This week, CSDE’s seminar is a panel discussion about new methodologies in the study of migration and settlements. Panelists include CSDE Affiliate and Training Core PI  Zack Almquist (UW Sociology), CSDE Affiliate Rawan Arar (UW Law, Societies, and Justice) and CSDE Affiliate Peter Catron (UW Sociology). CSDE Affiliate and Executive Committee Member Nathalie Williams (UW Sociology), will moderate the panel. Here is the line-up for this week:

Zack Almquist will present “Using Social Media to Measure Demographic Responses to Natural Disasters: Insights From a Large-Scale Facebook Survey Following the 2019 Australia Bushfires.”

Rawan Arar will present “How Do We Know What We ‘Know’ About Refugees?”

Peter Catron will present “The English Language Acquisition of Refugees in the Historical United States.″

Register for the Zoom seminar here. (read more)

CSDE’s Executive Committee is pleased to introduce four of our new UW Faculty Affiliates:

• Susan Graham– Associate Professor in Medicine and Global Health, University of Washington. Graham is a clinical epidemiologist who has led and collaborated in numerous research projects related to HIV prevention, care, and pathogenesis. She is also an infectious diseases specialist with over 15 years’ experience providing HIV care and prevention services to patients in the United States and in Kenya. Graham has experience conducting mixed methods research on HIV and mental health, contributing to community-based initiatives to improve care for vulnerable and key populations, and developing and testing interventions to improve health outcomes including ART adherence and HIV test uptake.
• Kivan Polimas– Principal Data Scientist, Atlas Analytics. Polimis’ interests include researching structural inequality, natural language processing, and developing programming solutions to social problems. His research focuses on combining computational social science approaches with large scale social media to evaluate population dynamics. 
• Ryan Petros – Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, University of Washington. Petros’ research focuses on self-management programs for adults with serious mental illness, enhancing the effectiveness of mental health interventions; issues of homelessness and permanent supportive housing; and community integration. He is particularly interested in mixed-methods research and has been working on projects using multimedia strategies to collect data, such as auto-videography. 
• April Sutton  – Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, UC San Diego. Sutton studies education, stratification, gender, and geographic inequalities. Sutton is especially interested in scrutinizing the institutional and structural mechanisms that maintain or disrupt gender and racial/ethnic inequalities in education, work, and family formation. (read more)

CSDE Research Scientist and Training Director Christine Leibbrand, along with co-authors Ali Rowhani-Rahbar and Frederick Rivara, recently published an article in Prevention Science. Employing lagged outcome and fixed effect models, they examine the association between exposure to gun violence in mothers’ neighborhoods and their experiences of depression. Using longitudinal Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study data, their study finds that mothers who witness at least one shooting in their neighborhoods or local communities exhibit more symptoms of depression and are 32–60% more likely to meet criteria for depression than mothers who do not witness a shooting. The findings have important implications for mothers’ wellbeing and their kin. Further, the authors observe substantial racial and socioeconomic disparities in exposure to gun violence, suggesting that gun violence may heighten health disparities and drawing attention to the importance of providing mental health resources in communities that are most affected by gun violence. Partial funding for this work came from a Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development research infrastructure grant (P2C HD042828), to the Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology at the University of Washington. This research was also supported by a grant from the Washington State legislature to support FIPRP at HIPRC. To read the article click here. (read more)

UW Public Policy Doctoral Candidate Nicole Kovski and CSDE Affiliates Heather Hill, Steve Mooney and Ali Rowhani-Rahbar, along with co-authors, recently published an article in Child Maltreatment. Employing two-way fixed effects models, they examine the effect of EITC policies on state-level rates of child maltreatment from 2004 through 2017. Using administrative child maltreatment data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS), their study finds that an increase in EITC generosity is associated with fewer reports of neglect, both among children ages 0–5  and children ages 6–17. They conclude that economic support policies may reduce the risk of child maltreatment, especially neglect, and improve child wellbeing. To read the article click here. (read more)

Calling all demography students! In Spring 2021, CSDE Affiliate Adrian Raftery is offering Statistical Demography and Data Science (CSSS/STAT/SOC 563). Raftery will cover a variety of innovative topics, including probabilistic population projections and demography and big data. Prerequisites for this course include a good grounding in basic probability and statistics, some exposure to mathematical statistics, and basic mathematics including basic calculus and matrix algebra (SOC 533: Demographic Methods is encouraged). CSDE encourages demography students to take advantage of this opportunity to learn core and cutting-edge statistical methods in demography from a world leader in this area. Click the link below for a flyer with more information! (read more)

PAA 2021 Registration is now open. Important Dates and Deadlines:

• February 19, 2021: Deadline for all presenters to register.
• February 28, 2021: Last day the early-bird rate is available.
• March 1, 2021: Regular registration rates will be in effect.

For those who must self-pay, a hardship rate, a 30% discount off a student or regular registration fee, is available. Simply submit a request via this form and PAA will update the registration system to allow access to the hardship rate. To request the hardship rate, you must already have an account set up in the PAA registration system.(read more)