CSDE Affiliate Dr. Rawan Arar (Law, Societies, and Justice) authored a chapter with Dr. Kristine J. Ajrouch and Dr. Sylvia C. Nassar, titled “Contexts of Immigration and Diversity: Biopsychosocial Implications for Arab Americans” in the edited volume, Biopsychosocial Perspectives on Arab Americans. Their chapter focuses on contexts of emigration and reception to interrogate the refugee-migrant binary in a unique way, shifting scholarly attention away from a focus on state logics, discrimination at border crossings, or the impact of public opinion on the potential for reception. They argue that scholars and practitioners who are interested in examining health outcomes among Arab newcomers and Arab Americans should consider lived experiences beyond state-ascribed labels (i.e., “refugee,” “asylum seeker,” or “immigrant”).
NSF-NIH joint funding opportunity on Incorporating Human Behavior in Epidemiological Models (Due Feb 1-14, 2024)
The NSF and NIH is offering awards as part of the The Incorporating Human Behavior in Epidemiological Models (IHBEM) Program. The IHBEM Program supports research that incorporates research on social and behavioral processes in mathematical epidemiological models. The program provides support for projects that involve balanced participation from the mathematical sciences and from the social, behavioral, and economic sciences. They are interested in interdisciplinary collaborations integrating research on behavioral and/or social processes in mathematical epidemiological models. The goal of this program is to minimize unintended outcomes of public health interventions in response to pandemics.
Hiramori and Colleagues Develop a Measure of Community Cultural Wealth
CSDE Affiliate Dr. Daiki Hiramori (Global and Interdisciplinary Studies, Hosei University) recently published an article with colleagues in the Race Ethnicity and Education, titled “Critically quantitative: measuring community cultural wealth on surveys“. Their study explores the quantitative measurement of Community Cultural Wealth (CCW), an asset-based approach to understanding the experiences of students from systemically marginalized racial/ethnic groups. Grounded in critical race theory, CCW focuses on forms of capital utilized by marginalized populations that are often unrecognized/undervalued by traditional social science research. Most previous studies on CCW have relied on qualitative methods; authors argue that quantitative critical race theory, or ‘QuantCrit’, can complement those studies by statistically specifying assets possessed by students from marginalized populations as a step toward reimagining institutions that elevate their importance. This paper aims to develop a CCW scale to quantitatively explore the concept.
EarthLab and PHI Host Event on Fostering Climate Connections (2/13/24)
The Population Health Initiative and EarthLab will co-host a winter quarter climate change-focused Open Space-style event in the University of Washington wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ – Intellectual House on Tuesday, February 13, 2024. The goal of this quarterly gathering is to help facilitate the development of new interdisciplinary collaborations between UW researchers who are seeking to take on pressing challenges related to the current climate crisis. Learn more about the event and RSVP in the full story!
Faculty members, staff and graduate students are all invited. Those who attend the event will set the agenda for discussion, offering to convene discussions on possible topics or projects where collaboration is sought. The formal program will be followed by a more informal networking lunch. Details:
Tuesday, February 13, 2024UW wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ – Intellectual House10 a.m. – 12 p.m. program12 – 1 p.m. networking lunch
RSVP is required via the following REDCap link. Please contact the Population Health Initiative with questions.
Research Co-authored by Shapiro, Gray, Taylor, and Freitag Discusses Expanding the Ethnographic Toolkit to Include Kinless Older Adults Living with Dementia
CSDE Affiliates Dr. Marlaine Figueroa Gray (Anthropology, UW), Dr. Janelle Taylor (Anthropology, University of Toronto), and CSDE Trainee Callie Freitag (Public Policy & Governance, UW) authored new research in the Journal of Aging Studies, titled “Expanding the ethnographic toolkit: Using medical documents to include kinless older adults living with dementia in qualitative research“. The article was lead-authored by Dr. Lily Shapiro (Anthropology, UW). Ethnographic research often excludes cognitively impaired older adults without close kin, in part because cognitive impairment raises questions about the ability to provide informed consent. This study used data from a longitudinal study to qualitatively examine the experience of people without close kin at dementia onset. Authors detail their methodology and discuss its limitations and potential. In conclusion, they argue that collaborative interdisciplinary research using existing, longitudinal research data and text from medical records deserves to be considered as a potentially useful addition to the ethnographic toolkit. This article is one of several from this study which sought to examine the circumstances and needs of older adults who participated in the Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) study at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute. The study was supported by a grant through the National Institute on Aging (NIA) (Grant no. R21AG058056-01), administered through CSDE.
CSSS Seminar with Lizzy Pelletier: Imputing Race and Ethnicity in State Administrative Data: Challenges and Future Directions (2/14/24)
CSSS will be hosting CSDE Trainee Lizzy Pelletier for a seminar titled “Imputing Race and Ethnicity in State Administrative Data: Challenges and Future Directions“. The seminar will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 14th at 12:30 in 409 Savery Hall and on Zoom (register here). Lizzy Pelletier is a PhD candidate studying public policy at the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance at the University of Washington, and an NIH-supported Data Science and Demography trainee through the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology at UW. Her research examines how public policy shapes economic inequality, instability, and wellbeing, with a current focus on paid leave policies. Her work with large administrative microdata also explores how tools from data science and computational demography can be used to make these records more useful to social scientists.
Abstract: Administrative microdata hold promise for demographic and social scientific research, but some administrative records lack information on race and ethnicity. This paper describes methods of data integration and imputation to add individual-level ethnoracial data to administrative records. We aim to understand the limits of Bayesian Improved Surname Geocoding (BISG) methods, which combine information on residential address and last name to predict a set of ethnoracial group membership probabilities. Using Washington State administrative data, we compare BISG estimates to self-reported racial and ethnic identity from birth certificates and public assistance program data. We show low accuracy of BISG predictions especially for individuals identifying as Black, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. Furthermore, we use state employment records to show that BISG imputation methods yield both under- and over-estimates of earnings and employment statistics. We explore potential BISG alternatives, notably multinomial logistic regression and machine learning approaches, and assess how these methods compare in terms of overall accuracy and estimation of important metrics.
Authors: Elizabeth Pelletier, Jennifer Romich, Sofia G. Ayala
Sederbaum, Restar, Martin, and Fyall Awarded Grant to Study the Psychological Costs of Citizen-State Interactions for Trans People
CSDE Trainee Isaac Sederbaum (Public Policy & Governance) and CSDE Affiliates, Dr. Arjee Restar (Epidemiology), Dr. Karin Martin (Public Policy & Governance), and Dr. Rachel Fyall (Public Policy & Governance) received a Tier 1 Population Health Initiative grant “to develop a detailed portrait of how stigma, stress and loss of autonomy impact transgender people and investigate whether these impacts have later-term outcomes that affect overall well-being. The team launched an online survey this fall and has a total of 488 validated survey responses. This survey is the first step in a mixed-method sequential design, where the team will conduct in-depth interviews with a sample of the survey participants.”
Call for Papers: Migration and Organizations Conference (Due 2/15/24)
This conference hosted by The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania seeks to advance rigorous research and strengthen the community of scholars at the intersection of migration and organizations. Scholars from all fields, disciplines, and career stages are encouraged to submit papers or applications to attend. There will be a half-day consortium focused on career development for PhD students including small group mentoring meetings with faculty and early research development workshops. The conference will take place from May 8-9. Learn more and apply here.
Post-doc at Rice U in Sociology (Review begins 1/8, but open until filled)
US Treasury is Seeking Research Partners to Understand Impact of State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (Submit form by 2/15/24)
The US Treasury has issued a call for research partners to help understand the impact of State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLRF). They are specifically interested in answering: What is the short-term and long-term impact on households, organizations, communities, and governments from specific State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) projects in priority policy areas such as affordable housing, workforce, and public safety? To learn more about the call visit this page. Interested researchers should submit a form and attend a virtual meeting on Feb. 15th from 1:00-2:00 PM EST.