CSDE-news Bulletin

May 8, 2007

ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE DIRECTOR: CSDE awarded 5-year NIH Training Grant; Congressional attempt to bar individual grants at NSF defeated
CSDE WEEKLY SEMINAR: Life-Cycle Happiness and Its Sources: Intersections of Demography, Economics, and Psychology
CAMPUS SEMINARS & EVENTS OF INTEREST: Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences Seminar -- Rodolfo Espino; West Coast Poverty Center Seminar -- Devin Joshi; Critical Medical Humanities Event -- The Anarcha Project; The Graduate School, Dept of Sociology, Dept of American Ethnic Studies, IESUS co-sponsored lecture -- Larry Bobo; School of Public Health and Community Medicine brown bag lunch discussion -- Dr. Stephen Luby; 2007 Oceans to Stars Lectures -- Anne C. Steinemann; School of Nursing, the Office of Global Affairs and the Dept. of Global Health lectures -- Intisar Abdul Hussain Abbas, RN; Critical Medical Humanities Llecture -- Warwick Anderson; Service Learning and the African Studies Program; Support the Tumaini Clinic in Kenya
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES: Graduate Research Assistant Position: Community-based Participatory Research; The Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies funding opportunities for students and faculty
CALLS FOR PAPERS: Sixth International Conference on Urban Health
CONFERENCES: The 19th IUHPE World Conference on Health Promotion and Health Education
TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES: Johns Hopkins Public Health Summer Institute; Workshop: Ensuring Access and Confidentiality Protection for Highly Sensitive Data

ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE DIRECTOR

CSDE awarded 5-year NIH Training Grant

CSDE’s application for a competing continuation of our current Population Research Training Grant from NICHD has been successful. This award will provide support for four predoctoral trainees from 2007 through 2012 and, together with the fellowships funded by UW’s Shanahan Endowment, will continue to enhance both graduate student recruitment and dissertation research in demography. CSDE’s training program in demography was lauded by reviewers for the quality of its rigorous training program, the high caliber of core faculty, and the supportive research training environment. Thanks and congratulations to the many CSDE staff members and affiliates who contributed both to this application and to the strength of the program; particular credit is due to Wolfram Latsch, the CSDE Training Director, and to the Training Review Committee—Bill Lavely, Kathy O’Connor, and Suzanne Withers.

Congressional attempt to bar individual grants at NSF defeated

Last week, the House of Representatives rejected two amendments to a bill reauthorizing appropriations for the National Science Foundation that would have blocked the NSF from continuing to finance nine individual research projects. The Republican sponsors of the amendments charged that the research, on topics ranging from reproductive aging of Bangladeshi immigrants to game theory, represented a frivolous misuse of federal spending. Opponents of the amendments defended the peer review process for allocating federal scientific funding and questioned the ability of Congress to determine scientific merit on the basis of a title and an abstract, but the merits of the disputed projects were discussed in debate. This year’s attack follows several previous efforts to strip funds from federal research grants that have focused on projects examining sexual practices and diseases. Behavioral and social science research has been particularly vulnerable to these targeting exercises, and disciplinary associations have been active in lobbying against them.

http://chronicle.com/daily/2007/05/2007050403n.htm

CSDE WEEKLY SEMINAR

Life-Cycle Happiness and Its Sources: Intersections of Demography, Economics, and Psychology
Richard Easterlin, University of Southern California

Friday, May 11
12:30-2:00 pm
Parrington Hall Commons

CAMPUS SEMINARS & EVENTS OF INTEREST

Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences Seminar

Rodolfo Espino
Department of Political Science, Arizona State University

Measuring the Effects of Social Context on Policy Attitudes
Wednesday, May 9
Savery 209, 12:30 P.M. - 1:20 pm

Understanding how individuals are influenced by their social environment is of importance to many fields in the social sciences. One of the primary tools used today by social scientists to study individuals is the use of survey research. The largest research expenditures within some of the social sciences, especially in political science, are spent upon survey research. Yet this important research tool is often ill-suited or ill-used to capture environmental effects on individuals.

The growth and evolution of survey research in the social sciences has been very rapid. Much of the initial survey research in political science was guided by how (campaign) environments affect (voting) decisions. Over time, such research questions generally narrowed to more fully understand how individuals arrived at their decisions internally. Two consequences have been the failure to properly conceptualize contextual effects and to resort to the use of crude contextual measures for individuals in surveys. This may, in part, explain why the effect of context on individual behavior in survey data is often found to be minimal.

This project describes a way to measure social context that is more accurately tied to an individual~Rs immediate residential environment and assess the effects on policy attitudes. This is done by utilizing a 2000 post-election survey of Latinos in five states and creating measures of neighborhood-level residential segregation unique to individuals and then assessing the effects of segregation on Latinos~R trust in government. The project concludes with the description of a pilot project that will provide an even yet more accurate measure of social context for survey respondents. It is the aim of this project to better measure context and to understand the ways in which these better measures influence policy attitudes.

West Coast Poverty Center Seminar

Devin Joshi
Doctoral Candidate in Political Science, University of Washington

Cross-National Perspectives in Poverty Measurement and Reduction: China and India
Monday, May 14
Parrington Hall Forum
3:00 - 4:30 pm

Critical Medical Humanities Event

The Anarcha Project

Sims and the Medical Plantation:
An infusion of dance, spoken-word poetry, theatre, music & projected images celebrating folkloric healing practices, exploring ethical relationships to history and interrogating the abuse of marginalized people in healthcare practices today.

Workshop with Guest Artists Carrie Sandahl, Aimee Meredith Cox and Petra Kuppers
Tuesday, May 29th & Wednesday, May 30th
4:30 pm - 8:oo pm
Meany Hall, Studio 267

Showing of The Anarcha Project (in Progress),
Thursday, May 31st
2:00-3:30 pm Meany Hall, Studio 267

To sign up for the Workshop or for further information, please contact Aime Mello: aimem@u.washington.edu
Sponsored by: The UWS Dance Program, The UWS Disability Studies Program, The UWB Office of the Vice Chancellor, The UWB Center for University Studies and Program, & The UWB Initiative for Creativity, Performance & Research. Held in Conjunction with the Society for Disability Studies National meeting.

www.uic.edu/orgs/sds/annualmeetings.html

The Graduate School, Dept of Sociology, Dept of American Ethnic Studies, IESUS co-sponsored lecture--Larry Bobo

Larry Bobo
Martin Luther King, Jr. Centennial Professor and Director, Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity and Program in African American Studies, Stanford University

Of Punitiveness and Prejudice: Racial Attitudes and the Popular Demand for Harsh Crime Policies
Tuesday, May 15
6:30 pm
Kane Hall, Room 120

School of Public Health and Community Medicine brown bag lunch discussion -- Dr. Stephen Luby

Stephen Luby, MD
Head, Programme on Infectious Diseases and Vaccine Sciences and Agency Head, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US Embassy, Dhaka, Bangladesh, ICDDR,B Centre for Health and Population Research

Dr. Luby does very interesting work looking at low-cost, low-tech interventions for reducing childhood diarrhea. He will be in Seattle on May 14th to speak to the Epi 532 course on the "Effect of Handwashing Interventions for Prevention of Childhood Diarrhea in Pakistan" and has generously agreed to share his time with interested individuals that day:

Monday, May 14
12:00-1:15pm
Room F348, Health Sciences Building
School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Deans Office Conference Room

He will share background about his work in Bangladesh and the ICDDRB, http://www.icddrb.org/

2007 Oceans to Stars Lectures--Anne C. Steinemann

Anne C. Steinemann
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Professor of Public Affairs, and Director of The Water Center at the University of Washington.

Hidden Health Hazards: Everyday Exposures to Toxic Chemicals
Thursday, May 10
7:00pm
Kane Hall, Room 120

Most of our exposure to pollutants occurs from sources that are close to us and within our control, such as consumer products that we use within our homes, workplaces, schools, and other indoor environments. For instance, fragrances in products emit toxic volatile organic compounds that have been linked to a range of adverse health effects such as headaches, seizures, and breathing difficulties. Paradoxically, these and many other toxic chemicals in products are not tested, regulated, or listed on product labels, as they are under “trade secrets” protection. Why are these products allowed to be sold, and why do consumers lack information on the risks? Professor Steinemann will explore this problem, revealing gaps among science, regulatory policy, public awareness, and health. Her recent research has identified numerous toxic yet unlisted chemicals in everyday consumer products such as air fresheners, dryer sheets, baby shampoo, and hand sanitizers. She will conclude with solutions, such as simple and cost-effective actions that can reduce risks from pollutants to both human and environmental health.

Dr. Steinemann specializes in environmental impact assessment and regulatory policy, water resources management, hazard prediction and mitigation, and health effects of pollutants, combining expertise in engineering, economics, policy, and public health. She received the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, in addition to university and national teaching awards. Dr. Steinemann has investigated more than 100 sick buildings to identify pollutant sources, reduce exposures, and improve occupants’ health. She conducted the first national epidemiological study of chemical sensitivity, its causes and symptoms related to exposures, and its overlaps with asthma. Dr. Steinemann has directed more than $8 million of funded research, and serves as adviser to agencies and industries on environmental issues. Among her recent publications are the textbooks Microeconomics for Public Decisions (South-Western, 2005) and Exposure Analysis (CRC Press, 2006).

Reserve your place now! Free, but registration advised, as space is limited.

On-line registration, more information about the lectures, location, and directions at:
https://go.washington.edu/uwaa/events/2007earthinit_otos/details.tcl

School of Nursing, Office of Global Affairs and Dept. of Global Health Lectures -- Intisar Abdul Hussain Abbas, RN

Intisar Abdul Hussain Abbas, RN
Ministry of Health, Baghdad, Iraq

Nursing in Iraq
Tuesday May 15
3:00-4:20pm
D209 Health Sciences Building (Turner Auditorium)

Health Systems in Iraq and Visions for the Future
Friday, May 18
3:00-4:20pm
T474 Health Sciences Building

Critical Medical Humanities Lecture: Warwick Anderson

Warwick Anderson, University of Wisconsin Robert Turell Professor of Medical History, Population Health, and History of Science, Chair, Department of Medical History & Bioethics

Pacific Crossings: The Imperial Logics and Transnational Formations of US Public Health
Monday, May 14
4:00 pm
Communications 120
...reception immediately following

Warwick Anderson, M.D., Ph.D., is currently the Robert Turell Professor of Medical History and Population Health, Professor of the History of Science, and Chair of the Department of Medical History and Bioethics, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research focuses on the history of biology, medicine and public health, particularly in Australasia, the Pacific, Southeast Asia and the United States. He is especially interested in ideas about race, human difference, and citizenship in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Dr. Anderson is the author of The Cultivation of Whiteness: Science, Health and Racial Destiny in Australia (Basic Books 2003; Duke 2006), which shared the 2004 W.K. Hancock Award of the Australian Historical Association. Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines was published by Duke University Press in 2006.

In Spring 2008, the Johns Hopkins University Press will publish The Collectors of Lost Souls: Kuru and the Creation of Value in Modern Science. He is also preparing an edited collection of essays (with Professor Richard Keller) on colonial psychoanalysis and modern sovereignty, as well as a reader on science and globalization (with Professors Gabriela Soto Laveaga and Amit Prasad). Dr. Anderson's work has been supported by awards from the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council (US), the Rockefeller Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation.

Part of the Critical Medical Humanities Lecture Series, sponsored by the Simpson Center for the Humanities. To learn more about Critical Medical Humanities please visit the website, http://courses.washington.edu/cultmed/

Service Learning and the African Studies Program

Presented by the University of Washington’s African Studies Program
Monday, May 14th
4:00pm
Thomson Hall, room 317

Please join us to hear students discuss what they learned from their African Studies service learning projects and to celebrate the work of Yemane Gebremicael, the program's Experiential Learning Coordinator.

For more information, contact Jana Wright, Program Assistant, Email: africa1@u.washington.edu; Phone 616-0998

Support the Tumaini Clinic in Kenya

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Stephen Gloyd, Director of the UW International Health Program and Executive Director of Health Alliance International

Wine and Cheese Tasting, Live Music, Silent Auction

Friday, May 18
7:30-9:30pm
UW Foege Building, Vista area over looking Lake Union

Suggested Donation: $75

Hope Center for Infectious Diseases provides free medical care for Kenyans living with AIDS. If you’d like to learn more about this cfundraiser and about how you can contribute to the Tumaini Project please contact: tumaini2007@gmail.com

FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

Graduate Research Assistant Position: Community-based Participatory Research

Community-Campus Partnerships for Health
Graduate Research Position
One-Year Position to start August 20, 2007 (with possibility of earlier start date)

Are you interested in health professional education, service-learning, community-based participatory research, community-based public health, ethicsand/or higher education policy?

Would you like to apply and strengthen your research and project managementskills?

Are you organized and detail-oriented, with excellent interpersonal and computer skills?

For more information, click here.

The Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies funding opportunities for students and faculty

STUDENTS
Deadlines are June 1, 2007

The Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA) scholarship - an annual $1,000 award for a graduate or undergraduate student who demonstrates a commitment to pursing a profession in labor and/or labor management.

The Martin and Anne Jugum scholarship - one year tuition scholarships for undergraduates who exhibit a commitment to labor research or practice

The Martha H. Duggan Fellowship in Labor Studies - an annual $10,000 award for a graduate student with a focus on caring labor Deadline is June 8, 2007

Best Paper Prizes - awards of $250 for both an undergraduate and graduate student are given for the best paper on a labor studies topic written during the 2006-07 academic year

FACULTY
Deadlines are July 1, 2007

Labor studies research grants - up to $4,000

Research grants for policy-oriented labor and economic research on Washington State - up to $10,000

Working group research grants - up to $7,500 (limited eligibility)

STUDENT INTERNSHIP - ACADEMIC CREDIT AVAILABLE

Steven Garrett (UW Dept. of Geography sgarrett@u.washington.edu) is working with the Center for a Changing Workforce (paid for by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union) to write a report on a) employment and health care issues affecting retail workers in the Seattle metro area, and b) access to food stores, especially stores offering fresh fruits and vegetables, for low-income residents in the Seattle metro area. He will be taking part in press interviews from June 6 to June 12 and a presentation of the findings of the study at a public forum on June 10 where Senator's Murray and Cantwell, and the UW's Pepper Schwartz will be speaking. Student's interested in participating in this high-profile project, please contact Steven ASAP. He is looking for someone with labor interest who can start right away. The level and type of assistance and credit on the report will depend on the skills of the student. Potential tasks: working with GIS data, interviewing shoppers and union workers, taking pictures, market basket surveys, and research on policies from other municipalities.

CALLS FOR PAPERS

Sixth International Conference on Urban Health

ICUH 2007 offers an excellent opportunity to showcase your research before an international audience of researchers, academic community members, epidemiologists, physicians, public policy and public health professionals, sociologists, social workers, and other urban health professionals.

Abstract Submission Deadline Extended Until June 1st!

Abstracts are welcomed on all topics related to urban health, and submissions from community organizations are particularly encouraged.

Please follow the link http://www.icuh2007.org/abstracts.html to submit your abstract and become part of this exciting conference.

CONFERENCES

The 19th IUHPE World Conference on Health Promotion and Health Education

Health Promotion Comes of Age: Research, Policy & Practice for the 21st Century
June 10th -15th, 2007
Vancouver, BC Canada

Conference Themes:
Reducing Health Inequities
Assets for Health and Development
Enabling System Transformations Assessing the Effectiveness of Health Promotion

Confirmed Speakers: Stephen Lewis; Marcia Hills; David McQueen; Ilona Kickbusch; Jeff Reading; Vivian Labrie; Paulo Buss; Esau Keukebata; Stephen Matlin; Nadarajah Sivarajah; David Butler-Jones; Maurice B. Mittelmark; Monique Bégin; Michael Marmot; Maria Dolores Fernós; Mary Amuyunzu-Nyamongo; Michel Autés

Invited Speakers: Carlos Gaviria - Aminata Traore - Catherine Frazee

Website: http://www.iuhpeconference.org/

TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Johns Hopkins Public Health Summer Institute

The first Health, Behavior and Society Summer Institute will be held June 4 – 22, 2007. The Institute will provide an opportunity to explore and learn specific skills to address behavioral and social challenges to public health. Courses provide a general overview of behavioral science issues in public health, including the role of social and psychological factors in health and health behaviors, and interventions used for disease prevention and treatment. Participants may also select courses in the area of health communication and courses in Latino health, management skills for health educators, and community-based participatory research.

Summer Institute Brochure
Register online for the HBS Summer Institute
To visit the Summer Institute website, click here.

For more information on HBS Summer Institute courses and registration, contact Davette English at denglish@jhsph.edu.

Workshop: Ensuring Access and Confidentiality Protection for Highly Sensitive Data

Wednesday, October 3
Michigan Center on the Demography of Aging
Institute for Social Research
University of Michigan

Flyer [pdf]