Teaching and Research Interests
My clunky professional title ("Senior Lecturer with Security of Employment [SOE]") is unique to the University of California, and indicates that I am a tenured teaching specialist with the equivalent rank of a full professor. As a historical and applied demographer, I teach in the undergraduate Urban Studies major, and in the graduate and professional programs in urban and regional planning, and in demographic and social analysis. In addition, I have compiled a significant publication record and continue to engage in service and leadership on behalf of the department, campus, university, and community.
My research focuses on the demographic foundations of community and of public health. My earlier work addressed a variety of issues at the nexus of population, community, and public health, including (1) the extent to which population aging and racial diversification have eroded political support for public education, and (2) the risk factors of homicide and suicide, and of child abuse. More recently I have been using historical demography to reconstruct the communal life of Chinese Americans on the 19th century U.S. frontier.
My favorite undergraduate courses include "California's Population," a whirlwind demographic tour of the State's 58 counties, from Alameda to Yuba. My favorite graduate courses include "Demographics for Planning and Policy," concerning the uses of population in foretelling the future.
Web Links of Interest
Selected Publications
- Chew, Kenneth and John M. Liu 2004. "Hidden in Plain Sight: Global Labor Force Exchange in the Chinese American Population of the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries." Population and Development Review 30 (1): 57-78.
- Chew, Kenneth S.Y. and Richard McCleary, 1994. "A Life Course Theory of Suicide Risk." Suicide & Life-Threatening Behavior 24(3):234-244.
- Chew, Kenneth S.Y., 1992. "The Demographic Erosion of Political Support for Public Education: A Suburban Case Study." Sociology of Education 65(4):280-292.