9th Demographic Conference of “Young Demographers”
The Department of Demography and Geodemography and the Geographical Institute (Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Science) organises annual conference for early career researchers and postgraduate students. This year’s conference was the 9th and was as traditionally held in Prague (Albertov, 6 Prague2) at the faculty of science on 16th and 17th February, 2018. Kofi Aduo-Adjei, the second-year student of Population and Development programme, shares his experience as a participant in this conference.
The Conference brought together primarily PhD students of demography, all young (slightly older) researchers (not just demographers) across Europe and North America. Furthermore, it created the opportunity for us to present our current researches in paper and poster sections. Kofi together with other co-authors presented a poster titled “Birth Intervals Between Ghana and Kenya: What Has Changed in the Last Decades”. In this paper we argue the impact of socioeconomic correlates (essentially education, residence and contraceptive use) as drivers for change in quantum (number) and tempo (spacing) of birth among women in Ghana and Kenya. The study largely draws data from five rounds (1993-2014) of the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) dataset of the two countries. This enabled us analyse the trend of decline in birth spacing over the decades in Ghana and Kenya.
We received some suggestions and inputs from experienced professors (Tomas Kucera, Olga Kurtinova, Alica Velkova) on methods and academic writing as well as the SAS software application. During the informal section, we engage with other participants on their research prospects and how to address the anticipated challenges in their fields of research. To familiarise ourselves with the beautiful city of Prague we went on a group tour and treated ourselves with the blossoming architectural design of Prague city. Thus, a visit to Prague castle, Charles Bridge, Old Town Hall and many interesting places of the monumental display of the Czech culture and arts.
Personally, partaking in the conference was a fulfilling moment, as I exchanged both theoretical and practical ideas with mentors and colleagues in the field of demography. I also had the opportunity to expand my social network with colleagues across Europe (Universite Catholique de Louvian, Belguim; Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital, Austria; Warsaw School of Economics, Poland, etc) and North America (Florida State University and University of Texas at San Antonio, etc).
Finally, I am grateful to my research supervisor, as. prof. Vladimir Kozlov for his enormous support in the poster designing and printing process, as well as my internship supervisor Mrs. Yulia Skokova, for her immense contribution and permission to allow me participate in this conference.
by Kofi Aduo-Adjei, the second-year student of Population and Development programme