On Friday, May 17th, CSDE will join the CSSS 25th Anniversary Celebration, by hosting and featuring Emilio Zagheni. The event will take place from 12:30-1:30 PM at Intellectual House and on Zoom (register here).  Dr. Zagheni’s talk is part of a larger set of events celebrating the Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences’ 25th Anniversary from May 16-May 17.

Emilio Zagheni is Director of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) and Affiliate Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Washington. He received his Ph.D. in Demography (2010) and M.A. in Statistics (2008) from U.C. Berkeley. Zagheni is best known for his work on combining digital trace data and traditional sources to track and understand migrations and to advance population science. In 2016 he received the Trailblazer Award for Demographic Analysis from the European Association for Population Studies for his role in developing the field of Digital and Computational Demography. This event is co-sponsored by The Population Health Initiative. 

CSDE Affiliates Vedavati Patwardhan (Center on Gender Equity & Health, UC San Diego) and Emmanuela Gakidou (Health Metrics Sciences), along with Luisa Flor, Gabriela Gil and other co-authors from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) released an article in The Lancet Public Health, entitled “Differences across the lifespan between females and males in the top 20 causes of disease burden globally: a systematic analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021“. This study presents a systematic exploration of health differences between females and males across major causes of disease burden. The authors used data from the 2021 Global Burden of Disease Study to examine differences in health between females and males.

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CSDE Affiliate Nora Kenworthy (Nursing and Health Studies, UW Bothell) authored a new book, entitled Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare. This book is the culmination of a decade’s worth of research examining the rising popularity of charitable crowdfunding for health and social needs. Although crowdfunding has become ubiquitous, it is often misunderstood: rather than a friendly free market “powered by the kindness” of strangers, crowdfunding is powerfully reinforcing inequalities and changing the way Americans think about and access healthcare. Crowded Out demonstrates how crowdfunding for health is fueled by—and further reinforces—financial and moral “toxicities” in market-based healthcare systems. It offers a unique and distressing look beneath the surface of some of the most popular charitable platforms and helps to foster thoughtful discussions of how we can better respond to healthcare crises and support each other in a digital world. Dr. Kenworthy will also be discussing the book at Town Hall Seattle on May 28th. Learn more and get tickets here.

CSDE Affiliate Karin D. Martin (Evans School of Public Policy & Governance) released an essay with colleagues in Punishment and Society, entitled “Access to justice at the intersection of civil and criminal law“. Martin's essay is part of a special issue of the journal focused on Access to Justice that she co-edited with Kathryne Young at The George Washington University Law School and Sarah Lageson at Rutgers University. Most people in the criminal legal justice system are also dealing with civil legal issues, creating unique consequences. Yet, there is a scholarly separation between criminal and civil law, meaning that this criminal-civil nexus remains understudied. In this essay, authors discuss the root of this separation and the importance of research on interactions between the criminal and civil legal systems.

An article in Nature, titled “Are robots the solution to the crisis in older-person care?“, recently cited two research articles by CSDE Affiliate Clara Berridge (Social Work). One of these articles was first-authored by CSDE Trainee Natalie Turner (Social Work). AI robots are increasingly employed in eldercare to provide social therapy for individuals with dementia. However, the evidence of their worth is not well developed and there are ethical concerns, including deception with speaking robots and the potential to reduce opportunities for human interactions. Berridge was interviewed for the article, where she discussed her research on older people's perspectives regarding these robots (she is misidentified as an ethicist).

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CSDE Affiliates Scott Allard (Public Policy & Governance) and Jake Grumbach (Political Science) received funding from the State of Washington to continue the Washington Elections Database and the Washington State Ballots projects. The Database provides public-use files relevant to voter registration and elections; the Rejected Ballots project continues to work with the State of Washington and county elections offices to improve the voter experience. This work will lead to a working group convened by the Secretary of State to develop a uniform ballot envelope design for the State of Washington. 

CSDE Affiliate Katarina Guttmannova (Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences) co-authored a new study in Prevention Science, entitled “Young Adult Alcohol and Cannabis Impaired Driving After the Opening of Cannabis Retail Stores in Washington State“. Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death for young adults (YA) in the USA, and driving under the influence of alcohol (DUIA), cannabis (DUIC), and simultaneous use of both substances (DUIAC) are prominent risk factors. Trends in YA impaired driving behaviors after opening of cannabis retail stores have been understudied. Authors examined YA trends in DUIA, DUIC, and DUIAC from immediately prior through 5 years following the opening of cannabis retail outlets in Washington State (2014–2019).

ScholarGPS released their list of Highly Ranked Scholars™ in Demography, based on lifetime record of publications and citations. CSDE Affiliate David A. Swanson (Sociology, UC Riverside) is listed as #56. Former CSDE Affiliates Samuel Preston and Tom Burch are also listed as #57 and #26, respectively. ScholarGPS’s formula is meant to convey lifetime scholarly productivity, weighting by publications’ number of authors and excluding self-citations.

In spring quarter, CSDE will be hosting a workshop series and several working groups. Students, faculty, and staff are all welcome to register and we welcome registrants from outside the University of Washington for our remote workshops as well.

Please reach out to CSDE’s Training Director, Jessica Godwin (jlg0003@uw.edu), if you have additional workshops you would like to see offered in the future and we will do our best to accommodate those requests. View the schedule as a pdf here.

CSDE Workshops

No remaining workshops this quarter.

CSDE Working Groups

• Computational Demography Working Group
  • Date: Wednesdays @ 9AM-10AM
  • Location: Raitt 223/Zoom
  • Contact: June Yang (jyang32@uw.edu) and Ihsan Kahveci (ikahveci@uw.edu)
• Biomarker Working Group
  • Date: 1st Thursdaysof each month (4/4, 5/2, 6/6) @ 12:30PM-1:30PM
  • Location: Raitt 223
  • Contact: Tiffany Pan (tpan@uw.edu)
• Migration & Settlements Working Group
  • Date: Every other Friday @ 9:00AM starting March 29th
  • Location: Raitt 114/Zoom (meeting link)
  • Contact: Aryaa Rajouria (rajouria@uw.edu)

On 5/15 from 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM, CDWG will host Jiahui Xu to present her research. Jiahui Xu is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology and Demography at Pennsylvania State University. Her actively ongoing projects include: 1). adapting the generalized random forests for causal decomposition to investigate college returns; 2). combining machine learning and causal inference methods to decompose health disparities; 3). applying natural language processing models to autocode occupational text data. The event will occur in 223 Raitt (the Demography Lab) and on Zoom (register here). Learn more about the talk in the full story.

On Wednesday, May 22nd from 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM, CDWG will host Dr. Aja Sutton to introduce her research. Dr. Aja Sutton is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Social Sciences Division at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, Stanford University. She received her PhD from the Department of Geography at the University of Washington (UW). From 2020-2022 she was TADA-BSSR NIH T32 Fellow in Data Science and Demography Training at UW's Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, from which she also holds a Certificate in Demographic Methods. She received an MA in History from Western University, and an MSc in Palaeopathology from Durham University. Her work is focused on population health, computational social science, and epidemiology. The event will take place in 223 Raitt and on Zoom (register here).

On May 29th from 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM, Dr. Risto Conte Keivabu will join CDWG to present his research. Dr. Risto Conte Keivabu is a postdoc in the Laboratory of Digital and Computational Demography of Emilio Zagheni at the Max Planck Institute of Demographic Research in Rostock (Germany). His research interests are in climate change, socio-demographic inequalities and demography. More precisely, in his work he tries to understand the population consequences of climate change and environmental exposures. The event will take place in 223 Raitt (the Demography Lab) and on Zoom (register here). Learn more in the full story!

Join us for CSDE’s annual closing reception in 320 PAR on Friday May 31st from 12:30-1:30 PM! We’ll present Demographic Methods Certificates and celebrate the end of a successful academic year. Please join us in recognizing all of these accomplishments! Every member of the CSDE community plays an important role in our broader research network and training program.

The IPUMS team is excited to announce new functionality from IPUMS MEPS that allows you to easily build custom summary variables. IPUMS PMA has released new longitudinal and cross-sectional data, and IPUMS CPS has added new topical supplement data. Read the full story for the latest from IPUMS HQ, details on talking data to us over the summer, and their new blog post about the latest data release from IPUMS International.

The Jackson School of International Studies, CSDE, and UW’s Dept. of Sociology are pleased to sponsor two events next week with visiting speaker Rebecca Tapscott, a Lecturer in Politics at the University of York (UK). These seminars are a part of the Jackson School’s Global Perspectives on Cyber, Scientific Research, Technology & Space series. Both events will be moderated by CSDE Director, Sara Curran. Tapscott's first talk will be on May 15th from 3:00-4:3o PM and the second will be on May 16th from 12:00-1:30 PM. Learn more about Tapscott and the events in the full story.

The Global Alliance on War, Conflict and Health will host a webinar on Thursday, May 16th at 7:00 PM (PT), regarding the parallel health system, organized by the resistance movement in Myanmar. The 2021 military coup and the following ongoing conflicts have devastated the health and healthcare of Myanmar (Burma), particularly in rural areas. However, anti-junta healthcare workers, community-based health organizations, and ethnic health organizations have developed alternative care systems for local communities. Read the full story to learn more! 

Interested in collaborating on research with German universities? Representatives from the German Research Foundation, the German Center for Research and Innovation, and the German Academic Exchange Service will be present to answer questions on how to receive funding for research visits, workshops, researcher networks, postdocs, faculty positions, and international PhD programs. This session is focused on opportunities for postdocs and faculty; undergrads and graduate students are also welcome to drop-in. These office hours are intended to help participants learn about transatlantic funding opportunities and discuss how to strengthen research collaboration between UW and Germany. They will occur on Thursday, May 16th from 1:00-2:30 PM. You can register here. 

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The Population Health Initiative invites you and your network to a special lunch and learn seminar that is happening on Tuesday, May 21 from 12 to 1PM at the Hans Rosling Center for Population Health, Room 101 and Via Zoom. Lunch will be offered for in-person attendees. This event will feature Dr. Joe Wartman, UW Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Director of Natural Hazards Reconnaissance (RAPID) Facility. 

On Tuesday, May 21st from 5:30-7:00 PM, you are invited to a virtual webinar on structural racism in Washington state’s tax code. The racial wealth gap in the United States is a major political and social determinant of racial inequities in health. The structural racism that produces this wealth gap is supported through regressive tax codes and other tax policy throughout the country, including our state tax code here in Washington. CSDE Affiliate Anjum Hajat (Epidemiology) is one of the panelists.

CSSS is pleased to host Stephane Bonhomme on Wednesday, May 29th from 12:30-1:30 PM in 409 Savery and on Zoom (register here). Bonhomme is a professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago. Learn more about the event here. Learn more and stay tuned for more information here!

As announced at the Managed Retreat 2023 conference in June, the editors of Frontiers in Climate are organizing a special issue (Research Topic) entitled Managed Retreat in Response to Climate Hazards. If you are interested in contributing an article to this special issue based on your MR2023 presentation or some other recent work, including applied work with governments or local agencies (e.g. a Policy and Practice Review article), they encourage you to learn more and to submit an expression of interest.

Have you ever wondered how to get your research into the hands of policymakers, or wished your findings were known by a wider audience? Population Reference Bureau (PRB) and IAPHS are organizing a webinar to highlight ways to expand the reach of your research by distilling your findings into messages and formats tailored for nontechnical audiences, including policymakers and the media. 

The VYPR invites submissions for the Special Issue “Population Inequality Matters” guest edited by Vanessa di Lego, Michaela Kreyenfeld, Iñaki Permanyer, Michaela Potančoková and Miguel Sánchez-Romero. The VYPR is a platinum open-access journal published by the Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences since 2003. A double-blind peer review process starts right after submission. Articles are published online on a rolling basis. Submissions are due on May 31, 2024.

Are you an academic, professional, and/or grassroots leader working on a project or action to address a conservation or environmental justice issue in the Pacific Northwest? The Springboard Prize is awarded annually based on the following eligibility: an individual or collaborative group, from an underrepresented group, from Washington State or the Pacific Northwest region if their work impacts Washington, are 35 years or younger and have demonstrated academic, professional, or grassroots leadership that advances the environmental movement.

The Carpentries is a non-profit volunteer organization whose members teach researchers how to use computing tools and tools for management, analysis and visualization of data. The eScience Institute is holding a Software Carpentry workshop on June 3rd–6th (9 AM – noon each day) entirely online over Zoom. The workshop focuses on software tools to make researchers more effective, allowing them to automate research tasks, automatically track their research over time, and use programming in either Python or R to accelerate their research and make it more reproducible.

At a recent meeting, Rebecca Clark, chief of the Population Dynamics Bureau (PDB) at NICHD, provided useful insights on how researchers developing new proposals should contact officials at NIH. Her remarks were focused on PDB at NICHD, but the advice seems broadly generalizable to other institutes as well. She states: If you have specific aims, please send them to just one PDB Program Officers in one email. (NB: Do not send separate emails to each program officer within a branch, since they all confer and collaborate on any incoming inquiries.)

All potential applicants, including those who have prepared specific aims, should send responses to the following items and attach to the email inquiry:

The NICHD has listed many grant opportunities that should be of interest to CSDE affiliates. Check out the list here. If you are interested, CSDE can help you with providing ‘eyes’ for feedback on the narrative, contacting a program officer, more formalized mock review panel of experts to provide feedback on a penultimate draft, a summer grant writing program, or scientific methods consultations. We’re happy to support your science! Just ask!

Population Research Planning Grants (PRPGs) are designed to provide in-kind support and/or funds of up to $25k* to support a wide array of activity types throughout the development of a research project. As part of our mission to complement rather than duplicate other campus opportunities such as the Population Health Initiative seed grants, we will consider funding a variety of activities. See a list of example activities in the full story 

CSDE Matching Support includes in-kind or monetary support to accompany a submission to other on-campus funding mechanism, such as PHI, EarthLab, or Urban@UW. All projects must have a CSDE affiliate who is UW faculty and is listed as a PI or co-PI, with any number of other collaborators. Note that we require (PRPGs) or strongly suggest (matching funds) contacting either Development Core Director (Steven Goodreau) or CSDE Director (Sara Curran) to discuss possibilities for your specific proposal before submission.