October 23, 2018 at 8:09 am

Alumni News | Lyons Lectures as Family Demographer, Feminist Demographer

Heidi Lyons

Ohio University alum Dr. Heidi Lyons presented a lecture on adolescent and emerging adult sexuality hosted by The Feminists of OU (Oakland University).

Lyons earned an M.A. in Sociology from the College of Arts & Science at Ohio University in 2005 and a Ph.D. in Family Sociology from Bowling Green State University in 2009.

The Oakland Post wrote about Lyons’ lecture in a story headlined “Dr. Heidi Lyons presents a lecture on adolescent and emerging adult sexuality today” by Katarina Kovac, campus editor.

“I call myself a family demographer,” Lyons said. “When we think about traditional demography, it tries to look at the ways that populations change. Traditional demographers study fertility, mortality and morbidity.”

Lyons considers herself a feminist demographer as she analyzes the methodological implications of feminist theory for demographic research.

“I want to make sure that our populations are healthy and have healthy behaviors,” Lyons said. “I’m able to apply these really rigorous statistical techniques to the study of sexual behavior, and then I can start understanding things like who’s more likely to get HIV and why, as well as who’s most at risk in minority groups and why.”