The inaugural PAA W. E. B. Du Bois Award in Population Science will recognize a scholar who has a record of sustained and innovative research contributions to the study of race/ethnicity in demography, with a particular focus on demographers engaging in high-impact public-facing work that informs policy and practice.
W. E. B. Du Bois was a pioneer in the development of "scientific" sociology, drawing upon and creating new demographic methods to describe and understand racial inequality. Throughout his career, Du Bois made seminal contributions to the study of racial inequality in the United States. He introduced demographic methods to describe and analyze racial disparities and led efforts to reduce them. He wrote one of the first scientific studies of racial inequality and has been recently recognized as a vanguard of modern American sociology, introducing the use of empirical and statistical methods to study racial inequality. Until recently, his scholarly contributions to sociology were underrecognized.
2025 PAA W. E. B. Du Bois Award in Population Science
Hedwig Lee, Duke University
Dr. Lee will formally accept the award at the PAA 2026 Annual Meeting in St. Louis. Congratulations Hedy!