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Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

Randolph Joins Sister Peace for UW Open Scholarship Commons Fireside Chat on the Legacy of Frederick Douglass

CSDE Affiliate Matthew Randolph (American Ethnic Studies) recently joined Sister Peace, an ordained nun in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing to discuss Frederick Douglass and his scholarly journey. The conversation can be viewed here and centers on Randolph’s time researching Frederick Douglass and how Randolph’s scholarly journey both mirrors and has been shaped by his personal relationship to Douglass’s life and work. Randolph and Sister Peace also reflect on Randolph’s experience as a Black scholar engaging deeply with Black intellectual history, including the opportunities, responsibilities, and challenges that come with this work. The program features a 45-minute moderated conversation, followed by a 15-minute audience Q&A and was sponsored by the UW Libraries, the Department of American Ethnic Studies, and The Center for Advancements in Libraries, Museums, and Archives (CALMA).

Matthew (Matt) Alexander Randolph is an Assistant Professor of African American Studies in the Department of American Ethnic Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. After graduating with a BA in History and Spanish at Amherst College, Matt received MA and PhD degrees in History from Stanford University, where he served as a graduate fellow for the Department of African & African American Studies and traveled to France as an exchange student at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris.

Building on his dissertation (Harboring Freedom: African American Migration and Imperial Rivalries in Samaná Bay, 1822-1871), Matt is writing his first book on the transplantation and transformation of Black identity that took place as part of nineteenth-century Haitian emigration initiatives. In the pursuit of citizenship and prosperity otherwise unimaginable in the antebellum United States, African American migrants relocated to Haiti and (re)created a sense of home as stewards of the land and water of the Samaná peninsula (in what is now the Dominican Republic). This research engages with and contributes to several fields and discourses, including Black Geographies/Ecologies, Caribbean Studies, Pan-Africanism, Black Internationalism, and Afrofuturism.

Sister Peace is an ordained nun in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing. She appears in the 2017 film “Walk With Me” under her monastic name—Sr. An Nghiem—and was profiled in Lion’s Roar by Zen teacher Koun Franz.
Born in Washington, D.C., and educated in Catholic schools, Sister Peace graduated from Georgetown University. She built up a successful nail salon business and entered local politics, working on Anthony Willams’ campaign for mayor of Washington and in his administration.

Practicing with the Washington Mindfulness Community, she met Thich Nhat Hanh when she assisted with a meditation retreat he led for the U.S. Congress. In 2006, she went to Plum Village to deepen her understanding of what a nun’s life entailed, and her ordination took place in 2008.

She has had many roles in the Plum Village community, including organizing retreats in Europe, Asia, Liberia, South Africa, and the US, as well as press and PR for the community. Link to bio: https://www.sfzc.org/teachers/sister-peace

Fohner Quantifies the Contribution of Dementia Risk Factors

CSDE Affiliate Alison Fohner (Epidemiology) and co-authors published a study in Alzheimer’s & Dementia that quantified the contribution of dementia risk factors in midlife (45-64 years) and late life (≥ 65 years) in the United States. The team used nationally representative data from six community-based cohorts in the Dementia Risk Prediction Project (DRPP). Fohner and co-authors observed that midlife and late-life risk factors contributed to 22.7% and 16.5% of dementia cases, respectively. Midlife obesity, late-life physical inactivity, and lower education appear to be the greatest contributors to dementia risk.

Web Scraping for Research: Legal, Ethical, Institutional, and Scientific Considerations (02/24/26)

Join the Association of Public Data Users on February 24, 2026 at 1 pm PST for a discussion with Megan Brown, lead author of “Web scraping for research: Legal, ethical, institutional, and scientific considerations.” The discussion will cover an overview of the regulatory environment, as well as the legal, ethical, institutional, and scientific factors that researchers should consider when scraping the web. Brown will also share insights on how to mitigate risks and maximize the impact of research. This webinar is co-hosted by the Massive Data Institute at Georgetown and

 

*New* Current Innovations in Probability-Based Household Internet Panel Research (CIPHER): Free to Attend Hybrid Conference (02/25/26 – 02/27/26)

In its eighth installment, the Current Innovations in Probability-Based Household Internet Panel Research (CIPHER) Conference expands its scope to include artificial intelligence (AI) as a new area of focus. As always, CIPHER builds on a rich legacy of methodological innovation, international collaboration, and emerging data modalities. Bringing together researchers, technologists, and policymakers, this year’s conference will explore how AI can enhance panel design, data quality, respondent engagement, and ethical governance. Join us as we chart the future of probability-based internet panels at the nexus of artificial intelligence and survey science. The agenda is now posted here. The program with speaker bios can be found here. CIPHER is free to attend in-person or virtually, but registration is required. To register for CIPHER and/or the UAS Data Use Workshop, please complete this form.

On Thursday 26 February, Trent D. Buskirk, Professor and Provost Fellow-Data Science and Professor Biostatistics at the School of Data Science and Joint School of Public Health at Old Dominion University, will present a keynote address titled: Let’s Not Leave Probability Panels to Chance: Why AI Matters for Their Future. On Friday 27 February, Ben Gurga, Acting Executive Director of Analytics, U.S. Social Security Administration, will present a keynote on Virtual Assistants at Social Security.

 

Call for Papers: 13th Annual International Conference on Demography and Population Studies (02/24/26)

The Anthropology & Demography Unit (Head: Dr. Barbara Zagaglia, Associate Professor, Polytechnic University of Marche, Italy) of the Athens Institute will hold its 13th Annual International Conference on Demography and Population Studies, 15-19 June 2026, Athens, Greece.  The deadline for abstract submissions is February 24, 2026. All information at: https://www.atiner.gr/demography.

The aim of the conference is to bring together academics and researchers from all areas of Demography and Population Studies and other related disciplines. You may participate as presenter of one paper, chair of a session or observer. The conference is sponsored by the Athens Journal of Demography & Anthropology and the Athens Journal of Social Sciences.

 

*New* Migrating Mariners of the African Diaspora: Race, Labor, and Waterways in the 19th Century – Matthew Randolph (02/27/26)

On February 27, CSDE Affiliate Matthew Randolph (American Ethnic Studies) will present his work on “Migrating Mariners of the African Diaspora: Race, Labor, and Waterways in the 19th Century”, as part of the 2026 Black History Month Speaker Series, hosted by the Paul G. Allen School. There are two opportunities to hear this work: an intimate discussion and lunch between 10:30 – 11:30 AM, and a larger-format talk from 12 – 1 PM.  RSVP here to join either event, held in the Bill & Melinda Gates Commons, Room 691, Paul G. Allen Building.

*New* Call for Proposals: Environmental Research Letters Focus Issue on “Initial and Enduring Environmental Consequences of Armed Conflict” (02/28/26)

Full information on scope, guest editors, and submission process at: https://iopscience.iop.org/collections/erl-251125-1010. Please email Jamon Van Den jamon.vandenhoek@oregonstate.edu with any questions.
Recent years have seen a sharp rise in armed conflicts worldwide with some estimates pointing to a roughly 25% increase in conflict events each year since 2020, alongside a growing population directly affected by violence. Here, we use ’armed conflict’ to refer to situations in which organized groups, including governments, use weapons against one another. Though widespread, the environmental toll of armed conflict remains poorly understood in part because the impacts of armed conflict on ecological, human-environment, and climatic processes may manifest in different ways at different times. Examples such as burned agricultural fields in eastern Ukraine, damage to urban and peri-urban areas in the Gaza Strip, and cleared woodlands in Tigray may be evident almost immediately through first-hand accounts and detectable in satellite images collected thereafter.
But what of the long-term impacts on soil health, air quality, and carbon emissions, or changes in land and resource management decisions in response to armed conflict? These indirect environmental consequences are far more difficult to measure and attribute since they manifest over longer timespans, farther away from the conflict, and may result from a complex interplay of conflict dynamics, governance shifts, and other stressors such as climate variability. Nonetheless, their inclusion is essential for a full accounting of the environmental consequences of armed conflict, both to inform accountability and reparations processes, to guide long-term recovery and peacebuilding, and to ensure that conflict-affected regions are not left behind in meeting global climate and sustainability goals.
Rather than considering only the immediate or acute environmental impacts of armed conflicts, this focus issue seeks research contributions that examine the broader spectrum of environmental consequences, including indirect effects that unfold over seasons or years and extend across diffuse geographies. We are particularly interested in research that integrates conflict dynamics into analyses of environmental outcomes, and that employs innovative combinations of Earth observation, geospatial data, and qualitative insights to capture the plurality of conflict consequences at different temporal and spatial scales. Such approaches can illuminate how armed conflict processes, shaped by both deliberate and involuntary decisions, translate into specific environmental impacts.
Example topics include:
  • Examining linkages across urban, peri-urban, and rural environmental impacts of war
  • Presenting novel approaches for assessing soil contamination and degradation in conflict settings
  • Building causal frameworks linking conflict processes and environmental outcomes
  • Multi-sensor monitoring of carbon emissions and atmospheric pollution arising from armed conflicts
  • Tracking environmental impacts over the arc of war preparations, warfare, and post-war stages
  • Assessing livelihood impacts of legacies of war including mining, unexploded ordnance, and toxic pollution
  • Innovating methods for validating remotely detected environmental impacts
  • Tracing the impacts of armed conflict on telecoupled land use systems and cross-border resource flows
  • Integrating empirical environmental datasets to guide post-conflict environmental peacebuilding
  • Disentangling impacts of war, aid, and climate change on food insecurity in conflict and displacement settings
  • Counter-intuitive cases of conflict-induced improvements in ecosystem services

*New* Summer Research Training Institute for American Indian and Alaska Native (Al/AN) Health Professionals and Students (02/27/26)

The Northwest Native American Research Center for Health” (NW NARCH) invites applications by February 27 for travel scholarships to attend the Summer Research Training Institute (SRTI) for American Indian and Alaska Native (Al/AN) Health Professionals and Students. The SRTI is a program designed for health professionals and students interested in Native health. Each week offers different, short skill-building courses in research methods, program evaluation, and project implementation. Learn more here.

The goal of the NW NARCH is to improve tribal health by increasing the number of American Indian and Alaska Native (Al/ AN) people who are engaged in biomedical and social science research and who can bring the benefits of academic research into their communities. The Summer Research Training Institute (SRTI) is just one of many NW NARCH programs designed to improve your research skills.