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Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

Panel: New Methodologies in the Study of Migrations & Settlements

This week, CSDE’s seminar is a panel discussion about new methodologies in the study of migration and settlements. Panelists include CSDE Affiliate and Training Core PI  Zack Almquist (UW Sociology), CSDE Affiliate Rawan Arar (UW Law, Societies, and Justice) and CSDE Affiliate Peter Catron (UW Sociology). CSDE Affiliate and Executive Committee Member Nathalie Williams (UW Sociology), will moderate the panel. Here is the line-up for this week:

Zack Almquist will present “Using Social Media to Measure Demographic Responses to Natural Disasters: Insights From a Large-Scale Facebook Survey Following the 2019 Australia Bushfires.”

Rawan Arar will present “How Do We Know What We ‘Know’ About Refugees?”

Peter Catron will present “The English Language Acquisition of Refugees in the Historical United States..″

Register for the Zoom seminar here. This quarter, CSDE is recording the seminar series and posting the links on its website. Visit our site here.

CSDE Welcomes Four More Faculty Affiliates!

CSDE’s Executive Committee is pleased to introduce four of our new UW Faculty Affiliates:

  • Susan Graham– Associate Professor in Medicine and Global Health, University of Washington. Graham is a clinical epidemiologist who has led and collaborated in numerous research projects related to HIV prevention, care, and pathogenesis since 2004, with over 120 publications in peer-reviewed journals. She is also an infectious diseases specialist with over 15 years’ experience providing HIV care and prevention services to patients in the United States and in Kenya. Graham has experience conducting mixed methods research on HIV and mental health, contributing to community-based initiatives to improve care for vulnerable and key populations, and developing and testing interventions to improve health outcomes including ART adherence and HIV test uptake.
  • Kivan Polimas– Principal Data Scientist, Atlas Analytics. Polimis’ interests include researching structural inequality, natural language processing, and developing programming solutions to social problems. His research focuses on combining computational social science approaches with large scale social media to evaluate population dynamics. He has worked with Data Science for Social Good and Microsoft to develop programming solutions in transportation infrastructure and the legal system.
  • Ryan Petros – Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, University of Washington. Petros’ research focuses on self-management programs for adults with serious mental illness, enhancing the effectiveness of mental health interventions; issues of homelessness and permanent supportive housing; and community integration. He is particularly interested in mixed-methods research and has been working on projects using multimedia strategies to collect data, such as auto-videography. His work continues to be informed by his practice experience and clinical training in motivational interviewing, cognitive behavioral therapies, and psychiatric rehabilitation.
  • April Sutton  – Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, UC San Diego. Sutton studies education, stratification, gender, and geographic inequalities. Sutton is especially interested in scrutinizing the institutional and structural mechanisms that maintain or disrupt gender and racial/ethnic inequalities in education, work, and family formation. Her motivation is to enhance our understanding of the characteristics of schools and communities that produce inequality, and how and why critical life transitions shape inequality.

These affiliates bring a wealth of knowledge and unique approaches that enhances our community of demographers and collectively advances population science. We look forward to supporting each of them as they pursue their research. You can learn more about their individual research interests by visiting their affiliate pages, linked above.

If you are interested in becoming an affiliate or you know of someone who should become one, you can invite them to do so by directing them to this page. Affiliate applications are reviewed quarterly, by CSDE’s Executive Committee.

CSDE Research Scientist Leibbrand and CSDE Affiliate Rowhani-Rahbar Co-author Study on Gun Violence and Depression

CSDE Research Scientist and Training Director Christine Leibbrand, along with co-authors Ali Rowhani-Rahbar and Frederick Rivara, recently published an article in Prevention Science. Employing lagged outcome and fixed effect models, they examine the association between exposure to gun violence in mothers’ neighborhoods and their experiences of depression. Using longitudinal Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study data, their study finds that mothers who witness at least one shooting in their neighborhoods or local communities exhibit more symptoms of depression and are 32–60% more likely to meet criteria for depression than mothers who do not witness a shooting. The findings have important implications for mothers’ wellbeing and their kin. Further, the authors observe substantial racial and socioeconomic disparities in exposure to gun violence, suggesting that gun violence may heighten health disparities and drawing attention to the importance of providing mental health resources in communities that are most affected by gun violence. Partial funding for this work came from a Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development research infrastructure grant (P2C HD042828), to the Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology at the University of Washington. This research was also supported by a grant from the Washington State legislature to support FIPRP at HIPRC. To read the article click here.