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Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

UW Today Highlights Blanco’s Research on Air Pollution and Dementia

UW Today recently featured a profile of CSDE Affiliate Magali Blanco (Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences). Originally posted on DEOHS’s blog, the profile highlights Blanco’s research on how air pollution affects the brain, including her work on a mobile monitoring campaign to gather air pollution data around Seattle using a car outfitted with monitoring instruments and her contributions to a long-running study called Adult Changes in Thought that involves examining biomarkers of cognitive deficit in brains donated after end of life.

Call for Papers: IUSSP and MPIDR Conference on Kinship Structures, Dynamics, and Inequalities (01/12/26)

The call for papers is now open for the upcoming conference “Kinship Structures, Dynamics, and Inequalities,” which will take place on June 8-9, 2026 at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock, Germany. The event is organized by the IUSSP Scientific Panel on Kinship Structures, Dynamics and Inequalities; MPIDR; NYU Abu Dhabi; Pennsylvania State University; and the National University of Singapore. Extended abstracts (maximum two pages, PDF) must be submitted via the conference website by January 12, 2026.

The conference will bring together researchers from across disciplines to examine how changing family and kinship systems shape social and economic inequalities in diverse contexts. The organizing committee invites submissions on a wide range of topics, including kin availability and inequality, caregiving and intergenerational transfers, bereavement, LGBTQ+ and chosen kinship, and innovative data and methods for studying kin relations within and outside the household.

Call for Papers: 2026 Natural Hazards Workshop (01/14/26)

The 2026 Natural Hazards Workshop will be held from June 14-17, 2026, at the Omni Interlocken Hotel in Broomfield, Colorado. The workshop will be organized around the theme  Stronger Together: Coalitions for Disaster Risk Reduction. The Researchers Meeting Organizing Committee is now accepting submissions for research presentations and roundtable discussion. The Practitioners Meeting Organizing Committee is also accepting submissions for abstracts. Both calls will be open through January 14, 2026.

The goal of this year’s Workshop is to identify how we can unite more people around the cause of disaster risk reduction. Attendees will learn about the pathways to building and sustaining coalitions as well as measurable outcomes that have resulted from these efforts.

Registration will open soon, and please share this information with colleagues and students. Also, please subscribe to Workshop updates so you don’t miss important deadlines and opportunities to contribute. Please note that there are many additional Workshop opportunities with various deadlines, including the student paper competition, student volunteer program, poster sessions, and research and practice highlights.

We look forward to hearing what you want to share with the hazards and disaster community.

Student Summer Research Visit: Population and Social Data Science Summer Incubator Program (01/14/26)

The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) is inviting applications from qualified and highly motivated students for a Summer Research Visit.

The goal of the Population and Social Data Science Summer Incubator Program is to enable discovery by bringing together data scientists and population scientists to work on focused, intensive and collaborative projects of broad societal relevance. For a period of 3 months (June 8 – August 21, 2026) participating students will work in small teams, with support from experienced mentors, towards a common research goal.

Apply by January 14, 2026. More information can be obtained here.

Call for Submissions: Conference and Special Issue on How Policy Contexts Impact Population Health in the US (01/15/26)

The Center for Aging and Policy Studies (CAPS) and the Center for Policy Research (CPR) will host a conference on June 8 and 9, 2026 at Syracuse University to advance knowledge on the connections between policies and population health in a changing U.S. context. In conjunction with the CAPS-CPR conference, The Milbank Quarterly will publish a special issue in 2027. Authors intending to submit a paper to The Milbank Quarterly special issue are strongly encouraged to submit an abstract of the paper by January 15, 2026 for presentation at the CAPS-CPR conference.
The conference and special issue seek empirical, methodological, and theoretical contributions on the topic. Of particular interest are papers that link changes and variation in policy contexts to health outcomes, identify mechanisms linking policies to outcomes, or propose new ways to measure and conceptualize policy contexts for health research.
Up to 15 papers will be selected for the conference. The goal of the conference is to significantly strengthen each paper before its submission to the special issue. The first author of each paper will be a 2026 CAPS-CPR Conference Fellow and receive (1) reimbursement of travel expenses up to $1500, (2) feedback and suggestions from an assigned discussant and other conference fellows, and (3) a detailed written review by a guest editor of the special issue (Pinka Chatterji, Shannon M. Monnat, and Jennifer Karas Montez). Presentation at the conference is not a requirement for submitting a paper to the special issue.
Application instructions and more information can be found here:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h4ncQILPsLtSyCGeQDBl81Tan3F1DeKZ/view