Skip to content
Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

Curran and Co-Authors Redefine “Abandoned” Agricultural Land in New Publication

CSDE Director Sara Curran, along with a number of co-authors, recently penned a perspective article in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change. Global mapping efforts to date have relied on vague and oversimplified definitions of “abandoned” agricultural land which results in overestimates of the land area that is likely to support persistent increases in forest cover and associated carbon sequestration. The authors propose a new conceptualization of abandoned agricultural land that incorporates changes in landholding status over time into determining whether land should be considered as abandoned.

Mooney, Hill, Rowhani-Rabhar, and Co-Authors Continue Exploring the Connection Between EITC and Firearm Violence in New Publication

CSDE Affiliates Stephen Mooney, Heather Hill, and Ali Rowhani-Rabhar, with co-authors Kimberly Dalve, Caitlin Moe, Nicole Kovski, and Frederick Rivara, recently published research in Prevention Science, extending their collective work on the relationship between the earned income tax credit (EITC) and youth firearm violence. To estimate the association between state EITC and youth violence, the authors conducted a repeated cross-sectional analysis using the variation in state EITC generosity over time by state and self-reported data in the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) from 2005 to 2019, with additional association estimates stratified by sex and race.

Zhao & Co-Authors Publish New Exploration of Black-Owned Restaurant Patronage During the Pandemic

CSDE Affiliate Bo Zhao along with co-authors Xiao Huang, Xiaoqi Bao (a past recipient of the CSDE Applied Research Fellowship), Zhenlong Li, and Shaozeng Zhang recently published an article in the Annals of the American Association of Geographers which has also been covered in Seattle’s King 5 news. In this article, the authors assess the circumstances of Black-owned restaurants during the entire year of 2020 through a longitudinal quantitative analysis of restaurant patronage. Using multiple sources of geospatial big data, the analysis reveals that most Black-owned restaurants in this study are disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic among different cities in the United States over time.

Grover Awarded Research Grant from the National Science Foundation!

CSDE Affiliate Himanshu Grover has been awarded a new grant from the National Science Foundation. The project is titled, “Assessing the Expectations Gap – Impact on Critical Infrastructure Service Providers’ and Consumers’ Preparedness, and Response.” While community lifeline service providers and local emergency managers must maintain coordinated response and recovery plans, their timelines may not match expectations of local consumers of lifeline services. Indeed, it is quite likely consumers have unrealistic expectations about lifeline restoration, which could explain current inadequate levels of disaster preparedness. This hypothesized expectation gap has received little attention because engineering research typically addresses providers’ capacities, whereas disaster research addresses household and business preparedness. This project will provide government agencies, lifeline providers, and consumers with strong evidence to address the expectations gap and, in turn, promote appropriate preparedness actions that will increase community resilience. This research will produce significant societal benefits to consumers and lifeline providers in the broader Cascadia region, and other areas exposed to major earthquakes by facilitating an informed information exchange among stakeholders. The authors focus on energy, water, wastewater, and communication, whose restoration is critical for limiting cascading damages, and for rapid recovery of community functions.

Grover’s project will address this issue by assessing consumers’ (households, business owners/managers, nonprofit managers) expectations about lifeline system performance, and comparing them to lifeline provider capacity in a post-hazard event scenario (following a Cascadia subduction zone earthquake of 9.0 magnitude or greater) in two communities—Kirkland and Shoreline, WA (likely to experience most shaking in this scenario). The research goal of this proposal is to identify and quantify determinants of the gap between societal expectations of critical lifeline systems performance in a hazard event and the planned resilience (avoiding failures/ timeline for service restoration) of these systems. The authors will address the following research questions: 1) What do consumers think is the likely level of critical lifeline disruption from an earthquake and the timeline for restoration? 2) What are consumers’ current levels of preparedness for lifeline interruption? 3) What do lifeline providers and an independent engineering expert think are providers’ capabilities to maintain and restore lifeline services? 4) How do consumers’ expectations compare with providers’ capabilities (expectations gap)? 5) How will this study’s feedback about the expectations gap affect consumers’ and providers’ lifeline resilience expectations, as well as their mitigation and preparedness intentions? The authors’ research methodology ensures that minority residents and business will directly benefit from this research through feedback information sharing in second round of data collection. Outcomes of this research will enhance consumers’ preparedness and lifeline providers’ recovery capacity.

Rebbe, Sattler, and Mienko Consider Associations Between Demographics and Child Maltreatment in New Publication

CSDE External Affiliate Rebecca Rebbe, Affiliate Joseph Mienko, and co-author Kierra Sattler recently published new research in Pediatrics. The article aims to determine the role of race/ethnicity and poverty in the likelihood of children younger than age 3 years hospitalized because of child abuse and neglect-related injuries being reported to child protective services (CPS) and being assigned a specific maltreatment diagnostic code. The authors used population-based linked administrative data from Washington state comprising of birth, hospitalization, and CPS records to explore these associations.

What the heck is the Royalty Research Fund (RRF)?

You’ve seen the announcements of RRF funding opportunities (next deadline is September 26th), and perhaps you have visions of the Queen of England. Nope! The “Royalty” in RRF is the royalty and licensing fee income generated by the University’s technology transfer program. These funds are awarded as small grants to advance new directions in research, particularly:

  1. In disciplines for which external funding opportunities are minimal, and/or
  2. For faculty who are junior in rank, and/or
  3. In cases where funding may provide unique opportunities to increase applicants’ competitiveness for subsequent funding.

It is competitive process, and proposals must demonstrate a high probability of generating important new creative activities or scholarly understandings, new scholarly materials or resources, significant data or information, or essential instrumentation resources that are likely to significantly advance the reputation of the university, lead to external funding, or lead to the development of a new technology.

Essentially, if you have an innovative idea, want to run a pilot project, and/or gather preliminary data, funding from the RRF can help launch your idea.

As evidenced by these recent RRF awards to CSDE affiliates, topics range across all disciplines:

  • “Measuring Consumer Response to Sweetened Beverage Taxes using Household Data,” PI Melissa Knox
  • “Feasibility Study for Puget Sound Longitudinal Health and Wellbeing Data Project: Sound Data for a Healthy Sound,” PI Nathalie Williams
  • “Minimizing Sound Transmission of Mass-Timber Floor Systems by Means of Structural Stiffness,” PI Tomas Mendez Echenagucia
  • “We Should Have Blackmailed the EU Like Turkey Did”: Syrian Refugees and Governance in Jordan,” PI Rawan Arar

If you are interested in applying for an RRF award through CSDE, please complete a Planning Proposal Submission Form.

CSDE Recommends: New Special Issue of Spatial Demography

Spatial Demography has recently released a 10-article special issue on ‘Population Dynamics in Africa! The line-up includes two open-access articles, exploring (1) “The Geography of Women’s Empowerment in West Africa” and (2) a cross-national comparative analysis of “Conflict and Climate Factors and the Risk of Child Acute Malnutrition.” The issue features a wide variety of methods, geographies, and social issues.

The journal is also soliciting manuscripts for a forthcoming special issue entitled “The Applications of Nighttime Lights in Population Studies.” Manuscripts are due on Halloween!

NSF Waterman Lectures of Interest to CSDE Community: Aging and Falling, Inequality in Academia, and Lessons from the Historic Record of Climate Changes

Join the National Science Foundation for a three-part lecture series featuring the laureates of the 2022 Alan T. Waterman award, the nation’s highest honor for early-career scientists and engineers.  See the links below to learn more and register!

The events will be held on Zoom and are free and open to the public. Registration is required.

Upcoming UW Provost Bridge Funding Application Deadline: November 1, 2022

The Provost’s Office provides bridge funding to support faculty to span a gap in critical research programs.

  • Faculty with a track record of extramural funding who have lost all of their research support at the time of the Bridge application, or who will lose all of their research support within six months of the Bridge application deadline.
  • Junior faculty with a record of productivity who have exhausted their startup funds, but who have not yet obtained their first research funding (including an RRF award) either as a PI or as a co-investigator.
  • A facility providing a key resource to multiple faculty that has lost extramural support. One faculty member should submit the proposal on behalf of the team.
  • Awards are a maximum of $50,000 for one year from the Provost, and a 1:1 matching commitment is required from the department.
  • Please see the Bridge Funding webpage for complete eligibility requirements, directions for the application and submission process, budget information, the notification of award, and the post-award process.
At the time funding is established or re-established, unspent funds will be returned to the Bridge program so that others can benefit. These programs are not intended to initiate new research projects. For those needs, researchers should apply to the Royalty Research Fund. If you have any questions, please contact Karen Luetjen at luetjen@uw.edu or visit our web site for guidance and FAQs. Please forward this announcement as appropriate.

Consult for the International Organization for Migration

The International Organization for Migration is looking for a (home-based) consultant to produce the ‘6th knowledge bite.’’

The EU-IOM Knowledge Management Hub (KMH)  launched in 2020 the Sustainable Reintegration Knowledge Bites series, which aims to present findings pertaining to sustainable reintegration outcomes emerging from the analyses of Reintegration Sustainability Survey (RSS) data and other monitoring and evaluation (M&E) data available. The Knowledge Bites are designed to bring these findings to the attention of reintegration practitioners and policymakers worldwide, as well as to inform and disseminate good practices, lessons learned and recommendations. To date, five Knowledge Bites have been produced, focusing on different aspects of sustainable reintegration outcomes.  In an ongoing effort to expand the knowledge on reintegration outcomes and the factors contributing to sustainable reintegration, the sixth Knowledge Bite will use data collected through the Returnee Longitudinal Survey (RLS) in four countries of return, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iraq and Pakistan, over the course of three years. The RLS was developed under the EU funded project “Displacement Tracking Matrix Regional Evidence for Migration Analysis and Policy (DTM REMAP)”.

  • Duration of Consultancy: 45 working days, 19 September – 2 December 2022
  • Nature of the consultancy: Category B – To produce the sixth Knowledge Bite, based on the in-depth quantitative analysis of the Returnee Longitudinal Survey (RLS) data.
  • Deadline: 11 September 2022