Mark J. VanLandingham
Professor; Thomas C. Keller Professor & Director of Center for Studies of Displaced Populations Section Head, Program in International Health and Development
Areas of Expertise
Biography
Mark VanLandingham, PhD (IHD) is a demographer and sociologist who focuses on a wide array of topics related to public health. He currently leads projects focusing on the antecedents and consequences of largescale rural-to-urban migration within Southeast Asia; and acculturation, health, and well-being among Vietnamese immigrants in the United States. He co-leads (with Mary Waters and David Abramson) a team of researchers from Tulane, Harvard, NYU, Brown, and Michigan investigating Health and Demographic Disparities in long term Recovery from Hurricane Katrina (HDDR-HD), funded by a new Program Award (P01) from NIH. He currently teaches GCHB 6240 Health Problems of Developing Societies (with Katherine Andrinopoulos) and the GCHB 6990 Capstone Course for International Health and Development (with Margie Cartwright).
Education
Princeton University
University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Mercer University
Accomplishments
Dean E. Elaine Boston Award for Outstanding Long-Term Commitment to Student Needs, Tulane University SPHTM
2018
Thomas C. Keller Professor, Tulane University SPHTM
2007 - Present
Matilda White Riley Distinguished Lecturer Award, NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research
2019
Visiting Scholar, Russell Sage Foundation
2013-14
Fulbright Scholar, Hanoi School of Public Health
2008
Articles
Disentangling the Effects of Migration, Selection and Acculturation on Weight and Body Fat Distribution: Results from a Natural Experiment Involving Vietnamese Americans, Returnees, and Never-Leavers
2012
We distinguish between selection and true migration effects on weight and body fat for Vietnamese immigrants; and examine the role of acculturation on these outcomes. Data (n = 703) were collected among three population-based samples of working-age Vietnamese immigrants, repatriated emigrants and never-migrated Vietnamese nationals.
Mental Health Consequences of International Migration for Vietnamese Americans and the Mediating Effects of Physical Health and Social Networks: Results From a Natural Experiment Approach
2012
Although the existing literature on immigrant mental health is extensive, major substantive and methodological gaps remain. Substantively, there is little population-based research that focuses on the mental health consequences of migration for Vietnamese Americans. More generally, although a wide range of mental health problems among immigrants has been identified, the potential causal or mediating mechanisms underlying these problems remain elusive.
Physical and Mental Health Consequences of Katrina on Vietnamese Immigrants in New Orleans: A Pre- and Post-Disaster Assessment
2011
We assessed the health impacts of a natural disaster upon a major immigrant community by comparing pre- and post-event measures for identical individuals. We collected standard health measures for a population-based sample of working-age Vietnamese-Americans living in New Orleans in 2005, just weeks before Katrina occurred.
Media Appearances
Coastal Vietnamese Community Leans On Faith, And Each Other, To Rebuild After Harvey
"They fared great by all standard measures of recovery," said Mark VanLandingham of Tulane University, who has studied the Vietnamese in New Orleans. He said the elders had the 1975 immigrant experience as a lens to view the calamity of Katrina.
Post-Katrina, Vietnamese Success
The impression is that Vietnamese-Americans have experienced a more robust recovery than other ethnic or racial groups in New Orleans. In recent years, my colleagues and I analyzed various sets of statistical data collected before and after Katrina, and the results, published in the Journal of Traumatic Stress and the journal Organization and Environment, suggest that this impression is accurate.
Smaller New Orleans After Katrina, Census Shows
“It’s not an unqualified good thing to have big numbers,” said Mark VanLandingham, a professor at Tulane University who has expressed frustration with frequent calls from local officials, sometimes successful, for the Census Bureau to raise the city’s population estimate. “It made it very difficult to figure out what was actually going on.”
