Skip to content
Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

Xu Publishes Article on Polarization Among Catholic and Protestant Youth in Northern Ireland

CSDE Affiliate Jing Xu (Anthropology) and co-authors recently published an article in the Journal of Adolescent Research, titled “Exploring Facilitators and Disruptors of Polarization During Adolescence Within Contested Settings: A Case Study of Catholic and Protestant Youth in Northern Ireland.” Xu and her collaborators draw on interview data to identify key socializing actors and settings within established theoretical frameworks: Ecological Systems Theory, Social Identity, and Intergroup Contact. Findings reveal the importance of family, friends, school, and media as intersecting socializing actors for adolescents. Intergroup contact among peers from different ethno-religious backgrounds disrupted adolescents’ engagement in polarizing and divisive rhetoric. Lastly, adolescents perceived educational actors and settings as less influential than their personal connections to peers and family.

Call for Papers: IPUMS Research Awards (02/15/26)

2025 IPUMS Research Awards Submission

We are pleased to announce the opening of the annual IPUMS Research Awards competition. We are looking for papers that showcase innovative approaches, comparative analyses, or unique aspects of IPUMS data collections. In short, we are looking for papers that use the data to their full potential.

We are also encouraging unpublished student paper submissions to be posted to SocArXiv or other open repositories, as we would like all award-winning papers to be broadly available to the IPUMS community.

We will only consider nominations submitted in English.

Deadline: Sunday, February 15, 2026

Entry requirements for published research:

Use and cite one of the eligible IPUMS data collections in a 2025 refereed publication*.

Entry requirements for student research:

Use and cite one of the eligible IPUMS data collections in a paper written in 2025. The lead author must have been a student when the paper was written. If research is published, it should be a 2025 publication*. We encourage unpublished student paper submissions to be posted to an open repository, as we would like all award-winning papers to be broadly available to the IPUMS community.

Entry requirements for IPUMS Excellence in Research Award:

Use and cite one of the the eligible IPUMS data collections in a paper written in 2025. This award is intended to demonstrate the diversity of authors conducting outstanding social science and population health research and to highlight contributions from persons belonging to groups that have faced a pattern of exclusion in research spaces. Examples in the U.S. context may include persons who identify as Black/African American, Indigenous, Hispanic/Latino/a/x, Asian American, first-generation college graduates or students, LGBTQ+ persons, or persons with disabilities. Award selection decisions will be made without consideration of authors’ race, gender, or other protected identity as required by law.

*Publications that are available as Online First in 2025 but have a 2026 (or an unknown) issue date may be submitted for the 2025 research awards competition, but will not be eligible for next year’s competition (i.e., you may not submit the same paper two years in a row).

*New* SocSEM: Jack Goldstone on How Population Will Change the World in the 21st Century (02/12/26)

The University of Washington Department of Sociology is pleased to host Jack Goldstone, the Virginia E and John T. Hazel Jr. Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University and a Senior Fellow of the Mercatus Center, to join us for a SocSEM event on Thursday, February 12, 2026 at 12:30 pm, in Savery Hall room 409.

Goldstone will focus on the seriousness of an aging population. Europe, the Americas and Asia will soon have the oldest populations known to humanity. Can we cope? He will lead a discussion on the changes that will be needed in the future to avoid disaster, including ways we thing about youth, women, immigration, and globalization.

He will also discuss his new book 10 Billion: How Aging, Immigration, Women and Youth will Change the World in the 21st Century which will be published by Oxford University Press.

Jack A. Goldstone (PhD Harvard) has received the Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Award from the American Sociological Association, the Arnoldo Momigliano Prize, the Barrington Moore Jr. Award, the Myron Weiner Award, the Ibn Khaldun Award, and fellowships from the MacArthur Foundation, the JS Guggenheim Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation, the Mellow Foundation, and the U.S. Institute of Peace.

SocSEM events are sponsored by the Earl & Edna Stice Memorial Lecture and Book Series in Social Science.

*New* The New Wave of SRH Indicators: Where Do Fertility Goals Fit In? (02/12/26)

Join the Ohio Population Consortium on February 12 at 12 pm EST for the second of three webinars in a series on “Fertility Goals: Conceptualization, Measurement, and Implications for Science and Policy“. CSDE External Affiliate Jamaica Corker (BMGF) is one of four panelist speaking on new indicators of sexual and reproductive health. Register for Zoom link.

There has been a recent surge of efforts to develop new indicators of sexual and reproductive health, indicators intended to supplant the constructs “unmet need for contraception” and “demand satisfied” that have served as featured indicators during the past two decades. The proposed indicators reflect an effort to achieve a more woman-centered approach to both SRH science and policy. Fertility goals were essential ingredients of the past indicators. Where do they fit in now? Have they been sidelined (deliberately or unintentionally)? If so, is this defensible and desirable, from both a scientific and policy perspective? The aim of this webinar is to have an energetic exchange about these (and related) questions.

Presenters

  • John Casterline, Institute for Population Research, The Ohio State University
  • Nurudeen Alhassan, AFIDEP, Lilongwe, Malawi
  • Jamaica Corker, External Research Affiliate, Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology, University of Washington
  • Leigh Senderowicz, Department of Gender & Women’s Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison

*New* CAPS Webinar: Moderated Discussion on Social Science Funding within NIH (02/13/26)

Syracuse University is sponsoring a webinar on the funding landscape at NIH for aging and population health research.  Since CSDE is part of the Association of Population Centers, along with Syracuse, UW affiliates are welcome to join.  Two sociologists will be offering their insights on their understanding of the current landscape, given their experiences and current roles.  Both are highly productive social scientists with longstanding, successfully funded research programs from NICHD, NIA, NIMH, NIAID, NCI, etc.  Sarah Burgard is the University of Michigan’s population center director and Tara McKay is the co-founder of the LGBTQ+ Policy Lab at Vanderbilt University.  The conversation and insights should be illuminating.  Sarah Burgard is also President of the Association of Population Centers and actively engaged in interacting with NIH programs, other federal agencies, and with US Congress on health funding for population research.
Please add this to your calendar and  feel free to join Syracuse University’s Center for Aging and Population Studies for a moderated discussion on funding research in population health and aging. The speakers, Sarah Burgard and Tara McKay, will address the current funding landscape and prospects for the future.

 

Applications Open for NIH Behavioral and Social Sciences Early Career Workshop (02/13/26)

We are now accepting applications for the NIH Behavioral and Social Sciences Early Career Workshop. This opportunity provides early stage investigators with training on how to transform their research ideas into competitive NIH grant applications. The workshop includes strategies for developing strong NIH proposals, navigating the peer review process, and building a professional network to support a successful research career. The application submission deadline is February 13, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. ET.

This workshop provides opportunities to gain insights from NIH program officers and scientific review officers on writing strong National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant proposals and navigating the peer review process. It also facilitates networking with NIH program staff and fellow early career researchers, exchange ideas, and connect with potential collaborators

Program Details
OBSSR will select up to 15 early stage investigators to present their research findings and participate in this one-day, in-person workshop. Selection will be based on an applicant’s first-authored research paper.

Key Dates

  • Application Submission Deadline: February 13, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. ET
  • Awardee Notification: May 1, 2026
  • Workshop Date (in-person): June 3, 2026

Eligibility Requirements

To qualify, applicants must submit one eligible article focused on the study of behavioral and social phenomena relevant to health. They also must—

  • Meet the National Institutes of Health’s definition of an early stage investigator.
  • Be the sole or primary author of a peer-reviewed, original research article, published or accepted between January 1 to December 31, 2025.