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Research by Dattani Discusses the Relationship Between India’s National Biometric Identity System and Data Colonialism

CSDE Affiliate Dr. Kavita Dattani (Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies) released work in the Journal of Cultural Economy, titled “Spectrally shape-shifting: biometrics, fintech and the corporate-state in India“. Through a hauntological frame, this article investigates how the ghosts of colonial pasts are re-emerging in India’s national universal biometric identity system, Aadhaar, and a software infrastructure built on top of it, India Stack. It shows how Aadhaar and India Stack facilitate the extraction of data as a form of ‘data colonialism.’ Examining data colonialism through an enquiry of how the multifarious and unstable relations of colonialism are bound up with the extractive processes of digital data, the article uses a historical approach considering the shifting trajectories of identity ecologies in India to see what is dispossessed through Aadhaar and India Stack.

CSDE Seminar: A Race Conscious Approach to Investigating U.S. Endometrial Cancer Inequity

Join CSDE for a seminar with Dr. Kemi Doll on Friday, Feb. 9th from 12:30-1:30 in 101 HRC and on Zoom (register here). This talk will focus on the use of theoretical frameworks of racial health inequity to organize and execute a research program designed to improve survival of Black women with endometrial cancer in the US using quantitative, qualitative, and community engaged work. Kemi M. Doll, MD, MCSR, is a gynecologic oncologist in the UW Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She specializes in the surgical and medical treatment of uterine, ovarian, cervical, and vulvar cancers. This seminar is co-sponsored by the Population Health Initiative. Learn more about Doll and the event here!

New Research Co-authored by Johfre Examines the Social Construction of Age

CSDE Affiliate Dr. Sasha Johfre (Sociology) recently co-authored an article with Dr. Aliya Saperstein in Annual Review of Sociology, titled “The Social Construction of Age: Concepts and Measurement“. Age as an individual characteristic is ubiquitous in social science research. Yet age is rarely treated as a phenomenon that requires explanation or theoretical attention. To advance research in sociology, demography, and beyond, authors develop a framework that considers age as a system of inequality with concepts and processes that operate across micro and macro levels of analysis. At the individual level, they argue a person’s age is best conceptualized and operationalized as multidimensional. Authors include recommendations for ways to measure age more precisely and expansively in social scientific research through considering dimensions of age beyond chronology.

Research Co-authored by Taylor Describes the Experience of Frontline Clinicians During the COVID-19 Pandemic

CSDE Affiliate Dr. Janelle Taylor (Anthropology, University of Toronto) is among the co-authors of an article lead-authored by Dr. Catherine R. Butler in JAMA Network, titled “Experiences of US Clinicians Contending With Health Care Resource Scarcity During the COVID-19 Pandemic, December 2020 to December 2021“. The second year of the COVID-19 pandemic saw periods of dire health care resource limitations in the US, sometimes prompting official declarations of crisis, but little is known about how these conditions were experienced by frontline clinicians. This study sought to describe the experiences of US clinicians practicing under conditions of extreme resource limitation during the second year of the pandemic.

*New* Data from IPUMS

IPUMS recently released new data via IPUMS USA and IHGIS! Learn more in the full story.

IPUMS USAA preliminary version of the 1950 complete count data is now available via IPUMS USA. This initial release includes records for over 152 million persons in more than 46 million households. Future versions of the 1950 full count data will address known limitations of the preliminary version and release additional variables

IPUMS IHGISThe IHGIS data access system now includes extended dataset-level metadata. Users can view information such as the enumeration universe, reference date, and definitions of dwellings, households, and group quarters for each census.

Kinless Older Adults with Dementia are Studied by Taylor, Gray, Freitag, Shell-Duncan, and Berridge

CSDE Affiliates Dr. Janelle Taylor (Anthropology, University of Toronto), Dr. Marlaine Figueroa Gray (Anthropology, UW), Dr. Bettina Shell-Duncan (Anthropology, UW), Dr. Clara Berridge (Social Work, UW), and CSDE Trainee Callie Freitag (Public Policy & Governance, UW) released research in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, titled “Kinless Older Adults With Dementia: Qualitative Analysis of Data From the Adult Changes in Thought Study“. This article is just one of several arising from research supported by a grant from the National Institutes on Aging (NIA) and administered through CSDE. This study 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. Adults in the study were “kinless,” defined as having no living spouse or children, when they developed dementia. Authors conducted a qualitative analysis of administrative research documents and electronic health record data, revealing that the life trajectories that led members of the analytic cohort to be kinless at dementia onset were quite varied. This research highlights the importance of nonfamily caregivers and participants’ own roles as caregivers. Their findings suggest that clinicians and health systems may need to work with other parties to directly provide dementia caregiving support rather than rely on family, and address factors such as neighborhood affordability that particularly affect older adults who have limited family support.

UWRA Fellowship in Aging (Due Feb. 8th)

The UW Retirement Association is now accepting applications for the 2023-24 cycle of UWRA Scholarships and Fellowships in Aging. The awards are available to currently enrolled students in any field who are pursuing research or preparing for careers related to aging. Current opportunities include the UWRA Patricia Dougherty Fellowship in Aging (Due Feb. 8). Read more about this opportunity in the full story and on the UWRA website.

UWRA Patricia Dougherty Fellowship in Aging

This fellowship provides a monthly stipend, tuition coverage, and health insurance for an academic quarter. Up to two quarters of fellowships will be awarded for the 2024-25 academic year. Open to graduate students in tuition-based programs, on any UW campus. The deadline to apply is February 8, 2024 at noon Pacific.

 

Alzheimer’s Disease Among Communities of Color is Examined by Mudrazija and Colleagues

CSDE Affiliate Dr. Stipica Mudrazija (Health Systems and Population Health) published a chapter with colleagues, titled “Alzheimer’s Disease Among Communities of Color: The Role of Place for Brain Health Equity” in the edited volume, Older Mexicans and Latinos in the United States, which compares counties with the highest prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) among Latinos, non-Latino Blacks, and non-Latino Whites against counties with the lowest prevalence among these populations to identify trends related to the social determinants of health and risk factors for ADRD.

Apply for a Summer Fellowship in AI Alignment (Due 2/4/24)

Apply for a summer fellowship with PIBBSS (Principles of Intelligent Behavior in Biological and Social Systems)! The PIBBSS Fellowship is a 3-month fully-funded program in AI alignment. They accept PhDs and postdocs from a wide range of fields such as “such as evolutionary bio, neuroscience, dynamical systems theory, economic/political/legal theory, and more. Fellows are invited to work on a project at the intersection of their own field and AI safety, under the mentorship of experienced AI alignment researchers. Learn more and apply here before the February 4 deadline.