CSDE-eNews Bulletin

December 18, 2007

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CSDE ANNOUNCEMENTS: CSDE eNews Holiday Break; Winter Quarter Statistics Workshops
CAMPUS SEMINARS & EVENTS OF INTEREST: WGHA Discovery Series -- Bill Foege
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES: Small Grant Opportunity -- Financial Risk, Assets, and Poverty; NSF-- Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems
CALLS FOR PAPERS: Inequality beyond Globalization -- Economic Changes and the Dynamics of Inequality
TRAINING & EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES: Four fall 2008 Demography Faculty Positions--The City University of New York
OTHER NEWS OF INTEREST: Applying for a Postdoctoral Fellowship -- Chronicle of Higher Education; Population Reference Bureau WebUpdate; Upcoming Grant Writing Workshop--Clinical R01; The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation -- To award $50 million to fund HIV prevention efforts in China; Gates Foundation helps find homes for needy families

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CSDE ANNOUNCEMENTS

CSDE eNews Holiday Break

Due to the decreased number of announcements during the holiday break, eNews will not be published next week. Our next publication will be on Thursday January 3rd, and our regular Tuesday publication will resume on January 8, 2008. Wishing you and yours a Joyous Holiday and a Happy New Year!

Winter Quarter Statistics Workshops

CSDE Stat Core will offer the following workshops during the Winter quarter 2008.

Introduction to R
Thursday, January 10, 3:30 PM to 5:30 PM
Instructor: Cori Mar

Introductory Stata (two 2-hour sessions)
Tuesday, January 15 & January 22, 3:30 PM to 5:30 PM
Instructor: Anita Rocha

Introduction to Graphics in R
Thursday, January 24, 3:30 PM (time is tentative)
Instructor: Cori Mar

Stata Graphics
Tuesday, January 29, 3:30 PM to 5:30 PM
Instructor: Anita Rocha

To register for the workshops, please complete the Registration Form.

CAMPUS SEMINARS & EVENTS OF INTEREST

WGHA Discovery Series -- Bill Foege

Bill Foege, MD, MPH Senior Fellow, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
"Global Health: A Voyage of Discovery"

Monday, January 7
5:00 PM
Foege Auditorium, S-060
Genome Sciences Building

Reception to follow in the Vista Cafe

Sponsored by: Eli Lilly Foundation

WGHA Discovery Series:
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Infectious Disease Research Institute
PATH
Seattle Biomedical Research Institute
University of Washington
Washington State University

Questions, contact Daren Wade, dwade@u.washington.edu.

FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

Small Grant Opportunity -- Financial Risk, Assets, and Poverty

The NPC's 2008 Poverty Research Grants program seeks to fund research that will broaden and/or deepen our understanding of the ways in which access to financial services, debt, asset holding, savings, and insurance shapes the lives of low-income persons. Both public and private programs can help low-income families smooth consumption and acquire savings for future investments or future emergencies.

The NPC anticipates funding up to 4 proposals, up to a maximum of $17,500 per award. The RFA can be found on our website at: http://www.npc.umich.edu/opportunities/research_grants/2008_poverty_grants/

Applicants for NPC grants must hold a Ph.D. or equivalent academic degree by July 1, 2008. Preference will be given to non-tenured researchers with full-time academic appointments and researchers using new approaches and innovative methods. University of Michigan faculty and postdoctoral fellows are ineligible for funding.

Application deadline: February 1, 2008

NSF -- Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems

New US NSF funding opportunity, Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNH): for "basic research and related activities that enhance understanding of the interactions within and among natural and human systems. In addition to basic new knowledge and enhanced theory regarding the complex ways that people and natural systems interact, CNH seeks to develop the capabilities of people and tools needed to advance these areas of research in the future. CNH seeks to foster and develop interdisciplinary efforts by bringing researchers from different disciplines into teams, by developing new methods and expertise, and by reaching beyond the borders of the United States for partners in inquiry. In the process, the next generation of researchers will learn to work in diverse teams, cross disciplinary boundaries, and use advanced sensing and monitoring, communication, and information technologies to work across many scales of time and space."

Grants will be between approx. $500,000 and $1,500,000 per year. Projects can run no longer than 5 years. Due dates will be January 8, 2008 and November 18, 2008 and the third Tuesday in November in every year after that. Cost sharing is not required. The Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems is a multi-directorate program jointly operated by three NSF directorates (Biological Sciences; Geosciences; and Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences). CNH is a direct successor of a special competition that was part of the Biocomplexity in the Environment emphasis area.

The full grant can be found at http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf07598/nsf07598.txt

CALLS FOR PAPERS

Inequality beyond Globalization -- Economic Changes and the Dynamics of Inequality

Midterm Conference of the International Sociological Association's Research Committee Economy and Society
Neuchâtel, Switzerland, June 26-28, 2008

Papers Due: 1/31/08

In sociological research on inequality, globalization has been a central focus for over a decade now. Nevertheless, globalization's effects on intra-national, international, and interregional social inequality remain highly contested. At the upcoming ISA-RC02 Midterm Conference in Neuchâtel, researchers will have the opportunity to discuss the current state of the debates and to contrast them with recent research on the distributional effects of economic change in general. The conference is intended to both create an open forum for current economic sociology and condense the findings of this discipline.
The conference organizers invite abstracts related to the following topics:

Influence of economic transformations and related institutional changes on inequality

How is the production and reproduction of inequality influenced by economic transformations and related institutional changes?

Is globalization the sole cause for rises in social inequality, or are there other concepts of similar centrality that may explain the contribution of current economic change to social inequality?

How and to what extent are the restructuring of firms and the increasing demands for flexibility, induced by economic change, contributing to social inequalities?

Are the current processes unique in history or can similar patterns be found in historical comparison?

Change and persistence of inequality structures

How and why do patterns of inequality change? Which dimensions of and cleavages related to inequality are persistent (income, wealth, educational and occupational status, gender, ethnicity, region, class, etc.)? What new socially relevant goods emerge, and to what extent do they constitute new dimensions of inequality or reinforce existing ones?

To what extent, for example, is the rising influence of networks related to economic change, and to what extent does uneven access to networks affect changing social inequalities?

Can we observe changes or persistence in the centrality of specific dimensions of inequality or in the relations between them?

How do inequality dynamics and their causes differ between and within world regions - for example, Asia and Latin America?

Actors and evolving institutional reactions

How do social actors (individuals, institutions, movements) and systems behave with regard to economic change and social inequality?

Which actors drive economic change, and how do they do it?

How do states, international organizations, civil society actors and individuals oppose and counterbalance inequalities?

Have either nation-states or international organizations regained any control over the impact of economic change on inequalities (e.g., by reshaping the welfare state)?

What roles do local governance or social institutions such as educational and health systems play in this field?

Deadline and form of proposals

Participants are invited to present abstract proposals of no more than 300 words. Proposals must be sent by e-mail (iNEquality08@unine.ch) before January 31st, 2008. Notification of acceptance or refusal of abstracts will be given before February 15th, 2008.

Conference proceedings and deadline for conference papers

The most outstanding conference contributions will be published in a forthcoming volume of World Society Studies. Complete papers of no more than 8.000 words sent before June 15th, 2008 will be considered for publication in this volume.

TRAINING & EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Four fall 2008 Demography Faculty Positions--The City University of New York

As part of its Demography Cluster Initiative, which includes 10 new faculty positions over four years, the City University of New York announces the following searches for fall 2008 appointments:

Social Demography: Hunter College, Sociology, Associate/Full Professor
Social Demography: Queens College, Sociology, Assistant Professor
Economic Demography: Baruch College, School of Public Affairs, rank open
Public Health Demography: Hunter College, Urban Public Health, Assistant /Associate Professor

Review of applications will begin immediately, and searches will remain open until filled.

More information is at: http://www1.cuny.edu/academics/centers-and-institutes/cidr/employmentopps.html

OTHER NEWS OF INTEREST

Applying for a Postdoctoral Fellowship -- Chronicle of Higher Education

Two career counselors offer advice on finding and applying for postdoctoral fellowships, with some specific advice for social scientists, in the Chronicle of Higher Education For the full article, click here.

Population Reference Bureau WebUpdate

Mark Mather, deputy director of Domestic Programs, Population Reference Bureau
Population Reference Bureau’s Discuss Online: "Beyond 300 Million: Regional and State Population Trends in the United States"

Wednesday, December 19
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM (EST)

http://discuss.prb.org
You may submit questions in advance and during the discussion. A full transcript of the questions and answers will be posted after the discussion.

In October 2006, the U.S. population topped 300 million people, and continues to outpace growth in other developed countries. But population change within the United States is highly uneven, with rapid growth in the South and West, and slow growth or population loss in many parts of the Midwest and Northeast.

What factors contribute to this demographic divide, and what are the economic, political, and environmental implications of these trends? Join Dr. Mark Mather for a discussion of U.S. regional and state population trends and their implications for the future.

http://discuss.prb.org

U.S. IMMIGRATION

New flows of immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean are a growing component of the U.S. population. They are part of the racial and ethnic transformation of the United States in the 21st century. Although far outnumbered by nonblack Hispanic and Asian immigrants, the number of black immigrants is growing at a remarkable rate. More than one-fourth of the black population in New York, Boston, and Miami is foreign-born. Immigration contributed at least one-fifth of the growth in the U.S. black population between 2001 and 2006.

A new Population Bulletin, "Immigration and America’s Black Population," looks at black immigrants to the United States—what countries they are coming from, which states and metro areas they are living in, and what factors affected their entry into the United States. Mary Mederios Kent, editor of the Population Bulletin, wrote this report based on her analysis of data from the 2005 American Community Survey and other sources.

www.prb.org/Publications/PopulationBulletins/2007/blackimmigration.aspx

PAKISTAN

With continuing political turmoil, emergency rule declared, and concerns about how free and fair January elections will be, Pakistan has been under the spotlight recently. But the political arena isn’t the only area where challenges persist. Beneath the surface, more problems are brewing in the sixth most populous country in the world. Some of the challenges are fueled by the country's rapidly growing population, which is making increasing demands on social services, especially the health care system. This article, written by Sandra Yin, associate editor at PRB, summarizes a recent presentation given by Dr. Fariyal Fikree, PRB’s technical director of health communications, on instability in Pakistan.

www.prb.org/Articles/2007/pakistan.aspx

RSS FEEDS

Subscribe to RSS feeds of PRB news, events, and new content on PRB’s website. You can choose among 13 topics and 6 world regions. When you subscribe to the feed, every time news, events, and feature stories and reports are published to the PRB site, a link to that item is added to your reader.

http://www.prb.org/Rss.aspx

Upcoming Grant Writing Workshop--Clinical R01

The Research Funding Service is offering a grant writing workshop

Thursday, January 10, 2008
8:00 AM to 12:00 PM

This workshop is targeted toward junior faculty and senior postdoctoral fellows, however, any UW investigator will benefit. In this workshop we will review one NIH R01 grant in clinical research. If your field of research is outside of clinical or biomedical bench research, you may be better served by a later workshop, in which we will review a health services or behavioral science grant.

To register for this workshop, please follow the link to the RFS website:
http://healthlinks.washington.edu/rfs/gw/index.html

If you can't attend this session, there will be additional grant writing workshops in the future. For questions, please email us at rfs@u.washington.edu or call 206.685.8036. Workshops are open to current faculty, staff, and students.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation -- To award $50 million to fund HIV prevention efforts in China

The Seattle foundation will give a $20 million grant to the Chinese Ministry of Health and another $30 million in grants to local, national, and international nongovernmental agencies. Gates officials said the grant, "will increase access to HIV prevention programs targeting those most vulnerable to infection. By rapidly expanding access to effective HIV prevention, China has an opportunity to prevent a widespread HIV/AIDS epidemic," said Dr. Tachi Yamada, President of the Foundation's global health program, in a statement.

Visit their website

Gates Foundation helps find homes for needy families

For the past seven years the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has worked with government and nonprofit groups to help more than 600 area families find permanent homes. The $40 million effort, called Sound Families, has also raised the profile of family homelessness in the state. A University of Washington study is cited. Click here for Seattle Times news article.