The BLCC sponsors a variety of events throughout the year. These include an annual major lecture, a semi-annual invitational confer- ence, and colloquia featuring prominent national and international scholars whose work focuses on interdisciplinary, demographic, and life course issues.

The lecture and colloquia are open to faculty, staff, and students from the Cornell and local community. The goal of these events is to offer access to emerging seminal research as well as to provide networking opportunities and a sense of community among Cornell faculty and staff.

2009 - 2010 BLCC News and Events:

The Second Biennial Urie Bronfenbrenner Conference

This conference brings together scholars who are leaders in translating basic research from the social and behavioral sciences in ways that will have real impact on providing solutions to problems that have major impact on communities and individuals. Speakers will present new research and new research methods that have proven successful at generating practical applications that can be effectively and efficiently implemented in real-world home and community settings, disseminated to a broader community audience, and adopted by institutions and organizations.

Conference Authors and Presenters Include:
David Almeida, Robert Crosnoe, Carol Devine, Rachel Dunifon, Gary Evans, V. Jeffery Evans, Jean Ipsa, Kim Kopko, Rhoda Meador, Taryn Morrissey, Karl Pillemer, Harold Pincus, Cary Reid, Valerie Reyna, Abraham Wandersman, Elaine Wethington, Katherine Ziol-Guest

Organizers:
Elaine Wethington, Associate Professor, Human Development and Co-Director, Cornell Institute for Translational Research on Aging
Rachel Dunifon, Associate Professor, Policy Analysis & Management

Sponsors:
The Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center
The Family Life Development Center
Institute for the Social Sciences
The Cornell Population Program
Cornell Cooperative Extension

Book Release: October, 15, 2009

The release of Chaos and Its Influence on Children’s Development: An Ecological Perspective provides an important first step in exploring how, why, and at what level, chaos at the familial and societal level affects children. Chaos refers to physical and social settings characterized by crowding, noise, unpredictability or a lack of routines, and instability or unplanned changes. It uses Urie Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory of human development as the means to understand the nature of relations between chaos and development. There is growing evidence that exposure to chaos can adversely impact children’s development and family functioning. The operation of chaos may explain why there are developmental consequences associated with poverty or living in high stress environments.

The book is the product of a conference in honor of Urie Bronfenbrenner held in November 2007, and edited by Gary Evans and Theodore Wachs. The contributors to the volume honor the work of Urie Bronfenbrenner, whose bioecological theory permits study at both the “microsystem” level (the family, school and daycare), as well as at higher-order levels that include parents’ work environments, the child’s local neighborhood, and his or her cultural milieu. The volume is part of an on-going biennial series supported financially by the American Psychological Association.

Past BLCC Events:

The following link will download as a PDF document.

CITRA News and Events:

The Cornell Institute for Translational Research on Aging (CITRA) hosts workshops and events that support their goal of improving the lives of older people by translating research knowledge into practice. Consensus workshops are a participatory method that CITRA uses to bridge the gap between research and practice. They are designed to address the need for meaningful dialogue between researchers and practitioners, to identify discrepancies between interventions recommended by research and the actual experience of practitioners, and to obtain practitioner suggestions for the future research agenda.

The CITRA web site provides additional detailed information about their news and events.

CPP News and Events

The Cornell Population Program (CPP) hosts an annual seminar series and other events that support their mission of coordinating and promoting national and international population research, encouraging cross-disciplinary innovation, facilitating research funding, improving interdisciplinary training, and converting academic studies into policy recommendations and guidance for practitioners. These events provide Cornell faculty with access to national and international scholars whose research is related to the CPP mission.

The CPP web site provides additional detailed information about their news and events.

PAD News and Events

The Program on Applied Demographics (PAD) hosts workshops that support their goals of applying demographics methods and techniques to the latest economic and population trends. These workshops teach Cornell faculty, staff and students how to use demographic and economic data for a number of purposes, including community profiles, planning, and program evaluations.

The PAD web site provides additional detailed information about their news and events.