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Professor
Stephen Leacock Building, Room 728
855 Sherbrooke Street West
Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2T7
Tel.: 514-398-5682
E-mail: sarah.brauner-otto [at] mcgill.ca
Office: Leacock 728
Office hours: Wednesdays, 10:30 -1130am or or via Mybooking link
Research Areas
Demography, Family Sociology, Fertility
Biography
(PhD, University of Michigan, 2007)
Dr. Brauner-Otto is a social demographer studying global family change with a focus on the relationship between social context (e.g. schools, community organizations) and demographic behaviors over the life course. Previously published papers examine the relationship between specific services offered by a community organization, type of religious practices, and the specific kinds of natural resources available and fertility and marriage behavior in Nepal and institutional influences on fertility in low fertility settings. Brauner-Otto’s research in the coming years will have two components, both focusing on family in change in Chitwan, Nepal using the Chitwan Valley Family Study and both supported by funding from SSHRC.
Trajectories of change: How neighborhood histories shape family formation and well-being. This project examines trajectories of neighbourhood change Chitwan, investigates how these trajectories, or patterns of change, are related to changing families, and identifies inequalities in these relationships, particularly those stemming from ethnic differences.
Women's Work and Child Wellbeing Across the Lifecourse: Evidence from Nepal This project focuses on labor markets as a key dimension of social context influencing global family change and investigates how specific dimensions of work (e.g. job autonomy and security) may influence child well-being, fertility intentions and behavior, and other aspects of family life in, a higher-fertility, low-income country where participation in paid, non-family labor has only recently become widespread.
Selected Publications
Brauner-Otto, Sarah R. and Taarini Andlay*. Forthcoming. “Reinforcing Inequalities: Mothers’ Employment and Job Satisfaction in Rural Nepal.” Contemporary South Asia.
Brauner-Otto, Sarah R. and Lyman Stone*. 2026. “Effect of First Births on Women’s Employment in a Low-Income Country: Research Note Using Panel Data From Nepal.” Demography 63(3): 741-757. https://doi.org/10.1215/00703370-12675345
Yarger, Jennifer and Sarah R. Brauner-Otto. 2024. “Women’s Work Characteristics and Fertility Expectations” Population Research and Policy Review 43(26). DOI 10.1007/s11113-024-09866-7
Brauner-Otto, Sarah R., Chih-lan Winnie Yang*, and Ka U Ng*. 2023. “Women’s Employment Trajectories in a Low-Income Setting: Stratification and Change in Nepal.” Demographic Research 29(8): 157-200.
Brauner-Otto, Sarah R., Sarah Baird, and Dirgha Ghimire. 2022. “Women’s Employment and Children’s Education: Longitudinal evidence from Nepal.” Social Science Research 103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2021.102669
Brauner-Otto, Sarah R. 2021. “Housing and Fertility: A macro-level, multi-country investigation, 1993-2017.” Housing Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2021.1893279
Brauner-Otto, Sarah R. and Lisa D. Pearce. 2020. “Gendered Expressions of Parental Religiosity, Associated Attitudes toward Marriage, and the Timing of Children’s Marriages.” Sociology of Religion 81(4) 413-438. https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/sraa014
Brauner-Otto, Sarah R., William G. Axinn, and Dirgha J. Ghimire. 2020. “Parents’ Marital Quality and Children’s Transition to Adulthood.” Demography 57: 195-220. (PMCID: PMC2978908) https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-019-00851-w
Brauner-Otto, Sarah R., Sarah Baird, and Dirgha Ghimire. 2019. “Maternal Employment and Child Health in Nepal: The importance of job type and timing across the child’s first five years.” Social Science & Medicine. 224: 94-105. DOI 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.02.009
Brauner-Otto, Sarah R. and Claudia Geist. 2018. “Uncertainty, Doubts, and Delays: Economic context and fertility expectations among young Americans.” Journal of Family and Economic Issues. 39(1): 88-102. DOI 10.1007/s10834-017-9548-1
Brauner-Otto, Sarah R. and Axinn, William G. 2017. “Natural resource collection and desired family size: A longitudinal test of environment-population theories.” Population and Environment 38(4): 381-406. DOI 10.1007/s11111-016-0267-6
Brauner-Otto, Sarah R. 2016. “Canadian Fertility 1980-2013: A story of regional variation.” In R. Rindfuss and M. Choe (Eds.), Low fertility, institutions, and their Policies: Variations across industrialized countries, pages 99-130. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.
Rindfuss, Ronald R., Minja Kim Choe, and Sarah R. Brauner-Otto. 2016. “The Emergence of Two Distinct Fertility Regimes in Economically Advanced Countries” Population Research and Policy Review 35(3): 287-304. DOI 10.1007/s11113-016-9387-z
Clark, Shelley and Sarah R. Brauner-Otto. 2015. “Divorce in Sub-Saharan Africa: Are Unions Becoming Less Stable?” Population and Development Review 41(4): 583-605.
Courses Taught
Undergraduate Courses:
SOCI 211 Sociological Inquiry
SOCI 234 Population and Society
SOCI 331 Population and the Environment
SOCI 426 Introduction to Demographic Methods
SOCI 405 Family over the Life Course
Graduate Seminar:
SOCI 502 Sociology of Fertility
SOCI 626 Demographic Methods
Selected research grants
“Changing neighbourhoods and changing families.” PI. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Insight Grant. (April 2026-March 2031)
“Knowledge mobilization on work and family in Nepal.” PI. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Connection Grant. (Oct 2024-Sept 2026)
"GAGE: Gender and Adolescence Global Evidence, Jordan” Co-Investigator. Overseas Development Institute UK. (September 2020-April 2021).
“Women’s Work and Child Wellbeing Across the Life-course: Evidence from Nepal.” PI. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. (April 2019-March 2024)
“Institutional Influences on Low Fertility in a New Data World.” PI. Directeurs d’Études Associés, Fondation maison des sciences de l’homme (September 2017-October 2017).
“Female Labor Force Participation and Child Outcomes.” Co-PI with Dirgha Ghimire (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor). National Institute of Child Health and Human Development R03 (August 2016-July 2018).
“Liens entre logement et fécondité: une analyse comparative de divers pays.” PI. Fonds de recherche du Québec-Société et culture, Établissement de nouveaux professeurs-chercheurs (May 2015-April 2018).