Members of the LSE Historical Economic Demography (HED) Group are drawn from across LSE's academic departments, reflecting the interdisciplinarity of the group. The HED group is co-directed by Eric Schneider and Neil Cummins. In addition, a board made up of several more group members advises on the group's strategy and helps to organise events. The board currently includes Izzi Carter, Nick Fitzhenry, Louis Henderson, Tracy Keefe and Chris Minns. The group is happy to host academic visitors through the Economic History Department. Please get in touch with the directors if you would like to join the group or enquire about a visit to LSE.
Professor Eric Schneider
Co-Director of HED Group
Professor, Department of Economic History
Research interests: Historical child growth, historical morbidity, fetal/neonatal health, health costs of pollution, health transition, demographic transition
Email: e.b.schneider@lse.ac.uk
Professor Neil Cummins
Co-Director of HED Group
Professor, Department of Economic History
Research interests: the origin of modern economic and demographic behaviour; fertility decline; social mobility
Email: n.j.cummins@lse.ac.uk
Dr Arjan Gjonça
Associate Professor, Department of International Development
Research interests: Development and demography. Epidemiological and mortality transition and relation to development. Sex ratio at birth and female mortality disadvantage
Email: a.gjonca@lse.ac.uk
Professor Elliott Green
Professor, Department of International Development
Research interests: Ethnic and national identity formation in historical context, with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa
Email: e.d.green@lse.ac.uk
Dr Louis Henderson
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Economic History
Research interests: Human capital; care work; long-run development; demographic transitions
Email: l.henderson2@lse.ac.uk
Professor Sara Horrell
Professor, Department of Economic History
Research interests: Women's and children's work and wages, family living standards and women's and men's demographic decisions in Britain, 1280-1860
Email: s.h.horrell@lse.ac.uk
Dr Tiziana Leone
Associate Professor, Department of International Development
Research interests: Life course women's health, conflict and health, menopause and menarche in LMICs
Email: t.leone@lse.ac.uk
Aurelius Noble
Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Economic History
Research interests: Inequality, social mobility, big data, computer vision, document analysis, machine learning, network analysis, Victorian Britain
Email: a.j.noble@lse.ac.uk
Dr Tom Raster
Assistant Professor, Department of Economic History
Research interests: Economic geography, pandemics, migration
Email: t.raster@lse.ac.uk
Dr Mohamed Saleh
Associate Professor, Department of Economic History
Research interests: Economic history of the Middle East and North Africa, historical economic demography, historical political economy
Email: m.saleh@lse.ac.uk
Professor Wendy Sigle
Professor, Department of Gender Studies
Research interests: Methodological legacies - how established research methods reproduce problematic conceptual frameworks and impede efforts to promote social justice.
Email: w.sigle@lse.ac.uk
Dr Melanie Meng Xue
Assistant Professor, Department of Economic History
Research interests: My work focuses on culture and institutions. Some of it is related to gender norms. I have ongoing work on attitudes towards children and fertility.
Email: m.m.xue@lse.ac.uk
Ross Barker
PhD student, Department of Methodology
Research interests: Social pressures; norms; fertility; historical text; books; newspapers; childlessness; gender
Email: r.barker1@lse.ac.uk
Qi Cui
PhD student, Department of Methodology
Research interests: Fertility transition, Mathematical demography, intergenerational transmission, marriage
Email: q.cui1@lse.ac.uk
Midanna de Almada
PhD student, Department of Methodology
Research Interests: Demography; global health; sexual and reproductive health; contraceptive use; data use for decision-making
Email: m.de-almada@lse.ac.uk
Eoin Dignam
PhD student, Department of Economic History
Research interests: Economic history, climate economics, climate change and health, the demographic transition in France.
Email: e.a.dignam@lse.ac.uk
Nick Fitzhenry
PhD student, Department of Economic History
Research interests: South African history, health inequalities, colonial medicine, anthropometrics, development economics, economic history of Africa, historical demography
Email: n.a.fitzhenry@lse.ac.uk
Hampton Gaddy
PhD student, Department of Economic History
Research interests: historical mortality; the 1918 influenza epidemic; the demographic impacts of crises
Email: h.g.gaddy@lse.ac.uk
Dwi Anggi Novianti
PhD student, Department of Economic History
Research interests: Economic history of pandemics, the 1918-1919 Spanish Flu, economic history of Indonesia and Asia
Email: d.novianti@lse.ac.uk
Johann Ohler
PhD student, Department of Economic History
Research interests: Economic history; economic growth; demographic change; health economics.
Email: j.p.ohler@lse.ac.uk
Matthew Purcell
PhD student, Department of Economic History
Research interests: Maternal and child health, fertility, social determinants of health
Email: m.purcell@lse.ac.uk
Jingwen Shi
PhD student, Department of Economic History
Research interests: Social welfare; altruism; demographic transitions; long-run growth
Email: j.shi42@lse.ac.uk
Dijana Spasenoska
PhD student, Department of Social Policy
Research interests: Health in times of political transition; mortality; ex-Yugoslav countries; Balkans; social determinants of health; health policy; immunization
Email: d.spasenoska@lse.ac.uk
Noah Sutter
PhD student, Department of Economic History
Research interests: Social mobility in the 19th century, persistence of old regime elites, early industrial capitalists, wealth inequality, French economic history
Email: n.w.sutter@lse.ac.uk
Weizhe Zhang
PhD Student, Department of Economic History
Research Interests: Socio-economic and demographic impact of social welfare programmes; economic history in the Regency Era
Email: w.zhang59@lse.ac.uk
Tianning Zhu
PhD student, Department of Economic History
Research interests: Migration; Chinese economic history; historical demography
Email: t.zhu8@lse.ac.uk
Ziming Zhu
PhD student, Department of Economic History
Research interests: Economic history, social mobility, geographic mobility
Email: z.zhu11@lse.ac.uk
Dr David Escamilla-Guerrero
Assistant Professor of Economics, University of St Andrews
Dissertation title: Cliometric essays on Mexican migration to the United States
Completion year: 2020
Research interests: My research interests are at the intersection between immigration and labour markets, with a focus on North and Latin America.
Email: drescamillag@gmail.com
Dr Sijie Hu
Assistant Professor, Renmin University of China
Dissertation title: A Micro-Demographic Analysis of Human Fertility from Chinese Genealogies, 1368-1911
Completion year: 2021
Research interests: Chinese historical demography; Chinese population history; social mobility; gender inequality
Email: sjhu92@outlook.com
Dr Juliana Jaramillo-Echeverri
Junior Researcher, Central Bank of Colombia
Dissertation title: Fertility, education and social mobility in 20th century Colombia
Completion year: 2023
Research interests: My primary research interest is studying demographical changes, historical development and the persistence of social status in the long run.
Email: juliana.jaramilloe@gmail.com
Dr Xizi Luo
EHS Postdoctoral Researcher
Dissertation title: State, Elite Families, and the Examination System in the Qing Dynasty.
Completion year: 2024
Research interests: social mobility, marriage assortment, meritocracy, and political economy
Email: x.luo10@lse.ac.uk
Dr Aurelius Noble
Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Economic History
Dissertation title: Social capital and elite persistence in late Victorian and Edwardian England
Completion year: 2024
Research interests: Long-run wealth inequality, the persistence of aristocratic elites, with a focus on 'Big Data' collection methods (automated transcription and nlp).
Email: aureliusnoble@gmail.com
Dr Charles Udale
Law Student
Dissertation title: The Plague and the State in Early Modern England, 1538-1667
Completion year: 2024
Research Interests: Early modern demographic, medical and social history.
Email: charlieudale@live.co.uk
Dr Hillary Vipond
Postdoctoral researcher, Complexity Science Hub Vienna; visiting scholar at Harvard Kennedy Growth Lab
Dissertation title: Technological Unemployment in Victorian Britain: A Tasks Based Approach
Completion year: 2024
Research interests: Technological labour displacement, job creation, job loss, access to opportunity, social mobility (HED), shared prosperity (HED), 19th century
Email: vipond@csh.ac.at