Postdoctoral fellows and other non-faculty researchers are welcome to be CPD Affiliates. Affiliates should be engaged in population-related research. They do not need to be supervised or officially connected to a CPD faculty member. CPD Affiliates are included on the listserv and invited to participate in seminars, talks, events, and other activities.
Current Postdocs
Matthew M. Brooks
Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Sociology
Office: Peterson Hall, Room 338
Email: matt.brooks [at] mcgill.ca
Research Interests: Social Demography, Poverty and Inequality, Rural Families and Livelihoods, Affordable Housing, Spatial Analysis
Biography:Matthew received a PhD in Rural Sociology and Demography from the Pennsylvania State University in 2021. For his dissertation, Matthew conducted a comprehensive empirical analysis on the changing landscape of affordable housing in the United States from 1990-2018, primarily focusing on the growing issue of unaffordability among low-income housing under multiple measures of affordable housing and declining affordability in rural communities related to population growth and aging. Other recent projects of Matthew’s have looked at the differential employment impacts of COVID-19 among rural and urban adults, the effects of county reclassification on mortality disparities, and childhood poverty among Hispanic immigrant generations among other things. He is currently working with Professor Shelley Clark on the effects of rural-urban migration across the life course in the United States, and the changing family demography of rural Canada.
Past Postdocs
David Pelletier
Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Sociology
Office: Peterson Hall, Room 316
Email: david.pelletier3 [at] mail.mcgill.ca
Research Interests: Family demography, marriage and cohabitation, separation and divorce, child custody, social inequalities
Biography:David conducts research on the causes and consequences of adults’ and children’s family trajectories. He earned his Ph.D. in Demography in 2017 from the Université de Montréal, where he remains as Invited researcher. His doctoral dissertation focused on the prevalence and temporal dynamics of children’s custody arrangements following the separation of their parents, including shared or joint custody. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) where he worked on the construction of population projection models using microsimulation, as well as on comparative research of partnership histories across North America and Europe. He is now working with Professor Céline Le Bourdais on the economic consequences of family events in Canada using linked survey and administrative data.
Amélie Groleau
Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Sociology
Office:Peterson Hall, Room 304
Email: amelie.groleau [at] gmail.com
Research Interests: Sociology of education, higher education, Overqualifiation, educational pathways, transition from school to labor market, social inequalities, socialisation
Biography: Amélie received a PhD in sociology from Université du Québec à Montréal and from École des hautes études en sciences sociales de Paris in 2015. She had previously earned a BA in History, Culture, Society (liberal arts program) (2004) and a MA in Sociology (2007), both from Université du Québec à Montréal. In her thesis, Amélie articulated social reproduction theory with sociology of individualization, to analyze uncertain pathways or downward mobility of individuals from highly-educated families in Quebec’s postsecondary educational system. Before and during her doctoral studies, Amélie also had the opportunity to collaborate on different research projects on higher education in Quebec and Canada, including the Transitions Project, founded by the Canada Millenium Scholarship Foundation and the Observatoire regional montréalais sur l’enseignement supérieur.
She is currently working with Professor Michael Smith on trends and duration of overqualification among Canadian postsecondary graduates, a project for which she received a fellowship from the Social Science and Humanities Research.
Maude Pugliese
Postdoctoral fellow,
Office: Peterson Hall, Room 316
Email: maude.pugliese [at] mail.mcgill.ca
Research Interests: Sociology of the Family; Inequality and Stratification; Sociology of Finance; Asset Choice; Credit Use.
Biography: Maude completed a PhD in sociology at the University of Chicago in 2016. She had previously earned a B.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering from the École Polytechnique de Montréal. In her dissertation research, after finding that differences in investment strategies across socioeconomic status groups are highly consequential for income concentration, Maude explored why working- and middle-class individuals tend to invest mostly in real estate assets, while upper-class populations invest more intensively in financial assets. This research showed that the working- and middle-classes began investing more in real estate assets only in the late 1940s, when installment buying of homes through mortgages became possible. The research also showed that working- and middle-class populations in fact began massively buying homes during this period because they were interested in engaging in credit contracts with formal financial institutions and because home purchases had become a way to do so. For working- and middle-class individuals of the 1940s and 1950s, indeed, engaging in formal credit relationships was a way to achieve a number of goals, notably economic independence from their extended families. Building on this insight from her dissertation research, and in collaboration with Céline Le Bourdais, Maude now explores whether today’s working- and middle-class individuals still demand formal credit in part because credit helps them to achieve economic independence from their family members. She also explores whether, in turn, working- and middle-class families with low access to credit report lower levels of satisfaction with their family ties and lower mental health outcomes.
Thirumagal Kanagasabai
Postdoctoral fellow,Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health
Email: thirumagal.kanagasabai [at] gmail.com
Research Interests: Cardiovascular Disease Risk, Environmental and Behavioural Determinants of Human Health, Epidemiology, Population Health, Global Health
Biography: MThirumagal Kanagasabai completed her PhD in the School of Kinesiology and Health Science at York University in Toronto (ON, Canada). The overarching framework of her doctoral research was sleep, physical activity, micronutrients and their effect on cardiometabolic health in adults. She also trained in molecular toxicology from the University of Toronto, where she completed her HBSc and MSc. Thiru’s postdoctoral work focuses on environmental risk factors and their associated cardiovascular disease risks. Her broad research interests include sleep, physical activity and dietary patterns, light, air and other environmental pollutions, and cardiometabolic health outcomes.
Peer Reviewed Articles:
Kanagasabai T and Chaput JP. Sleep Duration and the Associated Cardiometabolic Risk Scores in Adults. Sleep Health, 3(3) 2017: 195-203.
Kanagasabai T, and Ardern CI. Contribution of Inflammation, Oxidative Stress, and Antioxidants to the Relationship between Sleep Duration and Cardiometabolic Health. SLEEP, 38(12) 2015:1905–1912.
Ana Laura Fostik Sanchez
Postdoctoral fellow,
Office: Peterson Hall, Room 316
Email ana.fostik [at] mail.mcgill.ca
Areas of interest: Family, fertility, multiple-partnered fertility, conjugal careers, transition to adulthood, Canada, Latin America, advanced quantitative methods.
Biography:Ana completed a PhD in 2014 at the, in Montreal. Her dissertation explored the transition to adulthood and the first birth in Uruguay by means of advanced quantitative analysis (survival and sequence analysis). She had previously completed a BA in Sociology and post-graduate studies in population at a, in Uruguay, and completed the course requirements for the MA in Demography at INRS before being admitted without thesis to the PhD in Demography. Ana is currently working with Professor Céline Le Bourdais in a project on childbearing and repartnering in Canada, analysing multiple-partnered fertility as well as on the links between union dissolution, repartnering and fertility levels.
Peer Reviewed Articles:
Laplante, Benoît, Teresa Castro Martín, Clara Cortina and Ana Laura Fostik. “”, Demographic Research. 34 (29), 827-844.
Laplante, Benoîtand Ana Laura Fostik. 2016. “”, in Ron Lesthaeghe and Albert Esteve (editors),, Springer.
Laplante, Benoît etAna Laura Fostik. 2015. “”, Demographic Research, 32 (14), 421−442.
Laplante, Benoîtand Ana Laura Fostik. 2015. “”,Canadian Studies in Population, 42(1-2), 81-101.
Selected Peer Reviewed Conference Presentations:
Fostik, Ana and LeBourdais, Céline (2015). Multiple-Partnered Fertility in Canada: Prevalence, Correlates and Pathways. To be presented at session 208: Diverse and Complex Families, at the 2016 Population Association of America (PAA) annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
Fostik, Ana Laura, Daniel Ciganda and Laplante, Benoît. «Trayectorias de pasaje a la vida adulta en Uruguay»,Sesión regular 7, Transiciones a la adultez y desigualdades en América Latina (1), VI Conference of the Latin-American Population Association (ALAP), Lima, Peru, 12–15 august 2014.
Cortina, Clara,Benoît Laplante, Teresa Castro Martín andAna Laura Fostik. «Socio-demographic portrayal of same-sex couples: New evidence from the 2011 census of Canada and Spain», Research Committee on Global Issues in Family Research (3113), XVIII ISA World Congress of Sociology, Yokohama, Japan, 13-19 July 2014.
Maude Boulet
Postdoctoral fellow,
Office: Peterson Hall, Room 318
Email maude.boulet [at] mail.mcgill.ca
Areas of interest: Labour market, gender equity, work-family articulation, immigration, welfare state.
Biography:Maude completed a PhD in at in 2013. Her thesis focused on immigrants job quality in Quebec compared to those of immigrants in the other Canadian provinces. Her results led to many recommendations about immigration policy. Previously, Maude earned her master’s in industrial relations and her BA in at Université de Montréal. From 2012 to 2015, she also worked as a researcher on labour market issues at the where she developed her interests on gender equity and work-family articulation. In her postdoctoral studies, Maude analyzes the impact of job quality on equity among couples making comparisons between Quebec and the rest of Canada in collaboration with Professor Céline Le Bourdais.
Selected publications:
Articles in refereed journal, collective works andresearch reports:
Boulet, M. et B. Boudarbat. (accepté). «», Canadian Public Policy, numéro spécial sur les politiques sociales et les inégalités de santé.
Boulet, M.et B. Boudarbat. (accepté). "",Regional and Sectoral Economic Studies.
Boulet, M. 2012. « », Canadian Journal of Women and the Law / Revue Femmes et Droit, volume 24:1, pp. 53-81.
Boulet, M. et B. Boudarbat. 2011. « », Diversité canadienne, volume 8:5, pp. 46-51.
Other publications:
Boulet, M. 2014. «», Capsule pour la Journée internationale des femmes, Institut de la statistique du Québec, 6 pages.
Boulet, M. 2014. «», Flash-Info, vol. 15, no 1, p. 7-12.
Boulet, M. 2014. «», Données sociodémographiques en bref, vol. 18, no 2, p. 7-12.
Boulet, M. 2013. «», Flash-Info, vol. 14, no 3, p. 1-6.
Lacroix, C. et M. Boulet. 2013. «», Données sociodémographiques en bref, vol. 18, no 1, p. 14-19.
Boulet, M. 2013. «», Institut de la statistique du Québec, 32 pages.
Boulet, M. 2013. «» Capsule pour la Journée internationale des femmes, Institut de la statistique du Québec, 3 pages.
Mariona Lozano Riera
Postdoctoral fellow,
Email:mariona.lozano [at] mail.mcgill.ca
Areas of interest: Labour market, family, immigration, work and family balance
Biography: Mariona conducted research on work-family balance, comparing multiple indicators among cohabiting and married couples in collaboration with Professor Céline Le Bourdais. She completed her doctoral studies in Sociology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 2013. The focus of her dissertation research was labour market trajectories of migrant workers in Spain, with a special attention on how work-family balance influences women's upward mobility. She also completed her MSC in 2009 through a joint program in European Social Policy and Labour Studies with the University of Warwick and Autonomous University of Barcelona. The subject of her master's thesis was a comparative study of migrant women's career paths in the U.K. and Spain. She also studied Sociology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, graduating with her undergraduate degree in 2007.
Recent publications:
Lozano, M (2014) ‘Immigrants working women and work-life balance: Feweropportunitiesto occupational mobility?’ (Forthcoming)
Lozano, M; Meardi, G (2014) ‘International recruitment of health workers and their occupational integration. British lessons for Europe?’ R&R in
Meardi, G; Martín, A and Lozano, M (2012) ‘Constructing uncertainty: unions and migrant labour in construction in Spain and the UK’ , 54(1): 5-21.
Works in progress
Lozano, M; Hamplová, D; Le Bourdais, C. Non-standard work schedules, parental time stress and work-family balance.
Lozano, M; Le Bourdais, C, Hamplová, D. Satisfaction with work-live balance. Differences between cohabiting and married couples.
Lozano, M. Labour-market trajectories of immigrant women in Spain: Upward mobility or stagnation?
Lozano, M. Immigrants' occupational trajectories before and after the 2008 financial crisis. The case of Spain.