Department of Anthropology

Penn State University

Stephen A. Matthews

Associate Professor of Sociology, Anthropology, and Demography

Faculty Image Office: 507 Oswald Tower
Telephone: (814) 863-9721 Fax: (814) 863-7216
Email:

matthews@pop.psu.edu

Curriculum Vitae
 

EDUCATION:

  • Ph.D., University of Wales, Cardiff (United Kingdom), 1991

RESEARCH ACTIVITIES AND INTERESTS:

I am an Associate Professor of Sociology (75%) and Anthropology (25%) and a member of the Demography faculty at Penn State.  I have served as the Director of the Geographic Information Analysis Core at the Population Research Institute (PRI) since its formation in 1996 and I am a Senior Research Associate in PRI (The GIA Core webpage can be found at http://www.pop.psu.edu/gia-core/). Below I describe my research and teaching interests as well as my administrative roles at Penn State.

Research: The central tenets of my teaching and research scholarship are population health and health inequality in diverse community contexts. The substantive focus of my research is the study of resources, risks, and opportunities (e.g., food, pollution, social networks) and how access and utilization of these resources, risks, and opportunities relate to health and social inequality (e.g., diet, obesity status, other health outcomes). Race/ethnicity and income inequality are cross-cutting themes in my research. Moreover, I am interested in conceptual and methodological issues associated with how neighborhoods are defined and their attributes are measured, and the relevance of these definitions/measures to individual behavior and health outcomes. 

An R21-NIEHS study (with Steve Cummins) is the first quasi-experimental, intervention study of the impact of a changing food environment in the U.S. and uniquely positioned to contribute new knowledge on the diet and general health and wellbeing of vulnerable populations (low-income, minority, elderly). Unforeseen supermarket construction delays have altered the timetable for the follow-up wave (2009?). Nevertheless, several manuscripts on the food environment and the health and wellbeing of Philadelphia residents are in development including a validation study of commercial/secondary data used in studies of food access/obesity status and a paper on journeys to food in low-income communities. In other Philadelphia-based papers I am working on a study of neighborhood effects and self-rated health as well as a study of diet and obesity in Philadelphia comparing spatial and multilevel approaches. After this set of papers are completed, and with follow-up data secured, we will then focus on developing manuscripts on the intervention effect.

Geoethnography is a mixed-method approach that I have developed that facilitates the study of the salience of neighborhoods for families and children.  This is an approach receiving attention from social and health researchers (listed as an innovative method in PSU’s Center for Families in Diverse Contexts strategic plan). A sole-authored manuscript (under review) indicates that most functional ties for low-income urban families are outside their residential neighborhood; a finding that may account for weak neighborhood effects so often observed. A planned paper studying low-income rural families uses activity log data to explore the salience of residential neighborhoods in diverse rural contexts and residents’ functional dependence on extra-local resources. I have published a short commentary on what health researchers might learn from early 20th Century sociology on ‘the salience of neighborhoods’ and I am a co-organizer of an NCI workshop on the “Place, Health and Equity: Reconsidering the Meaning and Measurement of Place” (2009) and co-editor (with Linda Burton, Susan Kemp and David Takeuchi) of a book (same title) to appear in Springer’s Social Disparities in Health and Health Care series. 

The measuring spatial segregation project also explores the importance of local neighborhoods and how results can vary when different conceptualizations and definitions of neighborhood are operationalized. I have served as the project coordinator, PI on the NSF project at Penn State, GIS manager, and as co-author. This project has generated methodological and substantive articles in top-tier sociology and demography journals as well as several manuscripts on both race/ethnic and income segregation. Most recently I served in a coordinating role for the R01 submission to NICHD on “The Effects of Segregation on Racial Health Disparities” (Reardon & Firebaugh, PIs).  My involvement in the new project, assuming funding is secured, will be to coordinate the data needs for components of the study that focus on all U.S. metropolitan areas and to take the lead on selected papers.

In addition to these three primary projects I work on many others, some generate publications/manuscripts but many others do not (e.g., two back-to-back NICHD training grants (see below) and the PRI infrastructure grant as well as grants using GIA Core services that consume my time in managing and overseeing professional staff and RAs). Among those projects yet to generate a published paper is the National Children’s Study (a 21-year longitudinal study funded by NIH).  I am a co-investigator as well as the GIS/segment sampling coordinator for the Westmoreland County, PA site. Other projects have produced publications and manuscripts. An NEH grant (co-PI with Wilbur Zelisnky) has resulted in a co-authored book (schedule to appear in 2010); among the first to provide a comprehensive description of the religious landscape of a major U.S. city (Chicago). A recent NSF grant resulted in a co-authored book chapter on census and population analysis with Phil Rees, Helen Durham and David Martin, all colleagures in the United Kingdom. Several manuscripts are in various stages of submission and or revise and resubmission including a paper on the spatial analysis of crime in Seattle (with Barry Ruback, Tse-chuan Yang and Karen Hayslett-McCall); a study of regional inequality in Chile (with Leif Jensen and Tse-chuan Yang); a manuscript with Bina Gubhaju, a former graduate student, on women’s empowerment, sociocultural contexts, and reproductive behavior in Nepal; and a manuscript with Tamika Galreath, Basile Chaix, Gary King and Alan Flischer on multi-level influence of school norms on tobacco use in South Africa.  Finally, but not least, I work with Jim Wood, Pat Johnson, Tim Murtha, Cory Sparks and Julia Jennings on the North Orkney Population History Project funded by NSF.

Teaching: My commitment to instruction is very high as evidenced by my commitment to excellence in training grants and the mentoring of graduate students (past NSF dissertation improvement award, supporting applications for QuaSSI fellowships, and last year chairing one Ph.D. student and serving as a committee member for eight other Ph.D. students).  I also mentor graduate students assigned to the GIA Core (4-5 per annum), and I have served as an external examiner for Mahidol University, Thailand (a demography doctoral student and visiting scholar at Penn State) and an external committee member on a Ph.D at the University of Texas at Austin. 

My second R25 training grant from NICHD is 5-year program (2008-2013) to develop, promote and disseminate materials associated with the application of advanced spatial methods in demographic and health science. This is the only advanced spatial analysis training program in the U.S. tailored to demography researchers (the R25 targets early-career scientists at population centers and demography programs).

My multiple roles have limited my classroom presence; though I have prior experience teaching at all levels at UCLA and Penn State. During Spring 2009 I am offering a graduate seminar in Spatial Demography (Soc-579) and an undergraduate course in Medical Sociology/Health, Disease & Society (Soc-497). In the future I look forward to offering courses in, and at the intersection of, urban, medical, and environmental sociology.

Service/Administration: My level of service at Penn State is high. As noted above I coordinate and am solely responsible for the scientific direction of the GIA Core within SSRI/PRI. I have chaired and served on the University’s GIS Council, both PRI and SSRI executive committees, and on important departmental committees in both Sociology and Anthropology as well as chaired the review of pilot grants for CPHA in 2007-08. My external activities have been scaled back in recent years. I serve on the editorial board of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. I was asked to lead an NCI-sponsored working group on GIS and measures of the food and built environment (a paper emerging from this meeting will appear in APJM in April 2009) and in early 2009 I am helping to coordinate an NCI-sponsored workshop for existing NIH grant awardees on “The Three G’s: GEI, GPS, and GIS” (i.e., Gene-Environment Initiative, Global Positioning Systems and Geographic Information Systems).

Over the next few years my goals are to focus my research, publish as widely as possible in sociology, health and social science journals, and remain grant active seeking new sources of funding for my own research. 

SELECT PUBLICATIONS:

  • Matthews, S.A. (1990) Epidemiology Using a GIS: A Need for Caution. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 14(3): 213-221.
  • Matthews, S. A., D. Ribar and M. Wilhelm (1997) "The Effects of Economic Conditions and Access to Reproductive Health Services on State Abortion and Birth Rates" Family Planing Perspectives 29(2): 52-60.
  • Clogg, C. C., T. Rudas, S.A. Matthews (1998) “Analysis of Model Misfit, Structure and Local Structure in Contingency Tables using Graphical Displays based on the Misture Index of Fit” pp. 425-439 in Visualization of Categorical Data edited by Jorg Blasius and Michael Greenacre, Academic Press: New York.
  • Matthews, S.A. (1999). Working with PopMap: Integration of Population, Reproductive Health and Geographic Databases. New York, NY: United States, Statistics Division.
  • McLaughlin, D.K., D.T. Lichter and S.A. Matthews (1999). Demographic Diversity and Economic Change in Appalachia. Washington, D.C.: Appalachian Regional Commission.
  • Matthews, S. A., Shivakoti, G. P. and Chhetri, N. (2000). “Population Forces and Environmental Change: Observations from Western Chitwan, Nepal. Society and Natural Resources, 13: 763-775.
  • Matthews, S.A. and B. Gubhaju. (2004) Contextual influences on the use of antenatal care in Nepal. DHS Geographic Studies 2. Calverton, MD, USA: ORC Macro International.
  • Skinner, D., Matthews, S. A., and Burton, L.M. (2005). “Using Ethnography and Geographic Information Systems Technology to Examine Constructions of Developmental Opportunities in Contexts of Poverty and Disability.” In T. Weisner (Ed.) Discovering successful pathways in Children’s development: Mixed methods in the study of childhood and family life (MacArthur Foundation: University of Chicago Press).
  • Kaduri, P., T. Gilreath, J. Mbwambo, G. King, G. Kilonzo, A.J.Flisher and S.A. Matthews (2005). “Social  Networks' Influence on Tobacco Use among Students in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania." Promotion & Education 12 (2):10-14.
  • Matthews, S.A. , J. Detwiler and L.M. Burton (2005).  "Geoethnography: Coupling Geographic Information Analysis Techniques with Ethnography Methods in Urban Research." Cartographica 40 (4): 75-90.
  • Matthews, S.A. (2008). "The Salience of Neighborhood: Some Lessons from Sociology." American Journal of Preventive Medicine 34(3):257-259.
  • Reardon, S.F., S.A. Matthews , D. O'Sullivan , B.A. Lee , G. Firebaugh , C.R. Farrell and K. Bischoff (2008). "The Geographic Scale of Metropolitan Racial Segregation." Demography 45(3):489-514.
  • Lee, B.A., S.F. Reardon , G. Firebaugh , C.R. Farrell , S.A. Matthews and D. O'Sullivan (2008). "Beyond the Census Tract: Patterns and Determinants of Racial Segregation at Multiple Geographic Scales." American Sociological Review 73(5):766-791.
  • Reardon, S.F., C.R. Farrell , S.A. Matthews , D. O'Sullivan , K. Bischoff and G. Firebaugh (2009). "Race and Space in the 1990s: Changes in the Geographic Scale of Racial Residential Segregation, 1990-2000." Social Science Research 38:55-70.
  • Martin, D., P. Rees, H. Durham and S.A. Matthews (2009). "Census and Population Analysis." In Rees, P., L. Mackay , D. Martin and H. Durham (Eds.) , E-Learning for Geographers: Online Materials, Resources and Repositories. Hershey, PA: Idea Group, Inc. (pp. 53-75).
  • Matthews, S.A., A.V. Moudon and M. Daniel (Forthcoming). "Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Enhancing Research Relevant to Policy on Diet, Physical Activity, and Weight." American Journal of Preventive Medicine 36(4(Suppl)).