CSDE News & Events

Ali Rowhani-Rahbar, CSDE Affiliate and UW Associate Professor of Epidemiology, has published new research chronicling firearm training and safety in the US. The study revealed some surprising facts about American gun ownership: Only 3/5 gun owners have received any formal firearm training, and this proportion hasn’t meaningfully changed in two decades. Rowhani-Rahbar also notes that the content of the training out there hasn’t incorporated suicide awareness into its curriculum. The study itself is available here;

Karen Fredriksen-Goldsen, CSDE Affiliate and UW Professor of Social Work, was recently featured in the New York Times for her research on aging LGBT populations. There’s little existing research on LGBT seniors. Thanks to Fredriksen-Goldsen’s work, though, scholars now know the unique health disparities and social pressures this group often faces. You can read more about the findings and their implications in the full story below.

Scott Allard, CSDE Affiliate and UW Professor of Public Policy, was recently profiled by Curbed for his latest book, Places in Need. The publication offers a thorough examination of the trends and challenges of poverty in the suburbs, a growing problem that’s silently spreading through much of the US. Both the very nature of suburbs and the public’s misconceptions about their affluence make combating economic problems there surprisingly difficult. You can read more about the book and Scott’s research below.

CSDE is proud to welcome three new Affiliates!

• Himanshu Grover, Urban Design & Planning, University of Washington
• David Swanson, Sociology, UC Riverside
• Janelle Taylor, Anthropology, University of Washington

Each CSDE Affiliate brings a unique demographic perspective to our academic community, and we’re thrilled to work alongside all of these new additions as their research develops. You can read more about their research interests at the links above.

Janelle Taylor, CSDE Affiliate and UW Professor of Anthropology, was recently interviewed by UW Today about her studies examining friendship and dementia. Though her earlier work examined the inclusion of dementia patients in geriatric studies, her current research has shifted focus onto the relatively unexplored social dynamics of relationships with that group.

“In a way, dementia shows us just how much more there is to being a person,” Taylor observed. “Aside from the capacities that dementia takes away,

Jacob Vigdor and Mark Long, CSDE Affiliates and UW Professors of Public Policy, recently discussed the findings of the minimum-wage study they helped conduct.

Vigdor wrote an editorial for NY Daily News in which he qualifies parts of the study and suggests that the minimum wage might not be the best method for reducing income inequality in skilled service- and technology-oriented economies.

Long was interviewed by CNBC about the study’s scope and implications.

Lee Fiorio, a CSDE Funded Fellow and UW doctoral student in Geography, was recently profiled in UW Today for his work documenting the geography of race. After studying racial and ethnic data from 52 metropolitan areas across the US, Fiorio found that the effects of the 20th century’s “white flight”—the migration of whites from the city center to the suburbs—still lingers despite recent resurgences in downtown living. Fiorio also presented this research last month at the Ninth International Conference on Population Geographies.

Mark Long and Robert Plotnick, two CSDE Affiliates and Professors of Public Policy at UW, wrote a Seattle Times editorial about the latest findings from their team’s study of Seattle’s heightened minimum wage. While those findings revealed higher earnings, they also showed a reduction in the number of low-income jobs available. It’s a concerning result for proponents of the measure, but Long and Plotnick stress the importance of further study.

“Just because one social experiment appears to be yielding disappointing effects to date is no reason to stop experimenting,”

CSDE Affiliates Emily Williams—Associate Professor of Health Services at UW—and India Ornelas—Assistant Professor of Health Services at UW—have published research examining the sexuality of young lesbian, bisexual, and queer Latina women in a sociocultural context. The qualitative study polled a cross-section of women in Seattle about sexual behavior, knowledge, and beliefs in hopes of shedding light on a scarcely studied group.

The article is slated for journal publication in the near future, but you can request the full text below.

Michael Esposito, CSDE Funded Fellow and doctoral student in Sociology at UW, was recently awarded a Dissertation Fellowship from the UW’s Graduate Opportunities and Minority Achievement Program (GO-MAP). This highly competitive fund provides stipend and tuition benefits for the upcoming academic year. This support will help Michael complete his dissertation, which examines racial/ethnic heterogeneity in the causal process linking educational attainment to health. Congratulations on the well-deserved honor! You can read more about Michael’s work here.