Marion Burkimsher
Affiliate
researcher of the University of Lausanne
My original doctoral research
was in Geography at Manchester University, and I still retain
a high level of interest in spatial and temporal variations,
and in particular inter-country comparisons.
After a career break to bring up our two sons, I started to
become more involved in academic matters by editing papers on
the subject of demography, primarily for the United Nations
Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). In doing so, I
discovered that the field of demography was fascinating,
considerably more so than the process of linguistic editing.
Therefore in 2005 I enrolled on the new Masters course in
Demography at the University of Geneva. At the end of two
years of study, I carried out a three-month internship at the
UNECE and completed a dissertation based on statistical
analyses of fertility data from Bulgaria, Hungary and Georgia.
While examining the variables in the databases of the
Generations and Gender Survey from those three countries, some
very interesting patterns of religious attendance became
apparent. In particular there was evidence of a religious
revival taking place, primarily in the Orthodox faith in
Georgia, where young people are considerably more active
participants than older people.
Since completing the Masters programme in 2008, I have been
following several strands of interest as an independent
researcher – fertility trends, religious trends, the influence
of religiosity on fertility and the distorting influence of
migration on fertility measures – with the aim of producing
significant results in these fields. Some of these results
have been published as papers, with more in the pipeline,
while in other cases they have been presented in international
conferences and seminars (see links below).
My current interests can be summarised as follows:
- Inter-country comparisons
- Cohort, period and age effects and the
impact of migration
- Statistical analyses of large data sets
- Measures of dispersion, convergence and
divergence
- The three-way interrelationships of
fertility, religiosity and ‘happiness’
- Childlessness and birth order trends and
the impact of birth order on mortality trends
I am currently following my research interests independently
with the aim of publishing the results in relevant demographic
and religious research journals, whilst maintaining links with
the Universities of Lausanne and Geneva. I am a member of the
British Society for Population Studies (BSPS) and the European
Association for Population Studies (EAPS).
Over the coming years, I plan to continue to research
religious and fertility trends, and I hope to be able to
collaborate in various international projects as the
opportunities arise.
Published papers
Presentations and seminars
Updated September 2023