M. Giovanna Merli, Duke University
M. Giovanna Merli is Professor of Public Policy, Sociology, and Global Health at Duke University and the Director of the Duke Population Research Center. Her research has applied demographic techniques to the study of fertility and mortality in China and Vietnam and has advanced innovative approaches to the study of hidden and hard-to-survey populations, such as the use of network sampling and the collection of ego-centric network data in population-representative surveys, to understand the behavioral and relational determinants of HIV transmission, immigrant health, and social integration of Chinese immigrants in the United States, France, and sub-Saharan Africa. She has published extensively in Demography—starting with her first-ever publication in the journal’s 35th volume in 1998—and other leading journals.
Giovanna earned her Ph.D. in Demography from the University of Pennsylvania, following earlier training in international relations (M.A., Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and Hopkins‒Nanjing Center) and Chinese studies (B.A., University of Venice). She has held visiting appointments at Bocconi University, INED, and Nuffield College, Oxford. She has served on the Board of the Population Association of America (2019‒2022), as Vice President of the Association of Population Centers (2020‒2022), and is the current Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Max Planck Institute of Demographic Research (2023‒2026). Before joining Duke University, she was an Assistant and then Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin‒Madison.