Sarah Giroux

Sarah Giroux is the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Strategic Programs in CALS and Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Global Development at Cornell University. Dr. Giroux currently teaches GDEV 1105: Global Development Cornerstone and GDEV 2130/5130: Introduction to Social Science Research Methods. In the past, she has taught courses on population dynamics, social inequality, and environmental sociology. She was awarded the Weiss Provost’s Teaching Fellow in 2022, the NACTA Teaching Award of Merit in 2019, and the Merrill Scholar Award in 2018 for her excellence in undergraduate teaching and mentoring. She is also a member of the graduate field of Global Development at Cornell and has supervised numerous MPS and Ph.D. students.

Dr. Giroux’s research focuses on the implications of demographic change for development and inequality in the modern world, focusing on sub-Saharan Africa. Substantively, her current work documents how fertility declines underway in many African countries impact a variety of development outcomes, including economic growth, education, and inequality. Methodologically, her work seeks to leverage the strengths of micro-level data to answer broader macro-level questions, using decomposition-based approaches to study social change.

Beyond analyzing existing secondary data, Dr. Giroux has co-led several large-scale data collection efforts, including a nationally representative survey on fertility and schooling in Cameroon. In addition to understanding this transition, she collaborates with national policymakers and a local NGO to develop and pilot innovative human capital-building programs to foster greater resilience and success among these young adults. She also worked on extensive capacity-building program to train mid-career researchers in social science methods at Universities and Ministries throughout West Africa. Her research has been supported by the Minerva Program, the Hewlett Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation.