State Policies and Mortality of Working-Age Adults” to be presented at the
University of Maryland Population Research Center.
“Politics
and Death” Plenary at the Southern Demographic Association conference,
Knoxville
“US
State Policies, Politics, and Life Expectancy.” Presented at the University of
Texas at Austin, Population Research Center Brownbag; the Center for Health
Innovation and Policy Science in the School of Public Health at the University
of Washington; the LSU Health Sciences Center; and the Milbank Fund’s Reforming
States Group.
2020
“State
Preemption of Minimum Wage and Infant Deaths.” Presented at the National
Association for Black Journalists-National Association of Hispanic Journalists
annual convention.
“State
Preemption and Population Health.” Presented at the Preemption, Structural
Racism, and Home Rule Reform Funder’s Forum, sponsored by the Surdna Foundation and Local Solutions
Support Center, NYC.
2019
“Devolution
and Death in the American States.” Presented at the 10th Anniversary Symposium of the Center for Public Health Law Research at
Temple University.
“U.S. State Contexts and
Inequalities in Life Expectancy.” Presented at the UC-Berkeley Demography Brown
Bag Series and the University of Washington’s Center for Studies in Demography
& Ecology.