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Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

CSSS Fall 2024 Seminar Series (10/2/24 – 12/4/24)

The CSSS Seminar features local and visiting scholars presenting current research at the intersection of statistics and the social sciences. Seminars are held on Wednesdays from 12:30-1:30 pm in room SAV 409 during an academic year. Seminars are available to anyone interested and are being presented in a hybrid format. To attend a seminar virtually, please register here.  An email with login information will be sent to you upon registration.  Graduate students pursuing a CSSS track may receive credit by enrolling in CS&SS 590. Questions? Contact CSSS (csss@uw.edu).

Upcoming Seminar:

Wednesday, October 16th, 12:30pm-1:30pm

NOTE: This seminar will be offered as a remote ZOOM session only. Find the Zoom link here.

Mayana Pereira, Microsoft AI for Good Research Lab

Opening Microsoft Data for Social Good: privacy-preserving technologies unlocking powerful social insights

In this talk you will learn how privacy preserving data disclosure technologies can unlock powerful social insights. The talk will cover two of Microsoft’s differentially private data releases: the broadband data and the digital literacy data. These data sets, created using Microsoft’s private data, bring powerful insights to the current state digital divide in the United States.

Mayana is a Data Scientist at Microsoft AI for Good Research Lab – a philanthropic team of data scientists and researchers dedicated to using AI, Machine Learning and statistical modeling to tackle some of humanity’s greatest challenges. Microsoft AI for Good Research Lab partners with leading nonprofits, research institutions, NGOs, and governments to accelerate work across the AI for Good program portfolio—Earth, Accessibility, Humanitarian Action, Cultural Heritage, Health—as well as other pressing issues such as affordable housing, broadband access, digital skills, justice reform, legal compliance, etc.

Mayana’s research is currently focused on the intersection of digital safety/cybersecurity/software security and artificial intelligence, as well as the impacts of privacy-preserving techniques in machine learning deployment scenarios. Mayana is an active collaborator of OpenDP, an open-source project for the differential privacy community to develop general-purpose, vetted, usable, and scalable tools for differential privacy.

Intro to R II: Working With Data

Join CSDE Statistical Demographer & Training Director Jessica Godwin for a 75 minute introduction to data manipulation in R. This workshop, the second in a series of 3, will cover reading and writing data, summarizing data, creating new variables, and moving between long and wide data formats. This workshop will be followed by Intro to R III: Data Visualization.

The workshop will be hybrid with in-person attendance in Savery 121 and a Zoom link for online attendance will be provided upon registration. Learn more and register here.

Author Meets Critics – Crowded Out: The Costs and Consequences of Crowdfunding Healthcare – Dr. Nora Kenworthy

  • When: Friday, Oct 11, 2024 (12:30-1:30PM)
  • Where: 360 Parrington Hall and on Zoom (register here)

We are looking forward to hosting Nora Kenworthy (School of Nursing and Health Studies, University of Washington Bothell) on Friday, Oct. 11 in Parrington Hall 360 and on Zoom. This seminar is co-sponsored by the Population Health Initiative. 

Join UW Bothell Professor and CSDE Affiliate Nora Kenworthy for an author-meets-critics discussion of her recent book, Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Health Care (MIT Press). Crowded Out draws on nearly a decade of research on crowdfunding for health care costs in the US and around the globe, showing how this now ubiquitous form of charitable assistance is fueled by, and further reinforces, the financial and moral “toxicities” of market-based health systems. Using ethnographic and quantitative data, the book examines how charitable crowdfunding so quickly overtook public life, and who gets left behind by these new platformed economies. Dr. Kenworthy will be joined by Anjum Hajat (Epidemiology, UW) and Amy Hagopian (Health Systems and Population Health, UW). 

Author: 

Nora Kenworthy is a Professor of Nursing and Health Studies at the University of Washington Bothell. She is also adjunct faculty in the Departments of Global Health and Anthropology at UW Seattle. Broadly speaking, her work examines how politics, technology, and inequality affect health. She is the author of Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare (MIT Press, 2024), and of the award-winning ethnography, Mistreated: The Political Consequences of the Fight Against AIDS in Lesotho (Vanderbilt University Press, 2017). She received her PhD in Sociomedical Sciences from Columbia University.

Critics:

Dr. Anjum Hajat is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Washington. Her research seeks to understand how social and environmental determinants of health contribute to poor health and health disparities. Specifically, her environmental health research has examined environmental injustice and health disparities caused by environmental factors. In terms of social factors, she has a large body of work around the health impacts of precarious employment and other forms of social inequity. She strives to engage with communities most impacted by injustice and disparities while also answering questions to guide policy and action.

Dr. Amy Hagopian is professor emeritus in public health at the University of Washington. She conducts academic work on how the maldistribution of power and wealth undermines health. She taught a class on war and health for 9 years at UW, and led a team to measure war-related mortality in Iraq in 2011. She’s currently involved in research projects to improve methods to count the number of people living homeless, deprived of the human right to housing. She taught a class on homelessness, with an emphasis on causes and consequences of living unsheltered. She serves as chair of the editorial board of the American Journal of Public Health and received the APHA’s Sidel-Levy award for Peace in 2018. She is incoming chair of APHA’s International Health Section, active in APHA’s Peace Caucus, Caucus on Homelessness, and a leader in the Global Alliance on War, Conflict and Health.

*New* Intro to R II: Working With Data (10/8/24)

Join CSDE Statistical Demographer & Training Director Jessica Godwin for a 75 minute introduction to data manipulation in R. This workshop, the second in a series of 3, will cover reading and writing data, summarizing data, creating new variables, and moving between long and wide data formats. This workshop will be followed by Intro to R III: Data Visualization.

The workshop will be hybrid with in-person attendance in Savery 121 and a Zoom link for online attendance will be provided upon registration. Learn more and register here.

CSDE Welcomes 3 New Research Affiliates

CSDE is pleased to introduce three of our new UW Research Affiliates! Drew Messamore (Assistant Professor, Sociology) examines the rising popularity and formalization of rental landlording in the United States, as well as how a new generation of urban housing movements are confronting urban inequalities. Patrick Greiner’s (Assistant Professor, Sociology) research centers on providing greater insight into the complex co-constitution of social inequalities, environmental changes, and their consequences. Ipsita Dey’s (Assistant Professor, Comparative History of Ideas) work is at the intersection of Pacific Island Studies, Indigeneity Studies, South Asian Diaspora Studies, Environmental Anthropology, and ethnographic ethics. Learn more about each affiliate in the full story!

  • Drew Messamore – Drew Messamore is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Sociology at the University of Washington. Messamore’s research examines the rising popularity and formalization of rental landlording in the United States, as well as how a new generation of urban housing movements are confronting urban inequalities. He has also published widely on the use of quantitative and computational methodologies in social science. You can find his work in Social Problems, Social Networks, Urban Studies, Social Currents, Social Psychology Quarterly, Administration & Society, and Socius. Messamore earned his BA in Sociology from the University of Texas Austin, his MA in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago, his PhD in Philosophy and Sociology from University of Texas at Austin.

 

  • Patrick Greiner – Patrick Trent Greiner’s research centers on providing greater insight into the complex co-constitution of social inequalities, environmental changes, and their consequences. His teaching interests center on the theories and methods that facilitate understanding of simultaneous and reciprocal change in social and ecological systems as well. Professor Greiner’s work has been published in journals such as Environmental Sociology, Environmental Research Letters, Nature + Culture, The Journal of Land Use Science, The Journal of Classical Sociology, Rural Sociology, and Human Ecology Review, among others. He has written and had his work highlighted in a number of international periodicals and news outlets, such as The Conversation, El Globo News, and Phys as well. Greiner received his BA in Politics and Policy from Washington State University, and his MS and PhD in Sociology from University of Oregon. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Sociology, Assistant Professor of Public Policy Studies, and the 2022-2024 C Family Dean’s Faculty Fellow of Grand Challenges in Climate and Society at Vanderbilt University. To learn more, go HERE.

 

  • Ipsita Dey – Ipsita Dey is an Assistant Professor in the Comparative History of Ideas Department. She comes to UW Seattle from Princeton University, where she received her PhD in Anthropology. Her work is at the intersection of Pacific Island Studies, Indigeneity Studies, South Asian Diaspora Studies, Environmental Anthropology, and ethnographic ethics. Ipsita’s current book project, “Home on the Fijian Farmscape”, explores how Indo-Fijians articulate connections to land and country through agricultural practice, claiming a complex mode of diasporic nativity in response to resurgent Fijian indigenous ethno-nationalist politics.

Research from Goodreau, Hamilton and Co-Authors Featured in AP News Story on Young Americans’ Use of Contraceptives

Data suggesting that young Americans’ condom usage is declining has triggered concern among HIV experts. An AP News article on this subject cites research from lead author Steve Goodreau (UW Anthropology & CSDE Development Core Director) and co-authors including CSDE Senior Research Scientist/ Engineer Deven Hamilton in AIDS and Behavior which finds evidence of reduced condom usage in younger populations. For the news article, Goodreau emphasized how increasing use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) may contribute to a higher risk of HIV transmission. Read the journal article here.

New Report on Commercial Gentrification Published by PHI & CSDE’s Summer Applied Research Fellowship Program

A team of graduate and undergraduate students with Dr. Jessica Godwin recently published a report on commercial gentrification in King County using information from Data Axle and the Census Bureau’s County Business Patterns dataset.  The 2024 Applied Research Fellowship team (Carmen Choong, Anoushka Manik, Sydney Pope, Priyanka Shrestha, and Jenny Speelmon) shared their full set of findings in a published report and presentation to King County stakeholders on Thursday, August 22nd. The Fellowship program is run by the Population Health Initiative in partnership with CSDE, and this year’s project was developed in partnership with the King County Demographer’s office and the Seattle / King County Department of Public Health. To read more about the program visit here.

Staff Scientist in Epidemiology (10/15/24)

DiPHR at NICHD within NIH is seeking to recruit an outstanding staff scientist in theEBranch (EB). The branch conducts investigator-initiated and collaborative original epidemiologic research studies focusing on reproductive, perinatal, and pediatric health endpoints to identify etiologic mechanisms, at-risk subgroups, and interventions aimed at maximizing health and preventing, diagnosing, and/or treating disease. EB staff scientists make high-level contributions to the branch’s active research programs, develop and implement study protocols, assist in developing relevant etiological hypotheses, prepare analytic plans and institutional review board packages necessary for successful study completion, as well as prepare scientific papers and other related work as required. In addition, staff scientists mentor trainees and provide professional and contracting services.

 

This staff scientist position will require advanced epidemiology knowledge and skills to function independently, leading statistical analysis of longitudinal cohort studies under the general direction of a senior investigator and as part of a research team. Qualifications include an earned doctorate in epidemiology or a closely related field (e.g., maternal and child health, public health, psychology) and additional years of postdoctoral experience relevant to the position. Preferred candidates will have excellent communication skills (both oral and written), strong quantitative skills, including statistical methods commonly used in epidemiology (e.g., longitudinal data analysis, hierarchical modeling), and experience in mentoring. Preference will be given to applicants with demonstrated research interests in the areas of perinatal epidemiology, maternal and child health disparities, and the early origins of health, as evidenced by training, work experience, and publications in peer-reviewed journals. Experience with genomics and epigenomics research is advantageous but not required.

 

The successful applicant will work on a newly developed research program led by EB Branch Chief Dr. Bizu Gelaye. The research areas will focus on:

  • Understanding the role preconception and perinatal psychosocial exposures (e.g., trauma exposure) play in shaping short- and long-term maternal and offspring health outcomes.
  • Studying how biological, molecular, environmental, social, and structural factors impact preterm birth, particularly among racial and ethnic groups.
  • Identifying evidence-based solutions that promote health equity and improve outcomes in maternal and child health through prevention, early diagnostics, therapeutics, and/or policy change.

 

Questions about the position can be addressed to the Search Committee Chair, Dr. Yvette Pittman (yvette.pittman@nih.gov). To apply, email a cover letter, curriculum vitae, a brief summary of research interests and experiences (up to 2 pages), one sample publication, a mentoring philosophy statement (up to 1 page), a diversity and inclusion statement (up to 1 page), and the names and contact information of three references to Dr. Pittman. Review of applications will begin on October 15, 2024, and continue until the position is filled.

 

Appointees may be U.S. citizens, legal permanent residents, or non-U.S. citizens who are eligible for a valid work authorization. Salary will be commensurate with experience. A full civil service package of benefits may be available (including retirement, health insurance, flexible spending accounts, life insurance, annual and sick leave, and Thrift Savings Plan [401(k) equivalent]). The position is subject to a background check.

 

HHS, NIH, and NICHD are equal opportunity employers. NIH is dedicated to building a diverse community through its training and employment programs. NIH encourages the application and nomination of qualified women, persons from underrepresented groups, and individuals with disabilities. Selection for this position will be based solely on merit, with no discrimination for non-merit reasons such as race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, political affiliation, marital status, disability, age, or membership or non-membership in an employee organization.

Swanson and Co-Authors Highlight the Consequences of Coastal Population Growth

In a recent contribution to Scientific Reports, CSDE External Affiliate David Swanson (UC Riverside) and co-authors argue that current coastal population growth trends portend significant consequences for the natural world. Using recently available data, the authors estimate annual continental and global coastal populations from the shoreline inward. The research emphasizes the need for effective strategies to address the challenges posed by this growth. Read the article here.