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Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

EPAR’s Center on Risk and Inclusion in Food Systems (CRIFS) Launches AgGeo

A new blog from EPAR, which is led by CSDE Affiliate Leigh Anderson, introduces a new web-based tool for exploring agricultural, geospatial, and climate data from sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Developed by EPAR Postdoctoral Scholar Joaquin Mayorga and Research Assistant Professor Didier Alia under the Center on Risk and Inclusion in Food Systems (CRIFS), the Ag GeoSpatial Data Explorer (AgGeo) processes public data on-demand and delivers results through a web interface. AgGeo currently offers three layers that help researchers and policymakers understand climate variability and its agricultural implications at the national and sub-national levels: rainfall volumes, dry days, and agro-ecological zones. The teams will continue working to expand AgGeo with additional countries and data layers, enabling broader geographic coverage.

Bratman Reviews New and Emerging Evidence on Why Nature Contact is Good for Us

CSDE Affiliate Gregory Bratman (Environmental and Forest Sciences) recently published an article titled, “Why Nature Contact is Good for Us” in Trends in Cognitive Science. Bratman and his co-author James Gross (Stanford) summarize evidence that nature contact has impacts on negative and positive affective functioning, and discuss recent insights into explanatory pathways, including emotion regulation, psychoneuroimmunology, microbiome, sleep, and physical activity. The authors propose that nature contact is linked to affective functioning via these five interacting pathways at a variety of levels and argue that these pathways are not mutually exclusive.

Good Will and Best Wishes to All ~ From CSDE!

As the calendar year comes to a close and UW’s Autumn Quarter wraps up, all of us at CSDE’s offices are grateful to the broader CSDE community!  Your good and impactful research, your scholarly generosity, and your curiosity and persistence in tackling tough empirical challenges has inspired and buoyed us during this turbulent year.  We are grateful for all that you do and we are honored to continue to support your research programs. 

At CSDE we center graduate training as an essential pairing for accomplishing successful research. With support from UW College of Arts & Sciences our certificate program is thriving. Additional support from the Population Dynamics Branch at NICHD and NIH’s Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research, as well as a Shanahan Endowment, provides additional advanced data analytics training through a T32 fellowship or a Max Planck Fellowship. However, some of the most important resources for graduate students are the professional development ones, such as support for travel and research funding. These are only possible through individual donations to our gift funds. As you think about your end-of-year giving, please consider a gift to CSDE’s graduate training – it’s an important investment in the future of demography and CSDE.

Another valuable component of our research and training program is CSDE’s weekly seminar. This winter’s seminar series will include talks featuring Andrew Messamore (UW, Sociology), Karin Martin (UW, Public Policy), Avanti Adhia (UW, Nursing),  Sarah Komisarow (Duke, Public Policy & Economics), Michael Schultz (UW, Public Policy), Bussarawan (Puk) Teerawichitchainan (National University of Singapore, Sociology), Kristin Perkins (Georgetown University, Sociology), Gabriella Levy (UW, Political Science), Robert Crosnoe (The University of Texas at Austin, Sociology), and Jake Watson (UC San Diego, Sociology).

Join us in 2026 on Fridays at 12:30 pm in 360 Parrington Hall!

CSDE Winter 2026 Seminar Series

January 9th: Andrew Messamore, Sociology, UW

January 19th: Karin Martin, Evans School, UW; Avanti Adhia, Nursing, UW

January 23rd: Sarah Komisarow, Public Policy & Economics, Duke University

January 30th: Bussarawan (Puk) Teerawichitchainan, Sociology, National University of Singapore

February 6th: Michael Schultz, Evans School, UW

February 13th: Kristin Perkins, Sociology, Georgetown University

February 20th: Gabriella Levy, Political Science, UW

February 27th: Robert Crosnoe, Sociology, The University of Texas at Austin

March 6th: Lightning Talks & Poster Session

March 13th: Jake Watson, Sociology, UC San Diego

UW Latino Center for Health Small Grants Program: Proposals due 12/15/25

The Latino Center for Health (LCH) at the University of Washington invites applications to the LCH’s Small Grants Program, a $20,000 grant to fund research focused on Latinx health in Washington state. The theme for the 2026-2027 program is Immigrant Health in a Changing Policy and Practice Landscape.
Applicants should include a partnership between a UW investigator and a community-based organization that serves Latinx individuals, families, or communities.
Applications are due on December 15, 2025.
LCH invites interested individuals affiliated with CSDE to apply or share with other UW faculty in your network who may be interested in applying for this grant.
Please feel free to direct any questions about LCH or our Small Grants Program to LCH’s co-directors Gino Aisenberg (ginoa@uw.edu) and Leo Morales (lsm2010@uw.edu). You can also find more information about LCH on our website and access the Request for Proposals here.