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George C. Alter
Affiliated Programs:
Michigan Historical Demography Workshop
Funded Research:
Collaborative Research: Metadata Portal for the Social Sciences (NSF)
BCC-SBE: Sharing Geo-referenced Research Data with a Virtual Data Enclave (NSF)
A Proposal to Conduct a Grants Program for Early Career Researchers to Conduct Secondary Data Analyses of the Measures of Effective Teaching Longitudinal Database (Gates Foundation)
Building Community Engagement for Open Access to Data (Sloan)
American Indian Demography and Reservation Settlement (PSC Initiatives Fund)
MET Extension Longitudinal Database and Library of Practice (Gates Foundation)
DataNet Full Proposal: Sustainable Environment through Actionable Data (SEAD) (NSF)
Terra Populus: A Global Population/Environment Data Network (NSF)
Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) Longitudinal Database (Gates Foundation)
Short course in analysis of census and survey data in Ghana (Freedman)
Archiving the Historical Demography of the U.S. (NICHD)
Advancing Knowledge and Building the Research Infrastructure in Education and STEM Learning (NSF)
Rescuing and Archiving Social Science Data (Institute for Museum and Library Services)
Demographic Data Sharing and Archiving (NICHD)
Data Preservation Alliance for the Social Sciences (Data-PASS) (Library of Congress)
Demographic Analysis of Longitudinal Historical Data (NICHD)
Quantitative Social Science Digital Library Pathway (QSSDL) (NSF)
Child Care and Early Education Research Connections (Administration for Children and Families, HHS)
Infusing Quantitative Literacy throughout the Social Science Curriculum (NSF)
Research Professor, Population Studies Center.
Director, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research.
Professor, Department of History.
Director, Population Institute for Research and Training, Indiana University.
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Alter's research interests lie in the history of the family, demography, and economic history. Recent work explores demographic responses to economic hardship in Europe and East Asia, and the effects of childhood experiences on health in old age.
Recent Publications
Journal Articles
Alter, George C. 2012. "Generation to generation: Life course, family, and community." Social Science History, 37(1): 1-26. DOI. Abstract.
Alter, George C., Myron Gutmann, Susan Hautaniemi Leonard, and Emily Merchant. 2012. "Introduction: Longitudinal Analysis of Historical-Demographic Data." Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 42(4): 503-517. DOI. Abstract.
Alter, George C., Isabelle Devos, and Alison Kvetko. 2009. "Completing Life Histories with Imputed Exit Dates: A Method for Historical Data from Passive Registration Systems." Population, 64(2): 293-318. Abstract.
Alter, George C., Kees Mandemakers, and Myron Gutmann. 2009. "Defining and Distributing Longitudinal Historical Data in a General Way Through an Intermediate Structure." Historical Social Research, 34(3): 78-114. Abstract. Public Access.
Oris, Michel, and George C. Alter. 2008. "Effets de fratrie et mobilité sociale intergénérationnelle dans la Belgique urbaine et rurale au xixe siècle." Annales de Démographie Historique, 15(1): 115-138. Abstract.
Alter, George C., and Michel Oris. 2008. "Effects of Inheritance and Environment on the Heights of Brothers in Nineteenth-century Belgium." Human Nature, 19(1): 44-55. DOI. Abstract.
Oris, M., M. Neven, and George C. Alter. 2007. "When protoindustry collapsed fertility and the demographic regime in rural eastern Belgium during the industrial revolution." Historical Social Research-Historische Sozialforschung, 32(2): 137-159. Abstract.
Alter, George C., Martin Dribe, and Frans van Poppel. 2007. "Widowhood, Family Size, and Post-Reproductive Mortality: A Comparative Analysis of Three Populations in Nineteenth Century Europe." Demography, 44(4): 785-806. Abstract.
Chapters
Alter, George C., M. Neven, and M. Oris. 2010. "Economic change and differential fertility in rural eastern Belgium, 1812 to 1875." In Prudence and pressure : reproduction and human agency in Europe and Asia, 1700-1900 edited by Tsuya, Noriko. :195-216. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Oris, Michel, Muriel Neven, and George C. Alter. 2008. "Individuals and communities facing economic stress: a comparison of two rural areas in nineteenth century Belgium." In Living standards in the past: new perspectives on well-being in Asia and Europe edited by Robert C. Allen, Tommy Bengtsson, and Martin Dribe. 373-402. Oxford: Oxford University Press.