Social demography; aging and caregiving; health and well-being; changes in marriage and family formation; inequalities in education.
I am currently accepting M.A. and Ph.D. students.
I use quantitative and qualitative research methods to study diverse questions related to socioeconomic inequalities in aging and caregiving, health and wellbeing, and education. I am also interested in changes in marriage and childbearing and the emergence of new family forms.
I have mentored and supervised many graduate students and acted as a consultant on research design and data analyses. I have taught numerous and wide-ranging courses including research methods, classical sociological theory, power and stratification, sociology of the family, studies in population, studies in urban sociology, women in contemporary Middle Eastern Societies, social statistics, and demographic analysis.
Knoefel, Frank, Salma Mayamuud, and Rania Tfaily. 2022. “Driving Cessation: What Are Family Members’ Experiences and What Do They Think about Driving Simulators.” Geriatrics 7(6).
Tfaily, Rania. 2020.“Spring Babies, Summer Weddings, Fall Divorces and Winter Deaths: Seasons and Populations.” Pp. 207-24 in Seasonal Sociology, edited by T. Davidson, and O. Park. Toronto: Toronto University Press.
Tfaily, Rania. 2016. “Gender, Sibship Composition and Education in Egypt.” Comparative Education Review 60(3):480-500.
Tfaily, Rania, Hassan Diab, and Andrzej Kulczycki. 2013. “Educational Disparities and Conflict: Evidence from Lebanon.” Research in Comparative and International Education 8(1):55-73.
Reniers, Georges, and Rania Tfaily. 2012. “Polygyny, Partnership Concurrency, and HIV Transmission in Sub-Saharan Africa.” Demography 49(3):1075-1011.
Reniers, Georges, Susan C. Watkins, and Rania Tfaily. 2010. “Benign Concurrency in Context and Practice: A Response to Epstein and Stanton.” AIDS 24 (11):1792-95.
Tfaily, Rania. 2010. “Cross-community Comparability of Attitude Questions: An Application of Item Response Theory.” International Journal of Social Research Methodology 13(2):95-110.
Prus, Steven G., Rania Tfaily, and Zhiqiu Lin. 2010. “Comparing Racial and Immigrant Health Status and Health Care Access in Later Life in Canada and the United States.” Canadian Journal on Aging/ La Revue Canadienne Du Vieillissement 29(3):383-95.
Noël-Miller, Claire, and Rania Tfaily. 2009. “Financial Transfers to Husbands’ and Wives’ Elderly Mothers in Mexico: Do Couples Exhibit Preferential Treatment by Lineage?” Research on Aging 31(6):611-37.
Reniers, Georges, and Rania Tfaily. 2008. “Polygyny and HIV in Malawi.” Demographic Research 19:1811-30.
Soldo, Beth J., Olivia S. Mitchell, Rania Tfaily, and John D. McCabe. 2007. “Cross-cohort Differences in Health on the Verge of Retirement.” Pp. 138-58 in Redefining Retirement: How Will Boomers Fare? edited by B. Madrian, O. S. Mitchell, and B. J. Soldo. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Tfaily, Rania. 2005. “Do Women with Higher Autonomy Have Lower Fertility? Evidence from Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand.” Genus LX(2):7-32.
