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Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

CSDE Computational Demography Working Group: Yehong Deng and Jing Xu (05/13/26)

The Computational Demography Working Group welcomes Dr. Jing Xu and Yehong Deng from University of Washington, who will present on
Youth & Truth in Northern Ireland: LLM-Empowered Knowledge Graph Analysis of History Textbooks.” The talk is hybrid and will take place on May 13th in Raitt 223  from 10-11 AM (Pacific). Use this link to register and log onto Zoom. To receive the newsletter from CDWG, participants may choose to join our listserv here. Click read more to see the talk abstract and speaker bios.
Title: Youth & Truth in Northern Ireland: LLM-Empowered Knowledge Graph Analysis of History Textbooks
Abstract: Post-conflict societies face a persistent challenge: how to reconcile divergent historical memories embedded in educational materials and teach the next generation. Northern Ireland provides a significant test case to examine this question, where the school system remains largely divided along group identity lines in a polarized society. Our larger project on youth and truth in NI, sponsored by the Templeton World Charity Foundation, found that history curriculum in Catholic Schools and state (Protestant) schools focus on different time periods, Option 1 (1921-1949) and Option 2 (Troubles era), during a crucial phase in students’ formative years (KS4, 14-16-year-old).

This talk presents a novel computational analysis of history textbooks focused on the two periods, Option1 and Option 2, combining LLM-powered knowledge graph (KG) with narrative network analysis. Drawing on a refined ontology, we extract subject–predicate–object triples from a corpus of history textbooks, yielding knowledge graphs of approximately 500–800 nodes and 600–1,000 edges per tradition. We analyze structural properties including centrality, reachability, community clustering, and sentiment.

Our comparative analysis reveals systematic divergences in how historical events, entities and figures are positioned across the two traditions. Option 1 textbooks center on entities and events associated with WWII and Anglo-Irish constitutional relations, while Option 2 texts focus on civil rights, internment, and power-sharing arrangements in the Troubles era. Sentiment analysis further shows that the same entities receive markedly different evaluative framings across corpora. These structural asymmetries in narrative construction may reflect and reinforce the polarized historical identities that post-conflict education efforts seek to bridge.

Learn more about Dr. Jing Xu: Affiliate Professor in Anthropology & Co-Director of the Center for Globally Beneficial AI at the University of Washington. Xu’s research integrates ethnographic, experimental and computational methods to study moral development, social learning, and AI ethics in cultural contexts. She studied at Tsinghua University (Beijing) before moving to the U.S., got her PhD in anthropology from Washington University in St. Louis, and completed postdoctoral work in psychology at the University of Washington. She is the author of two monographs, “The Good Child” (2017) and “‘Unruly’ Children” (2024). She is an Associate Editor of American Anthropologist.

Yehong Deng is a fourth-year PhD student in Sociology at the University of Washington. Her research sits at the intersection of computational social science, digital humanities, and peace education, with a focus on how historical narratives are structured and transmitted in post-conflict contexts. Her dissertation applies large language models and network analysis to study how Northern Ireland history textbooks across denominational traditions construct divergent historical narratives, drawing on knowledge graph extraction and comparative discourse analysis.

PRB/WHO Webinar: Understanding Infertility in an Era of Fertility Transition (05/14/26)

Join the PRB, in partnership with the World Health Organization and HRP, for a timely conversation on infertility, fertility trends, and what the evidence actually shows.

This webinar, on May 14 at 9 AM ET, will introduce WHO’s new guidelines on infertility diagnosis and treatment, clarify the distinction between infertility and broader fertility decline, and explore how to integrate infertility into holistic, rights-based SRHR approaches.

Designed for CSOs, advocates, and program implementers, the session will equip participants with clear, evidence-based messages to navigate a complex and often misunderstood topic. Come ready to engage, challenge assumptions, and leave with practical insights for action. Register here.

Morris and Jones Examine Teachers’ Role in Supporting Racial and Cultural Minority Students’ Belonging Through Extracurriculars

CSDE Affiliates Kamryn Morris (Social Work) and Kristian Jones (Social Work) published a new study exploring how teachers support racial and/or cultural minority students’ sense of mattering through extracurricular participation. In semi-structured interviews, teachers described a wide range of activity offerings (e.g. sports, cultural clubs) and characterized their own involvement as ranging from supportive to active participation. Teachers emphasized that extracurriculars enhance students’ sense of mattering by fostering belonging and promoting long-term skills, and the findings underscore the importance of varied activities, sustained teacher support, and culturally informed approaches to minority student well-being.

Ševčíková and Raftery Develop Age-Adjusted Approach to Forecasting International Net Migration

In a new publication in Demography, CSDE Research Scientist Hana Ševčíková, CSDE Affiliate Adrian Raftery (Statistics and Sociology), and Nathan Welch develop a method for forecasting international migration that takes a country’s age structure into account. Drawing on migration data from 1990 to 2020 across the 200 most populous countries, the authors build a statistical model that projects migration rates through 2100. To develop their forecast,  Ševčíková, Raftery, and Welch develop a migration age structure index (MASI) for the purpose of recalculating and rescaling past net migration rates, decomposed into in- and out-migration, to remove the influence of the population age distribution. Factoring in age structure leads to narrower prediction intervals. Among countries with rapidly aging and shrinking populations, this approach predicts less emigration than conventional models and therefore less severe population decline.

Call for Proposed Special Issues of Migration Politics (05/15/26)

The Migration Politics journal invites proposals for two Special Issues through its Annual Special Issue Call, issued each February.

The 2026 call will select two proposals to be published in Winter 2027 and Summer 2028.

All Special Issue themes relevant to the broad scope of Migration Politics will be considered, regardless of specific focus. Prospective guest editor(s) are encouraged to consult the journal’s website for an overview of articles published to date.

Proposals should comprise 7–8 articles, including a Special Issue introduction and original research articles. Proposals may be submitted by early-career or established scholars, and contributions co-authored by scholars and practitioners are also welcome.

Proposal Requirements

  • a conceptual, empirical, and/or methodological rationale addressing:
    • Why this Special Issue?
    • What does it add to the existing literature?
    • Why these specific papers, case studies, or approaches?
    • How will the Special Issue implement the journal’s slow science core values in its editorial process?
    • How is the Special Issue more than the sum of its individual contributions?
  • a realistic workplan and timeline
  • paper abstracts (maximum 250 words each)
  • biographical notes of contributors (maximum 100 words each)
  • biographical notes of guest editor(s) (maximum 200 words total)

Proposals should be concise and must not exceed 5,000 words.

Article Length

Final articles should normally be between 8,000 and 9,000 words. The word limit includes footnotes, appendices included in the main text, and any figures, tables, or charts, but excludes the reference list.

Slow Science Principles

In drafting their proposal, guest editors are expected to explain how they intend to implement the journal’s slow science core values in their editorial process. This may include, for example, collective workshops, iterative feedback mechanisms, or other forms of sustained scholarly engagement. Editors may include activities conducted prior to the submission of the Special Issue proposal, or that are planned to take place afterwards. Editors are invited to describe the activities in detail and explain how they contributed or will contribute to the consolidation of the Special Issue. Any workshops or collective activities must be organised and funded by the guest editors. Applicants are encouraged to consult the Migration Politics website for further details on the journal’s slow science principles.

Evaluation Process and Timeline

Proposals will be evaluated by the journal’s core editorial team on the basis of their quality and alignment with the journal’s scope and mission. Once a proposal is accepted, two members of the editorial team will oversee the peer review process. The Migration Politics Editorial College will make the final decision.

Acceptance of a Special Issue does not guarantee publication of all submitted articles. Each article will be reviewed individually and, once accepted, will be published on a rolling basis. The introduction and the Special Issue as a whole will also be reviewed by the journal’s editors.

The successful proposal teams will be notified by the end of June 2026.

Submission Details

Proposals must be submitted by 15 May 2026 through this form. For further questions, applicants are welcome to write an email to Dr. Federica Zardo at migrationpolitics@donau-uni.ac.at with subject line: “Special Issue 2026”.

Call for Extended Abstracts for Special Issue of Social Science & Medicine – Population Health (SSM-PH) (05/15/26)

Social Science & Medicine – Population Health (SSM-PH) will publish a special issue with papers by IAPHS members on the theme “Reimagining Population Health Science to Build Trust and Influence.” This special issue will bring together a collection of conceptual and empirical papers that will identify the reasons for the current lack of trust and influence in public/population health science; provide evidence on ways to rebuild trust and influence; examine how trust and influence affect population health outcomes and disparities; and offer concrete and policy-relevant solutions based on both historical and contemporary evidence. Submit your extended abstract as a pdf by May 15 here. Extended abstracts should be a maximum of 2 single-spaced pages using 12-point Times New Roman Font and one-inch margins.

Focus of Special Issue

Recent years have witnessed a decline in public trust of scientists – especially population/public health scientists – and the governmental agencies charged with monitoring health such as the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The decline in trust, and corresponding decline in the influence of population/public health experts, must be rectified through better and more effective ways of conducting and communicating population/public health science. Population/public health is at a crossroads.

This special issue will bring together a collection of conceptual and empirical papers that will identify the reasons for the current lack of trust and influence in public/population health science; provide evidence on ways to rebuild trust and influence; examine how trust and influence affect population health outcomes and disparities; and offer concrete and policy-relevant solutions based on both historical and contemporary evidence.

We encourage papers focused on a wide range of countries, especially low-and-middle-income countries, in addition to the United States.

How to Submit an Extended Abstract

All abstract submitters must be IAPHS members.

If you submitted a short abstract via the IAPHS 2026 conference website, and you checked the box for your abstract to also be considered for the special issue, you will receive a separate email from IAPHS asking you to submit an extended abstract.

If you did not submit a short abstract via the IAPHS 2026 conference website, you can still submit an extended abstract for consideration in the special issue. The abstract must explain (a) the significance and contribution of the to-be-written paper, (b) its strong fit with the theme of the special issue, and (c) the theoretical frameworks and methods to be used in the paper.

Extended abstracts should be a maximum of 2 single-spaced pages using 12-point Times New Roman Font and one-inch margins.

Submit your extended abstract as a pdf here​

Key Dates

  • May 15, 2026: extended abstracts due
  • June 8, 2026: all extended abstract submitters will be notified about whether they are invited to submit a full paper to the special issue. All papers submitted to the special issue will go through the standard SSM-PH peer reviewer process
  • Fall 2026 – Summer 2027: invited papers will be submitted to the SSM-PH special issue and go through the standard peer review process

Call for Proposed Special Issues: Migration Politics Journal (05/15/26)

The Migration Politics journal invites proposals for two Special Issues through its Annual Special Issue Call, issued each February. The 2026 call will select two proposals to be published in Winter 2027 and Summer 2028. All Special Issue themes relevant to the broad scope of Migration Politics will be considered, regardless of specific focus. Prospective guest editor(s) are encouraged to consult the journal’s website for an overview of articles published to date. Proposals should comprise 7–8 articles, including a Special Issue introduction and original research articles. Proposals may be submitted by early-career or established scholars, and contributions co-authored by scholars and practitioners are also welcome.