Photo credits:
Johan Wahlgren

Kieron Barclay

Pro Futura Scientia Fellow, SCAS.
Associate Professor of Sociology, Stockholm University.
Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock

Kieron Barclay completed his PhD in Sociology at Stockholm University in 2014. Before being awarded
the Pro Futura Scientia Fellowship, Barclay spent time at the University of Pennsylvania, the London
School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
(MPIDR). As a Research Assistant Professor at the LSE, and as Deputy Head of the Laboratory of Popula-
ation Health at the MPIDR, Barclay developed an independent line of research examining the intersection of
health and fertility from a demographic perspective. In 2018, Barclay received the European Demographer
Award for early career achievements.

Barclay’s research examines how family circumstances affect health and mortality in contemporary high-,
middle-, and low-income countries, as well as historical contexts. For example, his research has addressed
how health affects childbearing, and how an individual's reproductive history affects their post-reproductive
mortality. A primary focus of Barclay’s work has been to examine the consequences of parental fertility
decisions for their children, such as how parental age at the time of birth, or spacing between births, affects
the educational and socioeconomic attainment of children, as well as their health and mortality.

As a Pro Futura Scientia Fellow, Barclay will examine the impact of the family of origin on health inequalities,
taking a global, historical, multigenerational, and comparative perspective. The goal of this work is to develop
a deeper understanding of how the family influences health inequalities, how this has changed over time, and
the underlying factors explaining that variation. His interdisciplinary research has been published in leading
peer-reviewed journals, including DemographyPopulation and Development Review; Social Forces; American
Journal of Epidemiology
, and Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.


This information is accurate as of the academic year 2023-24.