CSDE Courses

CSDE 501 : CSDE Seminar Series

CSDE affiliates and visitors present current research projects. Credit/no credit only. Offered: AWSp.

CSDE 502 : Population Studies Pro-Seminar

Professional training in demography and populations studies. Includes ethics in population research, human subjects review, proposal application and writing. CSDE faculty research specialization, and research preparation and presentation. Credit/no credit only. Offered: ASp.
[ Fall 2003 Syllabus ]
[ Spring 2004 Syllabus ]

CSDE 513 : Demography and Ecology (cross-listed with SOC 513)

Theories and research on human fertility, mortality, mobility, migration, and urbanization in social/economic context. Comparative and historical materials on Europe, the United States and the Third World.
[ Course Syllabus ]

CSDE 595 : Biomarker Methods Research Group

BIO A 469 / CSDE 595

This is a new course offering, cross-listed between anthropology and CSDE.

This one credit course is offered for two quarters each academic year (Autumn and Winter).

Meeting time: MONDAYS 4:30-6:00pm

The course instructors are Dr. Kathleen O’Connor, Associate Professor of Anthropology, and Eleanor Brindle, Biodemography Core Director of CSDE.

The primary objective is to help build and maintain a vibrant, diverse, and leading-edge biomarker and population health community of researchers. It will facilitate exposure to, and participation in, a range of work, across disciplines, using biomarker methods, and provide a stimulating and sustained environment for growth, ideas, and collaboration.

The seminar format will be that of a 90 minute meeting every two weeks (5 meetings per quarter). The meetings will consist of
1) presentations and discussions on participant’s proposed or ongoing research, with a focus on field, lab and analysis methods for biomarker data
2) brainstorming and trouble-shooting discussions with the group
3) training sessions on field, lab and analytical methods for biomarker data
4) presentations and discussions of current papers and developments in biomarker methods.

Participants will include graduate students who register for the course, and importantly, faculty who are interested in adopting, or whose work already involves, biomarkers. Participation is open to graduate students and faculty across campus. A unique feature of this course is provision of a learning and work-group environment for faculty.

The rationale for the course is to meet a perceived need for outreach to faculty and students interested in adopting biomarkers in their research who have little training or experience in biological measures and methods. This format allows for ongoing dialogue in a low time investment venue that will yield high-return in terms of knowledge and collaborative work.

For more information please contact Kathleen O'Connor (oconnork@u.washington.edu)or Eleanor Brindle (ebrindle@u.washington.edu).

CSDE 595a : Special Topics in Population Studies

This course introduces students to concepts, tools and ideas used in political economy to understand the way people design institutions to manage resources as they construct livelihoods for themselves. "Institutions" include markets but also non-market institutions and states and the rules that communities design and enforce to enable cooperation and manage risks. This course will introduce the concepts and tools necessary to think about human institutions, concepts such as property rights and exchange, and apply these ideas to issues such as "sustainable development", population growth, the management of common-pool resources, the historical evolution of institutions, and the dynamics of institutional change as they relate to populations, environment and development.
[ CSDE 595A - Sustainability: People, Institutions, Knowledge and the Environment ]

CSDE 595b : Demography and Public Policy (Plotnick)

This seminar will take a multi-disciplinary approach to analyzing demographic aspects of several major U.S. public policy issues. For some issues we will examine how demographic behavior and change are having important impacts on social problems and policies. For others we will study the kinds of impacts public policies are having on demographic behavior. The course will explore theoretical and empirical aspects of issues such as:The relationships among child and adolescent well-being, family structure, income, parental employment, and welfare reform; demographic effects of child support and income support policy; marriage promotion policies; consequences of an aging society for Social Security and health care programs.

ANTH 436 : Comparative Family Organization

Function and structure of family developmental processes in band, tribal, peasant, and modern societies. Illustrates inter- and intrasocietal variation and provides data for construction of formal models of process and variation in family systems. Prerequisite: either one 200-level ANTH course, LING 203, or SOC 352.

ANTH 440 : Child Rearing, Culture, and Health

Cross-cultural study of the child-rearing practices, cultural norms, and health behavior of children and adolescents in different societies. Comparative approaches, diverse theoretical postures, and empirical research findings are used. Offered: jointly with NURS 495.

ANTH 457 : Ecological Anthropology (Smith)

Survey of anthropological research on interaction between human societies and their environments. Logic of different subsistence systems; intensification and transformation of subsistence strategies; population regulation; ecological aspects of human nutrition, disease, spatial organization, ethnicity, social stratification, conflict, and cooperation; historical roots of current ecological crisis.

ANTH 486 : Human Family Systems: Biological and Social Aspects

Biological bases for human mating and reproduction. Examination of the range of cross-cultural variability in human systems of kinship and marriage; comparisons among a wide range of human and nonhuman species and between Western and non-Western human societies. Interplay of biological, ecological, and sociocultural factors in determining the structure and function of human family systems. Offered: jointly with SOC 486

ANTH 520 : Ecology, Evolution, and Anthropological Theory

Critical examination of models and theories from evolutionary ecology, sociobiology, and ecological anthropology. Potential and actual utility of such models in explaining aspects of human social behavior, cultural evolution, and cross-cultural variation in strategies of production and reproduction.

ANTH 535 : Research Issues in Demography and Population Studies

Interdisciplinary seminar on current research issues in demography and population studies. Critical analysis and discussion of readings drawn from anthropological, economic, geographic, and sociological approaches.

ANTH 556 : The Evolution of the Family

Biological evolution of species-specific behaviors and forms of sociality linked to human mating, reproduction, and parenting. Cultural evolution of human systems of kinship and marriage as fitness-maximizing adaptations to a wide range of habitats. Prerequisite: upper-division course in evolutionary theory, population genetics, behavioral ecology, primatology, or animal behavior. Offered: jointly with SOC 556.

ANTH 570 : Environmental Anthropology

Current issues in the study of human environment interaction from a cross-cultural perspective: ecological adaptation and maladaptation; ethnoecology and indigenous knowledge; anthropogenic environmental change; political ecology of "development;" interrelations of cultural and biological diversity; conflicts over indigenous land use and property rights, environmental justice, resource conservation, and sustainability.

BIO A 450 : Biodemography Seminar

This course is an introduction to the theory, methods and literature of biodemographic research. Biodemography examines the biological aspects of aging, mortality, and fertility, typically within a life history framework. Biodemography is an interdisciplinary field, specifically using and tying together theory and methods from the fields of demography, anthropology, sociology, evolutionary biology, molecular biology and population biology. It covers pre-historic, historic and modern human populations, as well as non-human model systems (e.g. non-human primates, fruit flies, nematode worms, bats, cars). The goal of this course is to broadly survey the biodemographic literature focusing on the life history biology of the fundamental demographic measures of reproduction and mortality.
[ Syllabus ]

BIO A 450 : Biodemography Seminar

This course is an introduction to the theory, methods and literature
of biodemographic research. Biodemography examines the biological
aspects of aging, mortality, and fertility, typically within a life
history framework. Biodemography is an interdisciplinary field,
specifically using and tying together theory and methods from the
fields of demography, anthropology, sociology, evolutionary biology,
molecular biology and population biology. It covers pre-historic,
historic and modern human populations, as well as non-human model
systems (e.g. non-human primates, fruit flies, nematode worms, bats,
cars). The goal of this course is to broadly survey the
biodemographic literature focusing on the life history biology of the
fundamental demographic measures of reproduction and mortality.

BIO A 455 : Reproductive Ecology Laboratory Seminar

This course is an introduction to the theory and methods of laboratory-based research in reproductive ecology. The focus is on learning lab methods for reproductive hormone assays, and how these methods are designed and applied in anthropological, biodemographic, ecological and epidemiological research. The format includes 1) readings on assay methods, 2) readings on the application of these methods in various settings and 3) performance of reproductive steroid assays in the laboratory.
Advancing technology in molecular biology in the last two decades has facilitated more detailed research in reproductive biology than was previously possible. To bring the advantages of these methods to research in anthropology requires specialized training, which this course is designed to provide. We focus on application of these methods to the populations, field conditions and research questions of relevance to anthropologists, including human and non-human primate applications.
In this course students will learn about enzyme immunoassay (EIA) and related methods (ELISA, IEMA, RIA, IFMA), and the various body fluids that can be used to examine hormone concentrations. The collection, assay, storage and analysis of hormonal data will be covered. The methods for measuring two urinary steroid EIAs (for forms of estrogen and progesterone) will be learned “hands-on.”
After learning how to do the EIA’s, students will design and carry out their own assay experiment, which will include assay work, data entry and analysis, and comprehensive write up. The hands-on work enables students to learn how to design experiments, carry out assays, trouble-shoot assay problems, analyze and graph results, and write up scientific reports. EIA lab methods and Microsoft Excel will be extensively used.

BIO A 470 : Evolution of Human Social Behavior

Winter 2008, MWF 1:30-2:50 (5 cr)
Instructor: Eric A. Smith (easmith@u)

BIO A 470 is a new course in the Biocultural Anthropology program, open to those in other programs with the requisite background. This course surveys key concepts, research strategies, and debates concerning the processes and results of biocultural evolution. "Biocultural" refers to the joint influence of genetic and cultural systems of inheritance on behavior. We will focus on current theories & findings in this field, and the complementarity of different approaches to biocultural evolution, including behavioral ecology, dual transmission theory, cultural phylogeny, and evolutionary psychology.

The format of the course is a combination of lecture, discussion, and student presentation. The reading load is fairly intensive, including both introductory material and scholarly journal articles. Motivation and ability to keep up with the reading and participate meaningfully in the class discussions and student presentations is critical.

Recommended preparation: Students should have some background in evolutionary biology (at least an introductory course such as BIOL 354 or BIO A 201), or else a strong grounding in microeconomics (entry code required).

Students interested in an entry code for this course should contact the instructor with information about their preparation and interest in the course. Send an email to easmith@u.washington.edu with the following information:

1. What relevant courses you've previously taken


2. Why you are interested in taking this course


3. Your academic major & any relevant minors or past majors


4. Your class level (senior, grad, etc.)


5. Your cumulative GPA

BIO A 473 : Biological Adaptability of Human Populations

Mechanisms enabling humans to maintain homeostasis in extreme environments; high altitude, heat, cold, nutritional deficiency, radiation. Adaptive process operating at levels of physiology, metabolism and population, including the strategies of fertility and birth-spacing.

BIO A 476 : Sociocultural Ecology and Health

Sociocultural ecology of health/disease, focusing on humans as bioculturally integrated beings and on populations as biocultural units of adaptation. Examples of research on disease, both infectious and chronic, and patterns of morbidity and mortality, infant, maternal, old age, with particular attention to situations of sociocultural changes.

BIO A 482 : Human Population Genetics

Micro-evolutionary changes in human populations. Effects of mutation, selection, inbreeding, gene flow, and genetic drift as causes of evolutionary change.

BIO A 483 : Human Genetics, Disease, and Culture

Considers relationships among genetic aspects of human disease, cultural behavior, and natural habitat for a wide variety of conditions. Also considers issues of biological versus environmental determinism, adaptive aspects of genetic disease, and the role of cultural selection. Prerequisite: BIO A 201.

BIO A 484 : Human Life Cycle

Human growth and physical/social development: fetal life to old age. Cultural, ecological, and evolutionary aspects of the life cycle-population differences in age and sex related to morbidity and mortality.

BIO A 491 : Issues in Human Paleontology

Addresses five major unanswered questions concerning human evolution as represented by the fossil record. Prerequisite: BIO A 389.

BIO A 520 : Human Behavioral Ecology

Principles and methods of evolutionary behavioral ecology, and critical examination of their application to human behavior in such areas as resource utilization, mating, parenting, life history, cooperation, and competition.

BIO A 526 : Quantitative Methods and Modeling in Biological Anthropology

Surveys the concepts, tools, and methods for developing quantitative models based on underlying biocultural processes. Introduces methods of testing models from observations collected in anthropological field studies. Oriented toward longitudinal research of fertility, mortality, disease dynamics, population genetics, and other biocultural processes.

BIO A 568 : Human Reproductive Ecology

A consideration of the determinants of fertility variation within and among traditional human societies. Biocultural and ecological perspectives on pubertal timing, nuptiality, duration of birth intervals, and reproductive senescence.

BIO A 569 : Demographic Analysis in Biological and Social Anthropology

Demographic analysis relevant to anthropological research on small populations. Use of data collected through local surveys, genealogical methods, and from other sources. Focuses on the use of demography to analyze social and biological processes with adaptive and/or cultural-historical significance. Theoretical approaches to these processes are emphasized.

BIO A 584 : Topics in Ecology and Adaptation

Seminar dealing with various aspects of ecology and adaptation. Topics vary each quarter.

BIO A 590 : Current Issues in Human and Non-Human Primate Evolution

Biweekly presentation by participants and guest lecturers of current literature and ongoing research in topics pertaining to human and nonhuman primate evolution, biology, anatomy, genetics variation, and behavior. Credit/no credit only. Offered every autumn quarter.

BIO A 590B : Biomarker Methods Research Group

BIO A 590B / CSDE 595

This is a new course offering, cross-listed between anthropology and CSDE.

This two credit course is offered for two quarters each academic year (Autumn and Winter).

Meeting time: every other MONDAY, 4:30-6:00pm

The course instructors are Dr. Kathleen O’Connor, Associate Professor of Anthropology, and Eleanor Brindle, Biodemography Core Director of CSDE.

The primary objective is to help build and maintain a vibrant, diverse, and leading-edge biomarker and population health community of researchers. It will facilitate exposure to, and participation in, a range of work, across disciplines, using biomarker methods, and provide a stimulating and sustained environment for growth, ideas, and collaboration.

The seminar format will be that of a 90 minute meeting every two weeks (5 meetings per quarter). The meetings will consist of
1) presentations and discussions on participant’s proposed or ongoing research, with a focus on field, lab and analysis methods for biomarker data
2) brainstorming and trouble-shooting discussions with the group
3) training sessions on field, lab and analytical methods for biomarker data
4) presentations and discussions of current papers and developments in biomarker methods.

Participants will include graduate students who register for the course, and importantly, faculty who are interested in adopting, or whose work already involves, biomarkers. Participation is open to graduate students and faculty across campus. A unique feature of this course is provision of a learning and work-group environment for faculty.

The rationale for the course is to meet a perceived need for outreach to faculty and students interested in adopting biomarkers in their research who have little training or experience in biological measures and methods. This format allows for ongoing dialogue in a low time investment venue that will yield high-return in terms of knowledge and collaborative work.

For more information please contact Kathleen O'Connor (oconnork@u.washington.edu)or Eleanor Brindle (ebrindle@u.washington.edu).

CS&SS 320 : Evaluating Social Science Evidence

A critical introduction to the methods used to collect data in social science: surveys, archival research, experiments, and participant observation. Evaluates "facts and findings" by understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the methods that produce them. Case based.

CS&SS 321 : Social Statistics 1

This is an introductory course in statistical reasoning for social science students. It is built around a set of cases representing situations and contexts from a diverse set of social science fields, and where quantitative reasoning is required to arrive at a meaningful conclusion. The discussion given in the cases will demonstrate the logic of the analysis and emphasize the interactive nature of the task. The emphasis is on the nature and content of statistical and social science principles and practice.

CS&SS 322 : Social Statistics 2

Continuation of CS&SS/SOC/STAT 321. Progresses to questions of assessing the weight of evidence and more sophisticated models including regression-based methods. Built around cases investigating the nature and content of statistical principles and practice. Hands-on approach: weekly data analysis laboratory.

CS&SS 426 : Methods of Quantitative Techniques in Sociology

Applied regression analysis with emphasis on interactive computer graphics techniques and interpretation. Application to typical sociological problems.

CS&SS 494 : Advanced Quantitative Political Methodology

This course covers the theory & practice of likelihood inference. Topics covered include: probability modeling, maximum likelihood estimation, models for binary responses, count models, sample selection, and basis time series analysis.

CS&SS 504 : Applied Regression

Least squares estimation. Hypothesis testing. Interpretation of regression coefficients. Categorical independent variables. Interactions. Assumption violations: outliers, residuals, robust regression; nonlinearity, transformations, ACE, CART; nonconstant variance. Variable selection and model averaging.

CS&SS 505 : Review of Mathematics for Social Scientists

Reviews basic mathematical skills needed for a meaningful understanding of elementary statistics, data analysis, and social science methodology. Overview of core knowledge required for graduate courses in quantitative methods in social sciences. Topics include discrete mathematics, differential and integral calculus, review of matrix algebra, and basic probabilistic and statistical concepts.

CS&SS 506 : Computer Environments for the Social Sciences

Familiarizes graduate students in the social sciences with modern environments for statistical computing. Provides an overview of available resources and a description of fundamental tools used in quantitative courses and doctoral research. Topics include interfaces to Web-based resources, UNIX-based computing, and major statistical packages (SAS, SPSS, SPLUS, and STATA).

CS&SS 508 : Introduction to R for Social Scientists

Familiarizes students with the R environment for statistical computing (http://www.r-project.org). R is a freely available, multi-platform, and powerful program for analysis and graphics similar to S-PLUS. Covers the basics of organizing, managing, and manipulating social science data; basic applications; introduction to programming; links to other major statistical packages.
Instructor: Cori Mar (CSDE)
Schedule: F 10:30-11:20, Savery 149
[ Course Webpage - Spring 2005 ]

CS&SS 526 : Structural Equation Models for the Social Sciences

CS&SS 529 : Sample Survey Techniques

Design and implementation of selection and estimation procedures. Emphasis on human populations. Simple, stratified, and cluster sampling; multistage and two-phase procedures; optimal allocation of resources; estimation theory; replicated designs; variance estimation; national samples and census materials.

CS&SS 536 : Log-Linear Modeling

Log-linear modeling of multidimensional contingency tables. Logistic regression. Applications to social mobility, educational opportunity, and assortative marriage. Applied and computing focus.

CS&SS 542 : Event History Analysis

CS&SS 544 : Event History Analysis of Social and Spatial Change

Examines life course research using event-history analysis with applications to the substantive areas of household dynamics, family formation and dissolution, marriage, cohabitation, and divorce, migration histories, residential mobility, and housing careers. Examines continuous- and discrete-time longitudinal models during practical laboratory sessions.
[ Syllabus ]

CS&SS 560 : Hierarchical Modeling in the Social Sciences

This course focuses on models for what can generically be described as clustered data. Such data are common in the social sciences and take many names and forms (multilevel data, panel data, longitudinal data, repeated measures data, contextual data, etc.). The goal of the course is to provide students with 1) a solid understanding of the complications that arise when working with clustered data, 2) a basic theoretical understanding of linear mixed-effects models, 3) practical experience fitting and interpreting such models, and 4) a basic understanding of Bayesian hierarchical models.

CS&SS 564 : Bayesian Statistics for the Social Sciences

Statistical methods based on the idea of probability as a measure of uncertainty. Topics covered include subjective notion of probability, Bayes' Theorem, prior and posterior distributions, and data analysis techniques for statistical models.

CS&SS 566 : Causal Modeling

Construction of causal hypotheses. Theories of causation, counterfactuals, intervention vs. passive observation. Contexts for causal inference: randomized experiments; sequential randomization; partial compliance; natural experiments, passive observation. Path diagrams, conditional independence and d-separation. Model equivalence and causal under-determination.

CS&SS 567 : Statistical Analysis of Networks

CS&SS 590 : Seminar Series

This course offers a stimulating intellectual interaction among faculty and students by running a dynamic seminar series featuring presentations of ongoing social science research that involves cutting edge statistical methods.

ECON 443 : Labor Market Analysis

Determinants of employment and incomes in the United States; analysis of individual and firm decisions and of equilibrium in the labor market. Topics include decisions to work and retire, education and occupation choices, compensation, discrimination, poverty, unemployment and unions. Examination of policy issues affecting the labor market.

ECON 444 : Topics in Labor Market Analysis

In-depth analysis of special topics in the operation of labor markets and public policies affecting incomes and employment.

ECON 447 : Economics of Gender

Microeconomic analysis of the sources of gender differences in earnings, labor force participation, occupational choice, education and consumption. Economic theories of discrimination, human capital, fertility and intra-household resource allocation. Economics of the family in the developed and developing countries.

ECON 448 : Population and Development

Survey of topics in population economics, including history of thought, demographic experience of currently developing countries, household production models, fertility demand, quantity-quality models of fertility, mortality, health and nutrition, migration, macroeconomic-demographic linkages.

ECON 491 : Issues in Economic Development

Examines major theories of economic development and the practical experience of developing countries.

ECON 541 : Labor Economics I: Economic Decision-making by Individuals and Households (Lundberg)

Theoretical modeling and empirical investigation of decisions made by individuals and by families: the allocation of time to market work, household production and leisure. The determinants of wages, in particular recent changes in the wage structure in developed economies, and the sources of wage disparities across groups.

ECON 542 : Labor Economics II: Labor Demand and Supply, Human Capital, and Labor Market Dynamics (Lundberg)

Static and dynamic models of the firm's demand for labor, with applications to monopsony and minimum wages, investments in human capital through formal education, training, and consumption of health services, and the dynamics of worker-firm matching and unemployment.

ECON 543 : Population Economics, Spring

Analysis of population issues from an economic perspective: marriage, fertility, investments in health and education. Focus is on household behavior in developed and developing countries, and includes theory and empirical techniques.
[ Syllabus ]

ECON 546 : Health Economics

Theoretical and empirical models of the demand for health and health care; supply of health care from physicians and hospitals; government programs that subsidize health care; occupational health; cost-benefit analyses of preventive health care and new medical technologies.

ECON 547 : Advanced Health Economics

Selected topics in health economics, including risk and insurance, medical malpractice, the market for physician services, and industry regulation.

ECON 591 : Microeconomics of Development

Theoretical and empirical advances in the microeconomics of development. The agricultural household model, sharecropping, technology adoption, risk sharing and income smoothing, credit markets, program evaluation.

ECON 598 : Research Seminar in Labor and Development

Provides an opportunity to practice research and presentation skills in applied and theoretical macroeconomics. Students develop and refine thesis topics under faculty supervision. Peer criticism a significant part of participation requirement.

ECON 599 : Research Issues in Demography and Population Studies

Interdisciplinary seminar on current research issues in demography and population studies. Critical analysis and discussion of readings drawn from anthropological, economic, geographic, and sociological approaches.

GEOG 430 : Contemporary Latin American Development

Contemporary development issues in Latin America, seen from a spatial perspective. Concept of development: competing theories as related to various Latin American states. Economic structural transformation, migration, urbanization, regional inequality, and related policies.

GEOG 431 : Geography and Gender

Examines the theories and case studies across international, national, and regional scales in order to illustrate the impacts of social and economic processes upon the construction of gender in particular places.

GEOG 432 : Population & Urbanization Problems of Russia and the Newly Independent States

Historical background and evolution of Soviet/Russian population and urbanization processes and problems. Distinguishing demographic characteristics and recent trends in the growth and migration of rural and urban populations. Analysis of problems associated with ethnicity and nationality, regional-temporal labor demand and supply issues, and spatial-temporal well-being.

GEOG 435 : Industrialization and Urbanization in China

Examines the impacts of industrialization strategies adopted by the Peoples Republic of China on urbanization and rural-urban relations. Topics include economic development strategies, industrial geography, rural industrialization, urban development patterns, migration, and urbanization policies.

GEOG 438 : Cities of East Asia: Geography and Development

Examines urban development in East Asia from a geographic and comparative perspective focusing on issues in development, and the interaction of geography, history, politics, and economics. Major topics include economic development and urbanization; regions and urban systems; migration; urban social and spatial structures; globalization and governance.

GEOG 439 : Gender, Race, and the Geography of Employment

Focuses on the geography of employment for men and women of different racial and ethnic backgrounds in American cities. Presents evidence on labor market inequality for different groups and explanations of these differences. Emphasizes the importance of a spatial perspective in understanding employment outcomes for women and minorities.

GEOG 442 : Social Geography

Review of concepts and methods of postwar social geography; historical roots and present orientations. Study of social spatial systems, their structures and functioning.

GEOG 445 : Population Distribution and Migration

Relation of population distribution to environment, economic development, and culture. Frontier and rural settlement, urbanization, and suburbanization. Regional variation in age, ethnicity, fertility, and mortality. Causes and effects of migration from the world to the local scale.

GEOG 478 : Interurban Spatial Patterns

Geographic patterns and processes within metropolitan areas. Economic land-use patterns (commercial and industrial location), social land-use patterns (segregation, housing, and neighborhood change), urban political geography, analysis of urban infrastructure, and assessment of contemporary and future trends in urban development.

GEOG 501 : Geographic Analysis: Life Course Dynamics

This seminar examines social and spatial change from a life course perspective. Students will be introduced to life course research and event history analysis with applications to the substantive areas of household dynamics, family formation and dissolution, marriage, cohabitation, and divorce, migration histories, residential mobility and housing careers.

GEOG 520 : Geographic Information Representation

Current issues in geographic information representation for geographic information systems (GIS). Includes representation for visualization, databases, and analyses.

GEOG 531 : Latin American Development Seminar

Evolution of development theory in Latin America from a spatial perspective. Theories and development issues, using case studies from Latin America. How geographers have conceptualized development problems and solutions.

GEOG 542 : Research Seminar: Social and Population Geography

GEOG 543 : Research Seminar: Immigration, Ethnicity, and Employment

Employment patterns and outcomes for immigrants and ethnic minorities. Emphasis is on the U.S. experience and topics covered include labor market segmentation, theories of discrimination, job/labor queues, networks, ethnic niches and enclaves, skills and spatial mismatches.

GEOG 560 : Geographic Information and Analysis

Current research topics in geographic information systems. Particular emphasis on analytical methods, and their use in practical circumstances.

GEOG 577 : Research Seminar: Internal Spatial Structure of Cities

GEOG 580 : Medical Geography

Geography of disease, consideration in health systems planning. Analysis of distributions, diffusion models, migration studies. Application of distance, optimal location models to health systems planning; emergency medical services; distribution of health professionals; cultural variations in health behavior.

GEOG 581 : Seminar in Medical Geography

Research and methodologies in medical geography; critical analysis of readings in medical geography; interrelations of medical geography with (1) other geographical specialties, (2) other health sciences.

SIS 430 : International Population

This course is aimed at students who wish to understand how population dynamics and population policies shape contemporary societies. The course provides a basic introduction to population theory and measurement, and then takes up a series of policy-related topics. These include the implications of world population growth, and the growth in major world regions; the role of population growth in economic development; and the influence of population on global environment and resources. The course will explore contemporary debates over population policy and the political alignments of the protagonists. Also covered are selected issues related to major world regions including AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa, rising mortality rates in the former Soviet Union, rising sex ratios in Asia, and state administration of childbearing in China. The course provides a critical understanding of major policy issues in international population.

SIS 432 : Population and Modernization

Examines role of demographic factors in process of social modernization and economic growth. Approach is historical, focusing on populations of developed countries since 1700, and analytic, stressing attempts made by different disciplines to model demographic relationships, with attention to less developed regions.

SIS 553 : Environment and Health in the World Trade Organization

Conflicts between global environmental and public health on the one hand and international trade expansion on the other in the World Trade Organization (WTO). Focuses on the state of GAITT/WTO jurisprudence and its interaction with sovereign laws and regulations. Cases include asbestos, reformulated gasoline, beef hormones, shrimp-turtle, and genetically modified organisms.

PB AF 537 F : Gender and Development

This course examines men's and women's lives in less developed countries, the way in which men and women influence development outcomes, and how development policies and programs differentially influence men, women, boys, and girls. This is a survey course for understanding the gendered dimensions of globalization, economic development, and political economies.

PB AF 569 : Race and Public Policy

Analyzes the way in which the persistent problem of race is expressed in the formation and implementation of social and public policy.

PB AF 570 : Social Policy Analysis and Management

Examines major institutions and programs in the human resources policy area: education, regulation of labor market, health care, income maintenance, social services. Discusses alternative policy instruments, analytic perspectives, intergovernmental issues, and management issues arising across policy areas. Explores challenges of linking services and clients across separate agencies.

PB AF 571, 572 : Education, the Workforce and Public Policy

Two courses on policy issues involving education, training, the economy, and the development of the nation’s human resources. Relationship between education, training, and work; underutilized workers; race and gender discrimination issues; the role of education/training in economic development.

PB AF 573C : Seminar in U.S. Poverty and Antipoverty Policy,

Instructor: Robert Plotnick, Professor of Public Affairs

Two-quarter sequence, offered winter and spring.

Winter 2008: Tuesday 1:30-4:50, Raitt 221
Spring 2008: Tuesday 1:30-4:50

Prerequisite: Doctoral students in any discipline; advanced master's level students by permission of instructor.

This course provides a multidisciplinary introduction to poverty and antipoverty policies in the United States. It will extend over two quarters. Winter term will focus on how poverty is measured, its causes, and its consequences for children. Spring term will address the politics and evolution of US social welfare policy, compare US social welfare policies to those in other affluent countries, analyze the effects of specific policies on household income and poverty, discuss how policies affect labor market, demographic and other behaviors, and consider the equity-efficiency trade-offs created by public policies. Readings will be drawn from the fields of developmental psychology, economics, political science, public policy, sociology, and social welfare.

Credit: 3 credits

PB AF 57b3 : Demography and Public Policy

Examination of current substantive and methodological topics in demography. Content varies according to recent developments in the field and interest of the instructor. See CSDE 595B

PB AF 596 : Ethics and Values in Environmental and Natural Resource Policy

Explores environmental values and ethics and their relationship to the policy process. Includes content on value foundation of economic efficiency and its relationship to fairness, legal entitlements, duty to other creatures, and incommensurabilities in valuing goods. Current policy controversies are addressed.

HSERV 522 : Health Program Evaluation

Politics, theory, and methods of evaluation, from simple feedback mechanisms to evaluation of large-scale ongoing programs and experiments. Emphasis on applications of experimental and quasi-experimental designs to estimate impacts, as well as evaluation of implementation. Case studies from health field illustrate various types of evaluation.

HSERV 531 : Problems in International Health

Explores the social, political, economic and environmental determinants of health in developing countries and traces the ideological and programmatic responses to health problems both within and outside the health sectors. Topics include the origins of primary health care, child survival, traditional health systems, population, water and sanitation, international agencies and the effects of contemporary macro and micro economic policies. Students participate in a case study designed to formulate a pharmaceutical policy in a developing country.

HSERV 533 : Population, Health and Development

Provides students with an introduction to demographic conditions in Third World countries and an understanding of the consequences of rapid population growth on health and the environment. The context and effectiveness of family planning programs is a major focus.

HSERV 534 : Global Population Health and Development

Looks at determinants of population health in different countries, to learn about the constraints of typical public health and development paradigms. Topics include colonialism, development and underdevelopment, political economy, culture, health behaviors, hierarchy, health care and medical harm. Prerequisite: experience working in a health program.

HSERV 535 : Maternal and Child Health in Developing Countries

Issues in maternal and child health of less developed countries. The course emphasizes health risks at each phase of life of women including risks in childhood and adulthood (the reproductive years). The role of politics, economics, culture and technology will be examined.

HSERV 537 : Economic Development and Health

Discusses issues of broad interest in the areas of economics, development, and health.

HSERV 539 : Research Methods in Developing Countries

Simple, practical methodologies to obtain and validate information regarding health status and health services in developing countries. Usefulness, validity, limitation of vital records, health reports, household (and cluster) surveys, nutritional anthropometry, and qualitative methods discussed. Lectures, computer lab, and student participation in community-based survey.

HSERV 540 : Nutrition in Developing Countries

Introduces issues of nutrition in developing countries, with an emphasis on the control and prevention of under nutrition and micronutrient deficiencies.

HSERV 541 : Topics in Maternal and Child Health I

Historic, legislative, organizational, and financial basis of health and social services for families and children in United States. Effects of changing family structure and norms; factors affecting health care needs of specific populations, including racially and ethnically diverse groups; impact of policies/programs on health and well-being of families and children.

HSERV 542 : Epidemiology of Maternal and Child Health Problems

Contributions to understanding and prevention of major maternal and child health problems, including pregnancy outcome, infant and child morbidity and mortality, maternal morbidity and mortality, abnormal child growth and development, and early-life factors in adult health problems.

HSERV 543 : Topics in Maternal and Child Health III

Provides an overview of contextually based frameworks for understanding growth and development. Identifies and describes the conceptual basis and theory of change that underlie successful preventive intervention efforts to promote the well being of children and reduce common MCH problems.

HSERV 544 : Maternal and Child Health in Developing Countries

Emphasizes critical health problems of women and children in developing countries in social, economic, and cultural contexts. Practical approaches to developing MCH programs shared via lecture/discussions, exercises, and small group work.

HSERV 548 : Social Determinants of Health Research Methods

Explores study design, measurement and analytic issues applicable to research into the social determinants of health. Semi-weekly graduate-level seminar offered to students with a basic knowledge of epidemiologica and biostatistical principles.

HSERV 590 : Selected Topics in Health Services: Economic Development and Health

Discussion of issues in the areas of economics, development and health.

SOC WL 553 : Seminar in Contemporary Social Welfare Policy

Major American social welfare policies and demographic, economic, political, and social factors that guide their development, implementation, and effectiveness. Critical review of contemporary income maintenance and related policies, evaluation of their effectiveness in reducing poverty and income inequality and their impact on behavior, and assessment of proposals for reform.

SOC 426 : Methodology: Quantitative Techniques in Sociology

This course focuses on understanding and estimating regression equations. The basic theory and mechanics of single and multiple regression are reviewed. Emphasis is on the assumptions underlying the regression model and the implications of violation of key assumptions. Also discussed are the choice and meaning of independent variables, model selection and techniques developed over the past ten years that are both effective and simple to apply. Techniques are applied with a substantial amount of computing and extensive use of computer graphics.

SOC 430 : Urbanization and Modernization (A Guest) Spring

Human population distribution and migration patterns. Causes and consequences of world urbanization. Spatial and social patterns in the metropolis. Aggregate population movements and selectivity of migrants.
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SOC 431 : Fertility and Mortality, Spring

This course combines an overview of theory with the introduction of specific analytic approaches to the study of fertility and mortality. The theory side includes phenomena at both macrolevel (e.g., demographic transitions) and microlevel (e.g., individual fertility). Analytic approaches are illustrated in representative articles on fertility and mortality. The aim is to present both substance and technique; however, this is not a methods course. Students are assumed to possess knowledge of basic fertility and mortality measures, and the life table.
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SOC 432 : Population and Modernization ( Hirschman, Lavely)

Examines role of demographic factors in the process of social modernization and economic growth. The approach is both historical, focusing on populations of developed countries since 1700, and analytic, stressing the attempts made by different disciplines to model demographic relationships with attention to less-developed regions.

SOC 433 : Research Methods in Demography

Basic measures and models used in demographic research. Sources and quality of demographic data. Rate construction, standardization, the life table, stable population models, migration models, population estimation and projection, measures of concentration and dispersion, measures of family formation and dissolution.

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SOC 434 : Demographic Issues in Asia ( Hirschman, Lavely)

Contemporary Asian countries face a number of issues with demographic components, including environmental and resource issues, family planning, ethnic rivalries, international migration, and public health. This seminar addresses a set of these issues by focusing on the demography of one or more countries in Asia.

SOC 467 : Immigration and Ethnicity (Hirschman) Winter

Focus on contemporary American diversity ~ the multiethnic, multicultural society created by recent immigrants from Latin America, Asia, and by people of European, African, and American Indian origins; its issues and debates, including ethnic conflict, integration, multiculturalism, and assimilation, as viewed through comparisons with the past and with other societies.

SOC 487 : Sociology of Gender and Sexuality

Addresses the intersection of gender and sexuality in U.S. society, social institutions and movements, families, and the individual. Topics include the history of sexuality as practiced and politicized since colonial times, major theoretical approaches to sexuality, and how gender and other social status characteristics influence the meanings of sexuality.

SOC 513 : Demography and Ecology, Winter

Theories and research on human fertility, mortality, mobility, migration, and urbanization in social/economic context. Comparative and historical materials on Europe, the United States and the Third World.
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SOC 518 : Social Stratification (Rosenfeld) Autumn

Intensive preparation in theoretical, methodological, and substantive topics in social stratification.

SOC 528 : Categorical Data Analysis

This course focuses on log-linear modeling of multidimensional contingency tables and logistic regression. These are both viewed as generalized linear models, for which statistical techniques similar in concept to regression may be used. The emphasis is on practical data analysis problems which arise in the social sciences. Applications to social mobility, the study of educational opportunity, and assortative marriage are studied in detail. Computer exercises are based on the GLIM program.

SOC 531 : Demography: Fertility and Mortality

This course combines an overview of theory with the introduction of specific analytic approaches to the study of fertility and mortality. The theory side includes phenomena at both macrolevel (e.g., demographic transitions) and microlevel (e.g., individual fertility). Analytic approaches are illustrated in representative articles on fertility and mortality. The aim is to present both substance and technique; however, this is not a methods course. Students are assumed to possess knowledge of basic fertility and mortality measures, and the life table.

SOC 533 : Research Methods in Demography

This course introduces the basic measures and models used in demographic research. Attention is also given to the sources and quality of demographic data. The purpose is to prepare students to conduct research in demography and human ecology. Basic topics include rate construction, standardization, the life table, stable population, and models of migration. Treats the practical problems in population estimation and projection, in measuring concentration and dispersion, and in measuring marriage and divorce.

SOC 535 : Research Issues in Demography and Population Studies

Interdisciplinary seminar on current research issues in demography and population studies. Critical analysis and discussion of readings drawn from anthropological, economic, geographic, and sociological approaches.

SOC 539 : Selected Topics in Demography and Ecology

Specialized problems in demography or ecology are covered; for example, migration, fertility, mortality, language, race and ethnic relations, metropolitan community. In recent year the course has addressed "Population, Resources and the Environment."

SOC 539A : Migration and Health (Cassels) Winter

The purpose of this course is to investigate the interrelationships between migration and health, focusing both on the myriad of health issues experienced by migrants and on how they affect the health of populations. Students will gain an understanding of the theories underlying the study of migration and the migration-health relationship, in addition to a substantive understanding of the key health issues affecting migrant populations. The course will examine health issues among all types of migrant populations, both in developed and developing countries.

SOC 550 : Changing Patterns of Family Organization

History of the family with emphasis on changes in European and American families since 1600. Concomitant changes in other institutions and their relation to changes in the family.

SOC 551 : Family and Gender Relations

Overview of major research findings on marriage, the family, and gender, including demographic trends, the place of children in society, courtship, the internal management of intimate relationships, divorce, and social policy.

SOC 568 : Social Mobility

Social mobility is the movements of individuals from one social position to another. This course emphasizes movement from the socioeconomic position of family-of-origin to adult position. Social mobility is important both as a characterization of a society, measuring openness and equality of opportunity, and as a predictor of social behaviors, such as collective action and political attitudes. The course focuses first on the description and measurement of social mobility in individual societies. Then the determinants of mobility are studied using cross-national comparisons. Finally, it examines the consequences of mobility for social behaviors.

SOC 569 : Demographic Studies of Stratification

Overview of development of models of socioeconomic achievement ("status attainment" paradigm) in the field of stratification. Begins with work of Blau and Duncan. Covers elaboration of basic models to include race and ethnicity, social psychological variables, class, school and labor market effects, and other structural variables.

SOC 581 : Special Topics in Sociology: Historical Family Demography

This course looks at the recent demographic studies, which have radically reshaped our understanding of family life in the early modern period. The emphasis is on the early modern period and, reflecting the state of the field deals primarily with Britain and France. Most of the material is drawn from the work of Laslett and his colleagues at the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure.

SOC 583 : Special Topics in Demography and Ecology

Examination of current topics in demography and ecology. Content varies according to recent developments in the field and the interests of the instructor.

SOC 588 : Special Topics in Stratification and Race Relations

Examination of current substantive topics in stratification and race relations. Content varies according to recent developments in the field and the interests of the instructor.

STAT 361, 362 : Statistics for Social Scientists

Introduction to statistical methodology, measurement scales, design of surveys and experiments, descriptive statistics, exploratory data analysis, probability distributions, use of computer packages for statistical data analysis, point and interval estimation, hypothesis testing. Comparisons, two sample tests, nonparametric methods, measuring and testing association, correlation, simple linear and multiple regression, time series, multivariate data analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA).

STAT 427 : Introduction to Analysis of Categorical Data

Techniques for analysis of count data. Log-linear models, logistic regression, and analysis of ordered response categories, illustrations from the behavioral and biological sciences. Computational procedures.

STAT 428 : Multivariate Analysis for the Social Sciences

Multivariate techniques commonly used in the social and behavioral sciences. Linear models for dependence analysis (multivariate regression, MANOVA, and discriminant analysis) and for interdependence analysis (principal components and factor analysis). Techniques applied to social science data using computer statistical packages.

STAT 529 : Survey Sampling

Design and implementation of selection and estimation procedures. Emphasis on human populations. Simple, stratified, and cluster sampling; multistage and two-phase procedures; optimal allocation of resources; estimation theory; replicated designs; variance estimation; national samples and census materials.

STAT 536 : Log-Linear Modeling and Logistic Regression for the Social Sciences

Log-linear modeling of multidimensional contingency tables. Logistic regression. Applications to social mobility, educational opportunity, and assortative marriage. Applied and computing focus.

STAT 544 : Bayesian Statistical Methods

Statistical methods on the idea of a probability distribution over the parameter space. Coherence and utility. Subjective probability. Likelihood principle. Conjugate families. Structure of Bayesian inference. Limit theory for posterior distributions. Sequential experiments. Exchangeability. Bayesian nonparametrics. Empirical Bayes methods.

STAT 576 : Statistical Methods for Survival Data

Statistical methods for censored survival data. Covers parametric and nonparametric methods, Kaplan-Meier survival curve estimator, comparison of survival curves, log-rank test, regression models including the Cox proportional hazards model, competing risks.

UCONJ 504 : Advanced Interdisciplinary Case Studies in Global Health

This course is truly interdisciplinary in nature, and seeks to fuse
disciplines into critical thinking about select case studies. Just as it
is clear that "health" is not determined by the actions of the formal
health system within a society, it is also clear that practitioners
dedicating their careers to enhancing global health will succeed only if
their training is informed by many disciplines other than medical or
health sciences.

This new 3 credit course will be a unique, case based discussion where
the instructors will team teach, bringing 3-4 in-depth case studies into
discussion and analysis by the class. Instructors will represent
medicine, nursing, public health, law and social sciences and are drawn
from the interdisciplinary "architects" of their studies to discuss a
diversity of health issues which will give students a broader perspective
on issues of health and disease.

For an add code, contact Mary Conrad, msconrad@u.washington.edu, with
your name, student ID and program information.