Learn about The Nature Conservancy’s exciting and innovative scientific research, and how science informs policy and practice around the world. The Nature Conservancy is one of the largest conservation organizations in the world, working in 79 countries and territories to conserve the lands and water on which all life depends..
Doctoral and postdoctoral positions in social differences and mental health
Application deadline: March 23, 2020
The positions will be established at the Centre for Fertility and Health, a Centre of Excellence funded by the Research Council of Norway and hosted by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. The scientific goal of the Centre for Fertility and Health is to greatly advance the understanding how changes in patterns of fertility and family structure influence child and adult health through social and biological pathways. As a doctoral research fellow at the centre, you will be part of an interdisciplinary and international team. The centre has a strong academic and social environment and has recently hired several postdoctoral and doctoral fellows.
Post‐doctoral fellowship, Twin boom Project
Project: As part of its research program on twins, the French Museum of Natural History (MNHN) is conducting a project on the increase in twinning rates in high‐income countries over recent decades. The project receives financial support from the French Research Agency and is a partnership between the Eco‐anthropology Unit of the MNHN and the French Institute for Demographic Studies (INED). The principal investigator is Gilles PISON, professor at the MNHN and associate researcher at INED.
Hedwig Lee and Angels Bruns Examine Partner Incarceration and Women’s Substance Use
Partner incarceration is an increasingly common experience for Black and Hispanic women. However, existing research on the health and wellbeing of these women is minimal—this is why CSDE Regional Affiliate Hedwig Lee and CSDE Alum Angela Bruns examine partner incarceration and how this is a source of women’s chronic stress and subsequent substance use in a recent study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, Lee and Bruns find a significant association between partner incarceration and drug use, with this association being concentrated among Black women.
Current data demonstrates incarceration as the source of chronic stress for both those who are incarcerated and their family members. Lee and Bruns’ findings specify the collateral consequences of incarceration to Black women and suggest that “incarceration compounds the disadvantages Black women already face in a social system that stratifies access to social goods based on skin color and ethnic origin, which may contribute to health disparities more broadly.” Additionally, drug use as a collateral consequence of incarceration relates to health, social, and economic problems. Lee and Bruns explain intergenerational disadvantage as one such problem, especially for children of Black mothers with incarcerated partners.
Lee and Bruns’ study provides insights into how researchers, policymakers, and healthcare providers can rethink the characteristics of populations at risk of drug use and consider social factors such as partner incarceration to adopt policies and practices that “identify this largely invisible population and to provide appropriate and accessible sources of care.”
Click the link below for the full study, accessible with UW Libraries.
Trends in U.S. Mortality 1990-2017
This Friday, Irma Elo from the Department of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania will present recent findings from a study of the trends in U.S. mortality from 1990 to 2017. Elo is a demographer and sociologist studying socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic disparities in health, cognition, and mortality across the life course and demographic estimation of mortality. In recent years, Elo has extended this focus to include health and mortality among racial and ethnic immigrant subgroups. Elo’s seminar presentation draws from her NIA-funded study titled “The Causes of Geographic Divergence in American Mortality”.
Amy Bailey Comments on Anti-Lynching Legislation for The Washington Post
120 years ago, Rep. George Henry White’s anti-lynching bill failed to pass through Congress. This week, lawmakers introduced another such bill that gives hope for anti-lynching legislation. CSDE Affiliate Amy Bailey provides her expertise on lynching and the history of racial violence in the U.S. for a recent Washington Post article on the new bill. In the article, Bailey explains how white lawmakers for decades used “state’s rights” as an excuse to avoid anti-lynching legislation. This aspect of U.S. policy “enables local and state jurisdictions to turn a blind eye to highly racially discriminatory practices and to a campaign of racial terror,” Bailey states.
Amy Bailey is a CSDE visiting affiliate whose research examines race and inequality. One of her areas of research focuses on historical patterns of racial violence in the American South, also known as lynching. You can read the full Washington Post article here or by clicking the link below.
Meet Our Winter 2020 CSDE Trainees’ Lightning Talks and Poster Session Presenters!
CSDE’s Winter 2020 Trainees’ Lightning Talks and Poster Session is just around the corner! Join us on Friday, March 13, 12:30-1:30 PM in Room Green A, Research Commons, Allen Library South, for short (~2 minute) presentations and posters from the following students:
William Atienza, Sociology
Undocumented Migration and Residential Segregation of Undocumented Mexicans in Sanctuary Cities
Jessica Godwin, Statistics
Subnational Estimation of Child Mortality at Older Ages in a Low and Middle Income Countries Context
Beatrix Haddox, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Applied Math
Differential Privacy in the 2020 Census: Considering Acceptable and Unacceptable Biases
Ian Kennedy, Sociology
Metro Area and Tract-Level Influences on Online Rental Listings from Two Platforms
Yohan Min, College of Built Environment
Social Equity of Clean Energy Policies and Technologies in Residential Electric-Vehicle Charging
Nathan Welch, Statistics
Probabilistic Migration Flow Forecasts for All Pairs of Countries
Spring Course Announcement: Statistical Demography and Data Science (CSSS/STAT/SOC 563)
Calling all demography students! In Spring 2020, CSDE Affiliate Adrian Raftery is offering Statistical Demography and Data Science (CSSS/STAT/SOC 563). Raftery will cover statistical methods and models for estimating and forecasting population quantities and as well as a variety of innovative topics, including probabilistic population projections and Bayesian hierarchical models. Preerequisites for this course include a good grounding in basic probability and statistics, some exposure to mathematical statistics, and basic mathematics including basic calculus and matrix algebra. CSDE encourages demography students to take advantage of this opportunity to learn core and cutting-edge statistical methods in demography from a world leader in this area. Click the link below for a flyer with more information!
Request for Proposals: Urban@UW Research Spark Grants
Urban@UW invites proposals from UW faculty or PI-eligible research staff, across all three UW campuses, with current or emerging research interests in critical aspects of contemporary urban societies for the Research Spark Grants Program. The goal of this small grants program is to spark new and emerging urban research initiatives via funding for convenings or pilot work. Proposals may request up to $8,000 and Urban@UW anticipates funding 2-4 projects. The application window opens March 1 and deadline for applications is March 31!
Click the link below for more information.
Identify Important New Directions for Health-Related Behavioral and Social Science Research at the NIH
The NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) is seeking broad public input on important new directions for health-related behavioral and social sciences research (BSSR). Specifically, OBSSR requests your input on research directions (see RFI): that will support the achievement of the scientific priorities in the OBSSR Strategic Plan 2022-2026 (see current strategic plan) and that will advance or transform the broader health impact of BSSR. OBSSR is interested in focusing on research directions that are trans-disease and cross-cutting in nature and address critical gaps in the field.
To ensure consideration, responses must be submitted by midnight (ET) March 29, 2020 through OBSSR’s crowdsourcing website. Once your IdeaScale account is created and you are logged in, you can submit an idea, browse and respond to ideas that have already been submitted, and vote for other ideas. If you have an inquiry, please contact Farheen Akbar at Farheen.akbar@nih.gov or 301-496-9165.
The role of OBSSR is to coordinate and promote BSSR research across the NIH and assist NIH Institutes and Centers in developing research and training resources to advance the field. OBSSR supports a broad range of BSSR disease, condition, population, and setting specific priorities across the NIH covering the spectrum from basic to implementation science research.
OBSSR would like input on the most important or cutting-edge, trans-disease research directions that would accelerate progress in these three strategic priority areas:
- Synergy in Basic and Applied BSSR
OBSSR is committed to advancing cross-cutting approaches that stimulate health-related research on the fundamental processes that influence behavior and social systems. This includes facilitating the translation of basic BSSR findings into pathways to improve individual and population health and using intervention or population-based research findings to inform meaningful new fundamental research questions. Ideas could include emerging basic BSSR areas that are promising for application to human health; basic BSSR findings that are ready for translation to promote health behavior change; or study of novel processes or mechanisms that influence behavior and social systems that would enhance the impact, reach, or durability of behavioral interventions.
- BSSR Resources, Methods, and Measures
The future of an efficient and integrated approach to BSSR requires the development and application of innovative research resources, measures, and methods. Ideas could include new research resources, tools or infrastructure that are needed to accelerate BSSR; promising new methods and measures that should be used more widely in BSSR; or research domains or constructs that require improved measurement to advance BSSR.
- Adoption of Effective BSSR in Practice
There is often there is a significant time lapse between the publication of research findings that demonstrate the efficacy of a prevention or healthcare strategy and when these approaches are adopted in practice and delivered to individuals, families, communities, and organizations. Research is needed to facilitate more rapid, effective, and widespread uptake and sustained implementation of BSSR findings to improve healthcare and public health. Ideas could include methods to develop and test interventions that are designed with eventual dissemination and implementation factors in mind; research that is needed to accelerate the implementation of effective interventions; or approaches to encourage more rigorous evaluation of interventions, programs, or policies that are already being implemented.