Around 11% of US children are diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A previous study from CSDE Affiliate Dan Eisenberg (Anthropology) showed that the ADHD-associated 7R allele of the gene encoding the D(4) dopamine receptor (DRD4) had a positive effect on the nutritional status of nomadic adult Ariaal men and a negative effect on settled adult men. This suggests that those with ADHD might have environmentally contingent benefits which are more apparent in nomadic contexts. In a pre-registered paper recently published in the American Journal of Human Biology, joint first authors Amanda Kunkle (PhD Candidate, Anthropology) and CSDE alumnus Robert Tennyson along with CSDE Affiliates Dan Eisenberg (Anthropology) and Bettina Shell-Duncan (Anthropology), and CSDE alumna Katherine Wander (Binghamton University) were unable to replicate this previous finding in a sample of children from a closely related population, the Rendille, but found a positive association between DRD4 7R and household economic status. Read the full story here.

We are excited to announce that the National Center for Health Statistics has approved a groundbreaking research project at the Northwest Federal Statistical Research Data Center (NWFSRDC), titled “Climate-Driven Disasters and Deaths.” This project, led by CSDE Affiliate Joan Casey (Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences), aims to explore the profound impacts of climate change-exacerbated natural disasters on vulnerable populations. The research team includes experts from various institutions: CSDE Trainee Lauren Blair Wilner and Elizabeth Blake from the University of Washington School of Public Health, Matthew Kiang from Stanford University School of Medicine, and Kara Rudolph and Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

The study will focus on two specific vulnerable groups: people who use drugs and older adults. These populations often require consistent access to medical treatments and prescriptions, which can be severely disrupted by major climate disasters such as heatwaves, tropical cyclones, floods, and wildfires. The project seeks to answer critical questions about the extent to which climate hazards increase the risk of fatalities, identify who is most affected, and understand the mediating pathways that could be targeted for intervention. By leveraging high-resolution climate hazard datasets and integrating them with restricted county-level daily cause-specific mortality data from the National Vital Statistics System (available through the NWFSRDC), the research aims to provide actionable insights to enhance emergency planning, healthcare system responses, and resiliency strategies in the face of a changing climate.

Please visit our website to learn more about the wide-ranging data available through the NWFSRDC, the process to access these data, and how to contact us.

With a critical mass of new affiliates working in the area of modeling transmission dynamics of infectious diseases — CSDE decided to form a new working group! An initial meet-and-greet and planning meeting was held in mid-March, with ten folks in attendance. Now, we’re ready to announce our regular meetings: every fourth Tuesday (summer included!), 3:30 – 5:00 pm, in HRC (Hans Rosling Center (HRC), a.k.a the Pop Health Building). We are hoping for Room 101 for the long term, but will need to be flexible for the first few meetings. Zoom will also be available, but in-person is always preferred!  Each month we’ll have someone present their research, past, present or future, with a focus on both the substance and the methods, so we can all learn from one another, provide thoughtful feedback, and make new connections and collaborations. Steve Goodreau and Abie Flaxman will be co-leading for the start.

For more information about each talk, and other relevant events, please join our mailing list here. Feel free to invite students, post-docs, advisers, etc. Note that for those with more of an interest in within-host pathogen modeling, the Hutch’s Mathematical Modeling Affinity Group may also be of interest.

The clock-drawing test is a common tool for assessing cognitive function, that offers an entry point for considering how time itself is experienced in the context of dementia care. In a recent article published in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute entitled “The clock-drawing test: reading temporalities of dementia from clinical chart notes,” CSDE External Affiliate Janelle Taylor (University of Toronto) explores how clinical interactions reflect broader social and historical forces shaping time, from cultural expectations of aging to shifts in labor and medicine. The article draws on analysis of medical records of three older adults in Seattle who developed dementia without close family. It considers how dementia reshapes our understanding of time, and how memory and temporality alike are deeply social and embodied. Read the full article here. 

On May 1, 2025, CSDE Affiliate Erin McElroy and colleagues are hosting a conference with the Simpson Center for the Humanities on “Political Software: Mapping Digital Worlds From Below”. This conference will focus on software and countermaps primarily designed for political action with social, environmental, and land justice movements. The intent of this conference is to bring together organizers, researchers, educators, and technologists questioning the interdependencies between digital infrastructures, software code, and emancipatory spatial futures. For information, visit this link or the event website.