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Professor Alice M Reid

Professor in Demography, working with The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure

Director of Studies, Churchill College

Historical demographer, working on fertility, mortality and health in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Career

  • 1992-1995: Research Assistant at the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, University of Cambridge
  • 1995-1999: PhD University of Cambridge
  • 1999-2003: Research Fellow at St John's College, University of Cambridge
  • 2003-2014: Senior Research Associate, Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, University of Cambridge
  • 2014-2018: Lecturer, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge
  • 2018- present: Senior Lecturer, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge

Qualifications

  • BA University of Oxford
  • MSc London School of Economics
  • PhD University of Cambridge

Research

My research has focussed on the social, economic, and environmental influences on infant, early child and maternal mortality, particularly over the course of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Using a wide variety of demographic, statistical and geographical techniques such as indirect demographic estimation, event history techniques, multivariate hazards modeling, logistic modeling and GIS analysis, I have made significant contributions to the understanding of the influences on mortality, the roles of health personnel and the creation and interpretation of data.

My current research project aims to create new measures of age-specific fertility for small areas and socio-economic groupings in the UK over the course of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century fertility decline. These will allow new insights into the social and spatial influences on changes in family building patterns and the mutation of behavioural norms.

Research questions

  • Hazards modelling of the influences on risks of infant and child mortality, including cause-specific mortality.
  • The relative importance of social class and environment in influencing early age mortality.
  • Patterns and prevalence of breast-feeding in early twentieth century England, and how breast-feeding affected mortality and morbidity.
  • Measurement of and variations in maternal mortality.
  • The role of health professionals (doctors, midwives, health visitors) in survival in childbirth, infancy, and early childhood.
  • Health professionals and the registration of causes of death.
  • The influences on stillbirth mortality.
  • Linking and analysis of demographic data.
  • The impact of mobility on the use of retrospective demographic measures.
  • Social and spatial patterns of fertility decline.
  • The effect of migration on fertility and mortality.

Main data sources

  • Anonymised sample of the 1911 'fertility' census.
  • Notifications of Births registers, containing health visitors' records for individual infants up to the age of five.
  • Longitudinal records created from linked censuses and civil registers for Scotland.
  • 1911 and 1901 census enumerators' books for Belfast, and Belfast street directories.
  • Individual census enumerators' books for the UK, 1851-1911 (I-CeM).
 

Publications

Featured publications

  • Reid, A. and Garrett, E., 2018. Medical provision and urban-rural differences in maternal mortality in late nineteenth century Scotland. Social science & medicine (1982), v. 201, p.35-43. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.01.028.
  • Reid, A., Garrett, E., Dibben, C. and Williamson, L., 2015. 'A confession of ignorance': deaths from old age and deciphering cause-of-death statistics in Scotland, 1855-1949. The history of the family : an international quarterly, v. 20, p.320-344. doi:10.1080/1081602x.2014.1001768.
  • Reid, A.M., 2012. Mrs Killer and Dr Crook: birth attendants and birth outcomes in early twentieth century Derbyshire. Medical History, v. 56, p.511-530.
  • Reid, A., 2005. The effects of the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic on infant and child health in Derbyshire. Med Hist, v. 49, p.29-54.
  • Reid, A., 2002. Infant feeding and post-neonatal mortality in Derbyshire, England, in the early twentieth century. Popul Stud (Camb), v. 56, p.151-166. doi:10.1080/00324720215926.
  • Reid, A., 2001. Neonatal mortality and stillbirths in early twentieth century Derbyshire, England. Popul Stud (Camb), v. 55, p.213-232. doi:10.1080/00324720127696.
  • Reid, A.M. and Garrett, E.. Mortality, work and migration: a consideration of age-specific mortality from tuberculosis in Scotland, 1861-1901. Historical Life Course Studies.

Books

  • Garrett, E., Reid, A.M., Schurer, K. and Szreter, S., 2001. Changing family size in England and Wales, Cambridge Univ Pr. 526pp.

Changing family size in England and Wales

Journal articles

Key publications are marked with a star.

2018

  • Garrett, E. and Reid, A.M., 2018. Composing a National Picture from Local Scenes: New and Future Insights into the Fertility Transition. Local Population Studies, v. 100, p.60-76.
  •  Reid, A. and Garrett, E., 2018. Medical provision and urban-rural differences in maternal mortality in late nineteenth century Scotland. Social science & medicine (1982), v. 201, p.35-43. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.01.028.

2017

2016

  • Kabagenyi, A., Reid, A., Ntozi, J. and Atuyambe, L., 2016. Socio-cultural inhibitors to use of modern contraceptive techniques in rural Uganda: a qualitative study. The Pan African medical journal, v. 25, p.78-. doi:10.11604/pamj.2016.25.78.6613.
  • Marphatia, A.A., Devakumar, D., Wells, J.C.K., Saville, N., Reid, A., Costello, A., Manandhar, D.S. and Osrin, D., 2016. Maternal phenotype, independent of family economic capital, predicts educational attainment in lowland nepalese children. American Journal of Human Biology, doi:10.1002/ajhb.22852.

2015

  • Kabagenyi, A., Reid, A., Rutaremwa, G., Atuyambe, L. and Ntozi, J., 2015. Has Uganda experienced any stalled fertility transitions? Reflecting on the last four decades (1973-2011). Fertility research and practice, v. 1, p.1-10. doi:10.1186/s40738-015-0006-1.
  •  Reid, A., Garrett, E., Dibben, C. and Williamson, L., 2015. 'A confession of ignorance': deaths from old age and deciphering cause-of-death statistics in Scotland, 1855-1949. The history of the family : an international quarterly, v. 20, p.320-344. doi:10.1080/1081602x.2014.1001768.
  • Reid, A. and van, D.B.N.J.M., 2015. The faces of death: regional differentiation in cause-specific mortality in the past. The History of the Family, v. 20, p.309-319. doi:10.1080/1081602X.2015.1057758.

2014

  • Kabagenyi, A., Jennings, L., Reid, A., Nalwadda, G., Ntozi, J. and Atuyambe, L., 2014. Barriers to male involvement in contraceptive uptake and reproductive health services: a qualitative study of men and women's perceptions in two rural districts in Uganda. Reproductive health, v. 11, p.21-. doi:10.1186/1742-4755-11-21.
  • Reid, A.M. and Galley, C., 2014. Maternal mortality. Local Population Studies, v. 93, p.68-78.

▼ Show earlier journal articles …

Book chapters

  • Reid, A.M., 2016. Where are all the feminist historical demographers?, in Matthijs, K., Hin, S., Kok, J. and Matsuo, H. (eds.) The future of historical demography: upside down and inside out, Acco. p.145-147.
  • Reid, A.M., Garrett, E., Dibben, C. and Williamson, L.O., 2016. Gender specific mortality trends over the epidemiological transition: a view from the British mainland 1850-2000, in Dinges, M. and Weigl, A. (eds.) Gender-specific life expectancy in Europe 1850-2010, Franz Steiner Verlag. v. 58, p.73-88.
  • Reid, A.M., Garrett, E. and Szreter, S., 2016. Residential mobility and child mortality in early twentieth century Belfast, in Ramiro Farinas, D. and Oris, M. (eds.) New Approaches to Death in Cities during the Health Transition, Springer. v. 12, p.55-76. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-43002-7.
  • Reid, A.M., Garrett, E., Williamson, L. and Dibben, C., 2016. A century of deaths, Scotland 1855-1955; a view from the civil registers, in Buckham, S., Jupp, P. and Rugg, J. (eds.) Death in modern Scotland, 1855-1955: beliefs, attitudes and practices, Peter Lang. v. 6, p.131-160. doi:10.3726/978-3-0353-0814-3.
  • Reid, A.M. and Garrett, E., 2015. Introducing ‘Movers’ into Community Reconstructions: Linking Civil Registers of Vital Events to Local and National Census Data: A Scottish Experiment, in Bloothooft, G., Christen, P., Mandemakers, K. and Schraagen, M. (eds.) Population Reconstruction, Springer. p.263-283.
  • Reid, A.M., Kirby, G., Carson, J., Dunlop, F., Dibben, C., Dearle, A., Williamson, L. and Garrett, E., 2015. Automatic Methods for Coding Historical Occupation Descriptions to Standard Classifications, in Bloothooft, G., Christen, P., Mandemakers, K. and Schraagen, M. (eds.) Population Reconstruction, Springer. p.43-60.
  • Reid, A.M., 2006. Health Visitors and 'Enlightened Motherhood', in Garrett, E., Galley, C., Shelton, N. and Woods, R.I. (eds.) Infant mortality: a continuing social problem, Ashgate Pub Co. p.191-210.
  • Reid, A.M., 2005. The Influences on the Health and Mortality of Illegitimate Children in Derbyshire, 1917-1922, in Levene, A., Nutt, T. and Williams, S. (eds.) Illegitimacy in Britain, 1700-1920, Palgrave MacMillan. p.168-189.
  • Reid, A.M., 2004. Child Care and Maternal Health: Intermediaries between Socio-economic and Environmental Factors and Infant and Child Mortality?, in Breschi, M., Pozzi, L. and storica, S.I.D.D. (eds.) The determinants of infant and child mortality in past European populations. p.139-152.
  • Garrett, E., Reid, A., Schürer, K. and Szreter, S., 2001. Changing Family Size in England and Wales: Place, Class and Demography, 1891-1911., in Changing Family Size in England & Wales: Place, Class & Demography, 1891-1911. p.1-1.
  • Reid, A., 1997. Locality or class? Spatial and social differentials in infant and child mortality in England and Wales, 1895-1911.
  • Reid, A.M., 1997. Infant Mortality in England and Wales, 1891-1911, in Rowland, R. and Moll Blanes, I. (eds.) La Demografia y la Historia de la Familia, Universidad de Murcia. p.85-96.

▼ Show earlier book chapters …

Theses / dissertations

  • Reid, A., 1999. Infant and child mortality in Derbyshire from the Great War to the mid-1920s.

Teaching

  • Chair of Geographical Tripos 1A/1B Examination Board (2015-2018)
  • Subject Moderator for Geography, Cambridge University Admissions (2012 onwards)
  • Director of Studies in Geography for Churchill College & Fellow of Churchill College (2005 onwards)
  • Director of Studies in Geography for Trinity College (2018 onwards)
  • Geography Tripos part II: Demographic Continuity and Change

PhD students

  • Sarah Rafferty, 2018 - : Infant and early childhood mortality decline in London, 1870-1929: a spatial and temporal analysis of its patterns, inequalities and policy effectiveness. Funding: AHRC.
  • Papa Momodou Jack, 2018 - : The Community-Based Health Insurance (CBHI) Scheme: The role of ethnicity, gender and socioeconomic status in explaining differential health outcomes in Ethiopia. Funding: GATES.
  • Lander Bosch, 2017- : On shape and being shaped: the relation between overweight and obesity in London's schoolchildren and the energy-expending characteristics of their built environment. Funding: ESRC DTP.
  • Akanksha Marphatia, 2012-2016: Predictors and consequences of variability in secondary educational attainment in rural India: A life course approach. ESRC funded.
  • Allen Kabagenyi, 2011-2015: High fertility rates in Uganda: is low contraceptive prevalence responsible? Funded by THRiVE, and co-supervised with the University of Makarere, Uganda.

Potential PhD applicants

I would be particularly pleased to hear from potential students wishing to pursue a PhD in historical demography, which is the main focus of my own research. However I also supervise students working on current and recent demography and health geography, and you are welcome to contact me directly if you think we may be a good match.

External activities

  • Editor of the Journal Population Studies (2010 onwards)
  • Member of the Population Investigation Committee (2013 onwards)
  • Chair of Population Investigation Committee Scholarship Committee (2014 onwards)
  • Member of the European Society of Historical Demography Council (2013 onwards)
  • Vice-President of the European Society of Historical Demography (2015 - 2016)
  • President of the European Society of Historical Demography (2017 onwards)
  • Member of the Historical Demography Panel, the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (2014 onwards)
  • Member of Cambridge University Quantitative Methods Initiative (2014 onwards)
  • British Society for Population Studies Council member (1996-2000, 2009-2013)
Alice Reid

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