CSDE-news Bulletin

October 2, 2007

CSDE WEEKLY SEMINAR: Steve Harrell, Han Hua, and Zhou Yingying, UW Anthropology
CSDE ANNOUNCEMENTS: CSDE Statistics Core fall quarter Workshops
CSDE AFFILIATE NEWS: Mark Handcock appointed Statistics Chair; Kathleen O'Connor on sabbatical, Autumn 2007; Becky Pettit promoted to Associate Professor
CAMPUS SEMINARS & EVENTS OF INTEREST: Anthropology Seminar -- Stevan Harrell; The Southeast Asia Center Conference to honor Professor Charles Keyes; IGERT Program in Evolutionary Modeling Seminar -- James Steele; West Coast Povery Center Seminar -- Greg Duncan and Jennifer Romich; Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences Seminar -- Vladimir Minin; SPHCM Distinguished Faculty Lecture -- Chris Murray
RESEARCH & PUBLICATIONS: Conceptual and methodological issues for research on tobacco related health disparities.
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES: Microsoft Fellowship Program for new faculty
CALLS FOR PAPERS: International Seminar on Fertility and Public Policies in Low Fertility Countries
OTHER NEWS OF INTEREST: The Population Reference Bureau has added new content to its website

CSDE WEEKLY SEMINAR

Steve Harrell, Han Hua, and Zhou Yingying, UW Anthropology
From Labor to Capital: Explaining Increasing Intra-village Inequality in Reform-Era China

Friday, October 5
12:30 - 2:00pm
Parrington Hall Commons

CSDE ANNOUNCEMENTS

CSDE Statistics Core fall quarter Workshops

Statistics Core is offering the following workshops this quarter.

Introduction to R – instructor Cori Mar
Tuesday, October 2, 4:30pm to 6:30pm, and
Thursday, October 4, 4:30pm to 6:30pm

Introduction to Stata – instructor Anita Rocha
Wednesday, October 3, 3:30pm to 5:30pm, and
Wednesday, October 10, 3:30pm to 5:30pm

Introduction to SAS – instructor Anita Rocha
Wednesday, October 17, 3:30pm to 5:30pm, and
Wednesday, October 24, 3:30pm to 5:30pm

To register for any of these workshops, go to workshop registration.

CSDE AFFILIATE NEWS

Mark Handcock appointed Statistics Chair

Mark Handcock has been appointed Chair of the Statistics Department.

Kathleen O'Connor on sabbatical, Autumn 2007

Kathleen O'Connor, CSDE research affiliate, is on sabbatical leave for Autumn 2007. She is Visiting Faculty at the Center for Population Health at Georgetown University in Washington DC. She is collaborating with the demographer Dr. Maxine Weinstein on analyses and write up of their previously funded NIA project entitled Biodemographic Models of Reproductive Aging (BIMORA). More infomation about BIMORA can be found at http://csde.washington.edu/research/grants_single.php?rec_num=23

Becky Pettit promoted to Associate Professor

Becky Pettit, sociology, has been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. Congratulations!

CAMPUS SEMINARS & EVENTS OF INTEREST

Anthropology Seminar -- Stevan Harrell

Traditional Knowledge, State Power, and Ecosystem Flips in China

Wednesday, October 3
Wednesday 3:30-5:00
Denny Hall 401

For more information, click here

The Southeast Asia Center Conference to honor Professor Charles Keyes

Southeast Asia Center at The Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies
20th Anniversary Celebration Conference

Religion, Ethnicity, and Modernity: Identity and Social Practice in Asia
October 5-6, 2007
University of Washington
Walker Ames Room, Kane Hall

The Southeast Asia Center at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies will celebrate its 20th anniversary on October 5-6 by honoring the scholarly contributions of its founding director, anthropology professor Charles "Biff" Keyes. Since the beginning of his career, Professor Keyes's work has centered on three key Weberian themes-religion, ethnicity, and modernity-which, together and separately, have had special relevance to the study of Southeast Asia, and Asia more generally. Leading scholars of the region will attend this two-day conference to explore these three concepts and their relevance in understanding the complex and volatile processes of change that have taken place in the region.

All parts of the conference are free and open to the public. The panels will begin at 2:00pm on Friday, October 5 and continue throughout the day on Saturday. There will be receptions both evenings, with a dinner and keynote address on Saturday by James Scott, Sterling Professor of Political Science and Professor of Anthropology at Yale University. If you plan to attend Saturday's dinner and keynote address, please rsvp to us at seac@u.washington.edu.

For more details of the conference, hotel and shuttle information, please visit our website at http://jsis.washington.edu/seac. A conference schedule is here.

PDF Conference Schedule

IGERT Program in Evolutionary Modeling Seminar -- James Steele

Social learning, economic inequality, and innovation diffusion in market economies

Thursday, October 4
James Steele, U College London & Center for Evolution of Cultural Diversity
Social learning, economic inequality, and innovation diffusion in market economies
[Prof. Steele will also talk in the Archeology series on Oct 5; see http://depts.washington.edu/anthweb/news_events/FAALS.php]

Fall IGERT seminars originate from WSU-Pullman. Live videoconference participation at UW in Kane 019, 3:30 - 5 pm

West Coast Povery Center Seminar -- Greg Duncan and Jennifer Romich

Greg Duncan, Edwina S. Tarry Professor, School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University and Jennifer Romich, Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, University of Washington

Can New Hope Help the Working Poor and Their Children?

Monday, October 8
Parrington Hall Commons

Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences Seminar -- Vladimir Minin

Vladimir Minin, Assistant Professor, UW Department of Statistics
Testing Co-Evolution of Discrete Traits with Markov Evolutionary Reward Processes

Wednesday, October 3
12:30 - 1:20 pm
Denny 401

SPHCM Distinguished Faculty Lecture--Chris Murray

SPHCM Distinguished Faculty Lecture in conjunction with the Department of Global Health Lecture Series and School of Medicine's Science in Medicine Series

Chris Murray, Director, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation Professor, Global Health, School of Medicine and School of Public Health and Community Health

"Evaluating the Performance of National Medical Care and Public Health Systems"

Thursday, October 4th, 2007
4:00-5:00 p.m.
Hogness Auditorium,
A-420 Health Sciences Building
(Reception to follow in Health Science Building)

RESEARCH & PUBLICATIONS

Conceptual and methodological issues for research on tobacco related health disparities

A newly published supplemental issue of Addiction titled "Conceptual and methodological issues for research on tobacco related health disparities, " is available here: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/add/102/s2

The issue is a product of the Tobacco Research Network on Disparities (TReND) and was funded by the National Cancer Institute and American Legacy Foundation.

Also of interest is a supplemental issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health that focuses on the impact of tobacco control policies on low SES women and girls. It is available here: http://jech.bmjjournals.com/content/vol60/suppl_2/

FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

Microsoft Fellowship Program for new faculty

Microsoft Fellowship Program for new faculty. Nominations are due to the UW Office of Research by October 11, 2007 (only one UW nominee may go forward to Microsoft). The contact person in OR is Peggy Fanning (pfanning@u.washington.edu).

Microsoft Research seeks nominees who are advancing computing research in novel directions with the potential for high impact and who demonstrate the likelihood of becoming thought leaders of the field. The Microsoft Research New Faculty Fellowship Awards program gives recipients considerable freedom in planning the focus of their academic research. The funds can be applied to a wide variety of uses to pursue novel research. Examples of research areas may include, but are not limited to: security, interdisciplinary research, scientific computing, bioinformatics, computational biology, software engineering, and other areas in which computing transforms the discipline and advances the state of the art.

Please see PDF Flyer for more details of the program.

CALLS FOR PAPERS

International Seminar on Fertility and Public Policies in Low Fertility Countries

Barcelona, Spain
July 7-9, 2008
Organized by the IUSSP Scientific Panel on Policies in the Context of Low Fertility

Deadline for submission of abstract: 11 January 2008.

Very low fertility has been attained in more than 30 countries of Europe and Asia, including countries with very different socio-economic and political contexts. These trends imply, in the short or long term, an acute population aging process and substantial declines in the population size on national and regional levels. Important adaptations of both social institutions and individuals to these evolutions will be required to cope with this new demographic reality of the 21st century. Therefore governments are increasingly considering policy interventions aimed at raising the number of births. A substantial body of research has been devoted to the question of whether and how policies affect the tempo and the level of fertility. However, the reviews of research on this issue often show only weak associations, and contradicting or inconclusive results.

The main goal of this seminar will be to bring together researchers in the areas of fertility and public policy, including researchers with different views on the conceptualization of policy impacts and policy formation, covering a diverse set of low fertility countries. Theoretical, empirical, as well as methodological papers are welcome. Studies that place the effects of policies in a wider social, political, economic, and cultural context, as well as comparative research, are particularly welcome.

A full announcement and description of this workshop is available at http://www.iussp.org/Activities/low2/call07.php

The IUSSP Scientific Panel on Policies in the Context of Low Fertility invites researchers in the field to submit a detailed 500-1000 word abstract (and if the author(s) wish, a full paper which must be unpublished) and fill out the online submission form before 11 January 2008 directly to the IUSSP website at: http://www.iussp.org/Activities/low2/submissions/login.html

Abstracts and papers must be submitted in English only and the working language at the meeting is English

Applicants will be informed whether paper is accepted by: 21 February 2008.
Participants must submit their complete paper by: 7 June 2008.

For further information, please contact Pau Baizan.

OTHER NEWS OF INTEREST

The Population Reference Bureau has added new content to its website: www.prb.org

Materials include:

INDIA

Is India’s Population Heading Toward 2 Billion?

Will India be the first--and possibly the only--country ever to have 2 billion people? The Population Reference Bureau tackled this question in a new projection series, prepared by Carl Haub, PRB senior demographer; and PRB's India consultant, Mr. O.P. Sharma, in collaboration with the Population Foundation of India in New Delhi. This new report, The Future Population of India, A Long-Range View, includes projected population, total fertility rates, life expectancies, and broad age groups for India and each state between 2001 and 2101, under two scenarios. A PRB Discuss Online on this report (http://discuss.prb.org) will be scheduled in October with Carl Haub.

http://www.prb.org/Reports/2007/IndiaProjections.aspx

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND FAMILY PLANNING

Powerful Partners: Adolescent Girls’ Education and Delayed Childbearing

More-educated women have fewer children. This seemingly straightforward relationship is actually complex, and the benefits associated with different levels of education can vary considerably by setting. This policy brief describes adolescent girls' reproductive health risks and how increasing their educational attainment reduces those risks, including early and unwanted fertility, and benefits their future families and society. The brief was written by Elaine Murphy, a Bixby Visiting Scholar at the Population Reference Bureau; and Dara Carr, an independent consultant.

http://www.prb.org/pdf07/PowerfulPartners.pdf

Global Family Planning Revolution: An Interview With Warren Robinson

A new book, The Global Family Planning Revolution, chronicles family planning policies and programs in 22 countries over the past three decades. The book was co-edited by Warren C. Robinson and John A. Ross. In this PRB interview, Robinson, who is the founding director of the Population Research Center at Pennsylvania State University, explains both the challenging history of and future opportunities for family planning efforts around the world.

http://www.prb.org/Articles/2007/GlobalFamilyPlanning.aspx

U.S. IMMIGRATION

Hispanic Segregation in New Rural Boomtowns

America's Hispanic population is on the move. One-third of recent Mexican immigrants to the United States settled outside of traditional gateway states in the Southwest (Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California). This is a remarkable break from the past. During 1975-1980, for example, only 9 percent of Mexican immigrants settled outside of traditional gateway states. This study was carried out by Domenico Parisi, associate professor in the department of sociology at Mississippi State University; and Daniel T. Lichter, Ferris Family Professor in the department of policy analysis and management at Cornell University.

http://www.prb.org/Articles/2007/HispanicSegregation.aspx

Education and Occupation Separates Two Kinds of Immigrants in U.S.

New estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2006 American Community Survey show that the number of foreign-born people in the United States has reached an all-time high of more than 37 million. Although policymakers, journalists, and the public have focused their attention on low-skilled migrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries, there are also a large and growing number of highly skilled immigrants arriving from Asia to attend college or work in America’s high-tech workforce. These two tiers of immigration have contributed to a wide economic divide among America's foreign-born population. This study was conducted by Mark Mather, deputy director of domestic programs at the Population Reference Bureau.

http://www.prb.org/Articles/2007/EducationAndOccupationSeparatesUSImmigrants.aspx

PopWire: Hispanic Immigrants to U.S. See Progress on Wages

Although immigrants are more likely to be low-wage workers than high-wage workers, how foreign-born workers fare depends on their country of origin and year of entry. Many foreign workers made significant progress between 1995 and 2005, according to a report from the Pew Hispanic Center.

http://www.prb.org/Articles/2007/PopWireSept2007.aspx

SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS

New Database Reveals State Variations in the U.S. Science and Engineering Labor Force

A new database created by the Population Reference Bureau reveals geographic differences in characteristics of people working in the science and engineering labor force in the United States. The data, from the Census Bureau's 2005 American Community Survey, highlight state-level variations in earnings, education, and the participation of minorities, women, and foreign-born workers in the high-tech economy. This research is funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. There are 52 individual profiles (one for each state, the District of Columbia, and the United States).

http://www.prb.org/Articles/2007/NewDatabaseRevealsStateVariations.aspx

HIV/AIDS

Community Theater and Peer Education Help Tanzanians Discuss HIV and Gender-Based Violence

The Tuelimishane project in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, used community-based theater and peer education to heighten awareness of HIV and gender-based violence and change behaviors. The goals of the project, begun in 2004, were to reduce HIV risk behaviors among young men and to reduce the rate of partner violence in order to create an environment where women are able to negotiate safe sexual behaviors. To meet these objectives, drama groups held 21 performances of three different plays, and reached nearly 7,000 community members. This article was written by Sara Maki, an intern at the Population Reference Bureau.

http://www.prb.org/Articles/2007/CommunityTheaterAndPeerEducation.aspx

AGING

How Does HIV/AIDS Affect the Elderly in Developing Countries?

This e-newsletter is the sixth in a series funded by the University of Michigan Demography Center. This issue, "How Does HIV/AIDS Affect the Elderly in Developing Countries?" highlights National Institute on Aging-funded research and other recent research that explores the impact of HIV/AIDS on the elderly in developing countries, especially the economic and health consequences. This issue was written by Marya Khan, research associate at the Population Reference Bureau; and Marlene Lee, senior policy analyst at the Population Reference Bureau.

http://www.prb.org/pdf07/TodaysResearchAging6.pdf

Assessing the Fiscal Impact of Aging

Increasing longevity and declining fertility are combining to convert the population age structure worldwide from young to old. This combination is resulting in a dwindling workforce and a growing old-age dependency ratio. The Behavioral and Social Research (BSR) Program of the National Institute on Aging has, for many years, sponsored research that has contributed to our understanding of the impact of aging in the United States. This policy brief highlights some of this research, and was written by Amanda Sonnega, associate director for external relations, Michigan Retirement Research Center, University of Michigan.

http://www.prb.org/pdf07/NIA_AssessingFiscalImpact.pdf

TAKE A NUMBER

Population, Health, and Environment News You Might Have Missed

This month: Worldwide child deaths at record low; arrival of disability checks linked to surge in drug abuse; and British dread mentioning condoms to partners.

http://www.prb.org/Journalists/TakeANumber.aspx