Since 2006, the Social Science Research Council’s Measure of Americaprogram has worked with local and state governments to integrate and report health, education, and income data in ways that enable communities to better understand their residents’ needs. We are excited to report that Measure of America has now launched an updated version of DATA2GO.NYC, their free online mapping and data tool. DATA2GO.NYC lets users explore over 400 indicators of well-being and access to opportunity across New York City’s nearly 200 neighborhoods.

DATA2GO.NYC is designed for policymakers, nonprofits, philanthropies, community service providers, researchers, journalists, students, and all New Yorkers who want to understand the needs and well-being of New York City residents. Measure of America is offering free, open-to-the-public demos of DATA2GO.NYC on May 15th, 12-1pm and May 21st, 1-2pm. Learn more and register here.

 

Since the passage of the 1980 Refugee Act, the main goal of the refugee resettlement program has been to move refugees into paid employment within 3-6 months after arrival to ensure self-sufficiency. This results in refugees frequently being placed in “survival jobs” characterized by low pay, high turn-over, and part time hours. At this virtual meeting, Mehr Mumtaz (Ohio State University) and Someireh Amirfaiz (New Americans Alliance for Policy and Research) will present results from their community-based study that explores the experiences of resettled refugees in King County, Washington, with finding employment. The research identifies barriers to securing employment and achieving economic success and elevates the voices of participants to offer recommendations to improve policy and practice to support refugees’ access to living-wage employment with continuous wage progression opportunities. We invite you to join us for this conversation on Thursday, May 22nd from 9:30 – 11am. Register here.

Each year, the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies seeks proposals for policy-oriented research directly relevant to policymakers in Washington State. All University of Washington faculty,  full-time lecturers, and UW graduate students sponsored by a faculty member are eligible to apply.

Up to $15,000 is available for each grant. Depending on available funding, awards may include a tuition waiver for graduate employees. Please note this waiver does not extend to students in fee-based programs. Proposals requesting funding for student salaries will be given priority.

We also ask researchers to consider and address the following in their proposals, as appropriate:

• Please address how your project will use ethical research methods, including identifying the relationships you have with the population(s) you’re proposing to study and your positionality to the research process and research project.

• If applicable, will research participants and participating organizations provide input on your proposed methods before the study begins? Will they review the findings before they are publicly available? Will contributors, including interviewees, be compensated?

Proposals on the following topics will receive priority:

• Race and/or gender as they pertain to labor and workforce issues.
• Aspects of labor force employment, wages, conditions (including health and pension benefits), and/or unionization.
• Local policies to address the impacts of trade, outsourcing, off-shoring subcontracting, automation, or technology.
• Policies of unions and professional organizations to expand or preserve marketable skills and quality production.
• Problems facing contingent, casual, or gig workers, and employment-related aspects of poverty and/or discrimination.
• Historical work that has a direct impact on contemporary policy.
• International case studies and/or comparative research relevant to Washington State.

A subcommittee of the Standing Committee and staff of the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies will select the Washington State Labor Research Grant recipients, who will be announced at the Bridges Center’s annual awards celebration. Learn more here.

For over two decades, York University’s Centre for Refugee Studies has run an internationally acclaimed, non-credit professional development Summer Course that brings together practitioners, policy makers, and researchers to learn together about the most pressing forced migration and refugee issues.

All participants who complete the full course receive a York University Centre for Refugee Studies Summer Course Certificate. Learn more here.

About this year’s course

The nexus of climate change and human mobility is rapidly transforming, demanding new, innovative research that anticipates the challenges and impacts of the coming decades. Climate Migration Futures: Shaping the Research Agenda for 2050 challenges conventional approaches and pushes the boundaries of how research can support our response to climate-induced migration. This cutting-edge summer course focuses on bold, forward-thinking research priorities and methods that can help to address the framing of climate migration, the governance of climate migration, ethical strategies for climate adaptation and relocation, and envisioning climate migration in 2050.

Leading international academics will provide introductory keynotes on themes critical to climate migration research. Participants will engage with case studies and research findings from climate frontlines, exploring how research scenarios address these questions and reveal both successful interventions and the unintentional, but often time intentional, creation of new vulnerabilities.

Through an immersive combination of expert-led sessions, collaborative design-thinking workshops, and innovative scenario planning, the course will help to: 1) redefine the research agenda on climate migration; 2) explore what research is needed to tackle the impacts of climate migration; 3) advance the appropriate research methods that can inform policy development.

Learning outcomes of this course will empower participants to:

• Redefine Research Approaches: Develop innovative frameworks and methods to address the challenges of climate migration, focusing on resilience, climate justice, and ethical adaptation strategies
• Enhance Policy and Governance Understanding: Explore the intersection of language, governance, and human rights in shaping adaptive policies and addressing vulnerabilities
• Foster Collaborative Visioning: Engage in scenario planning and interdisciplinary collaboration to envision transformative solutions for climate migration by 2050

This course is designed for scholars, policymakers and practitioners who are ready to push the boundaries on current research thinking and praxis, bridging interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary tools to address the current and unforeseen factors that will define climate migration by 2050. Participants will leave prepared to advance a transformative research agenda rooted in resilience, climate justice, and innovation in the face of global climate change impacts.

The Health and Medical Care Archive, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is sponsoring a workshop during the annual ICPSR Summer Program in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Be sure to apply for this workshop in advance––enrollment is capped at 25 participants. Apply by 5/26/25.

Workshop Instructors: Tyson Brown from Duke University and Patricia Homan from Florida State University

Dates: July 22, 2025 – July 24, 2025 from 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM ET

Location: In-person at the University of Michigan

This workshop provides practical, theory-driven guidance on methods for studying structural oppression, with a focus on structural racism, structural sexism, and intersecting systems of inequality. Despite growing interest in this research, substantial challenges remain, including fragmented data ecosystems and limited adoption of theoretically grounded, empirically rigorous methodologies.

Workshop instructors will offer conceptual and analytical clarity, showcasing diverse data sources on structural oppression, with guidance on accessing, linking, and analyzing these data. The workshop will also highlight best practices for the scientific study of structural oppression by operationalizing structural oppression in ways that reflect its multifaceted, multilevel, and systemic nature, alongside its other core dimensions, including relational power dynamics, institutionalized structures, sociohistorical contexts, oppressive schemas and logics, the roles of specific actors, the inactions and omissions that sustain these systems, and intersections among forms of oppression.

Workshop Format:

• Morning Sessions: Interactive lectures on cutting-edge methodological approaches, with real-world examples.
• Afternoon Sessions: Hands-on exercises and individualized consultations to support participants’ research interests. These sessions will feature practical examples and applications, primarily using STATA and R, to demonstrate key methodological techniques and best practices in data analysis, measurement, and modeling of structural oppression.

Prerequisites: This workshop is particularly suited for early-career scholars, though all researchers are welcome. Participants should bring their own laptops.

Application: Enrollment is limited to 25 participants. To apply for this workshop, select the “Register Now” button, fill out the Summer Program registration form, select this workshop, and then upload the following application materials:

• Current curriculum vitae
• Cover letter summarizing research interest in this course and related research experiences

Application Deadline: May 26, 2025

Domestic violence is common and has many serious individual and community-level consequences. One way to address these effects could be through the provision of paid leave, which can offer families more financial stability and support. CSDE Affiliates Avanti Adhia (Nursing) and Heather Hill (Evans School) recently received a Tier 2 proof-of-concept grant from the Population Health Initiative (PHI) along with several collaborators to study the potential effectiveness and implementation of paid leave programs for domestic violence. This project will examine the relationship between paid leave and domestic violence using several data sources and methods. Read more about this grant here.

We are excited to welcome you this week as we celebrate CSDE’s more than 75 years of demographic research and training at the UW! This Thursday and Friday May 15 and 16, we will share reflections and insights about:

• CSDE’S histories
• CSDE’s impact on research and training
• CSDE’s future contributions in the next 75 years

Join alumni, colleagues, faculty, friends, staff, and students for community building, learning, and refreshments. Learn more and register here!

Despite many new and ongoing efforts to end homelessness in the U.S., the goal remains stubbornly out of reach. In a recent article published in Housing Policy Debate, CSDE Affiliate Gregg Colburn (Real Estate) and co-authors outline two paths that could help policymakers end or dramatically reduce homelessness. The paper first describes the best evidence-based approaches that can be implemented and scaled within a status quo policymaking environment, and then outlines an alternative, expansionary state of policymaking that prioritizes greater investments aimed at addressing the structural housing drivers of homelessness. Read the full article here.