The Urban Affairs Association is delighted to announce their new journal, the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and the City (JRE), in which they are now making an open call for paper submissions. The journal will serve as an outlet for examining the complex relations between race, ethnicity and other vectors of identity, including gender, class, religion, and sexuality; exploring the influence of these complexities in shaping the social, economic, political, environmental, and cultural dimensions of urban spaces; and deconstructing the role of colonial and post-colonial practices and discourses on race and ethnicity in shaping the urban spaces of everyday life within a global context. They are particularly interested in groundbreaking theoretical, empirical, and engaged scholarship manuscripts that meet the aims and scopes of the journal and set the tone for future issues of the JRE. They invite manuscripts based on original empirical work, as well as review articles and shorter perspective pieces.
COVID Data, COVID models: Trailing Indicators, Leading Indicators, and the IHME Health Service Utilization Model
This Friday, CSDE will host a panel on COVID data and models. The speakers include CSDE Affiliates Abraham Flaxman and Ali Mokdad from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IMHE). Dr. Flaxman will share some of the methods we have been using at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) in the UW School of Medicine to project the global course of the COVID outbreak and the demands it may put on local health systems. Dr. Mokdad will present on IHME’s approach to dissemination and engagement for these results.
NSF RAPID: Collaborative Research: COVID-19 Disinformation Disparities
Sara Curran, CSDE Director, and Dr. Jessica Beyer (Henry M. Jackson School) with colleagues at Louisiana State University were awarded a collaborative NSF RAPID to examine demographic and social disparities in responses to variably trustworthy information on Twitter. The project compares sentiment and language use patterns among a population of Twitter users, analyzing how these characteristics evolve through the recognition of the emergency, the peak of the crisis, and the mitigation of the pandemic in the U.S. The project will use computational methods to understand sentiment patterns and language use on Twitter and link tweets and relevant entities to corresponding longitudinal data about trustworthy information sources, including news media sources and official emergency guidance, policies, and orders. Using timestamps and derived location, we will associate tweets with daily disease-specific rates and annual demographic and socio-economic information. Data about the surrounding information context, including reporting trends and framing of the crisis, sources of health information, and information-seeking behavior about COVID-19 will provide tools for assessing the validity and reliability of our inferences about the patterns of sentiment and language use.
Elizabeth Halloran Comments on the Safety and Risks of Reopening Across the U.S. for the Business Insider
Across the country, states are lifting lockdown measures and easing restrictions—at least 30 states plan to reopen soon. As this trend continues, experts such as CSDE Affiliate Elizabeth Halloran are examining steps the country must consider to safely reopen. Halloran commented in recent a Business Insider article on how the country may be reopening too soon. In the article, Halloran states that if the U.S. plans to reach the point of dramatic declines in daily cases and individuals returning to work, the country “would have to ramp up testing and contract tracing.” Halloran further emphasizes how crucial it is to remove those infected from circulation and that “what we’ve done is reduce our transmission, and every model shows that if we open things up now, we will just have a rebound.”
UW VP for Research Announces Planning for Phase 1 Return
VP for Research Mary Lidstrom announced on May 7, 2020 that research programs and centers can start to plan for a Phase 1 return. Most types of in-person research will be allowed in Phase 1, subject to a set of requirements outlined below. They expect a very gradual and thoughtful increase in the number of UW personnel carrying out in-person research. In addition, restrictions on research subject to human subjects restrictions, on fieldwork (link coming soon), and on research requiring travel will also be in place. Be sure to consult the UW’s Novel coronavirus & COVID-19: facts and resources webpage as it contains important information for everyone in the UW community. Remember, it is still the case that no one can be pressured to carry out on-site research if they are concerned about their safety, the safety of others, or if they have home-care obligations. Your HR representative can help you with any difficult situations in that regard.
The Gerontologist Call for Papers: Special Collection, “Gerontology in a Time of Pandemic”
here will be no abstract review process; full papers are due by August 1, 2020 and they will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Please review the full call for papers at bit.ly/TG-Pandemic-CFP. Please contact Suzanne Meeks or the editorial office at tg@geron.org for any questions.
Russell Sage Foundation (RSF) Funding Updates and Opportunities
Because of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on all facets of American life, the Russell Sage Foundation is changing its immediate priorities for letters of inquiry for the May 21, 2020, deadline. For this deadline, RSF will consider only LOIs that satisfy at least one of the following criteria: (a) The research is so timely and time-sensitive that the project must start before April 1, 2021; or (b) the research analyzes social, political, economic, or psychological disruptions resulting from the coronavirus crisis that affect social and living conditions in the United States. All LOIs must focus on issues related to the foundation’s core program areas and special initiatives: Behavioral Economics; Decision-Making and Human Behavior in Context; Future of Work; Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration; Social, Political, and Economic Inequality. Any LOIs submitted for the May 21 deadline must include an appendix of one or two pages that explains why the proposed research meets either or both criteria. This appendix does not count against the usual page limits for LOIs. RSF will accept LOIs in all programs and special initiatives for the August 5, 2020 deadline, with funding decisions made at the March 2021 board of trustees meeting, according to its usual guidelines. Please click here for more information on the revised funding guidelines.
Multiple Funding Opportunities from NIH, NSF, DOD, and more!
Survey Statistician: New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
The New York City Health Department works every day to protect and promote the health of more than 8.5 million diverse New Yorkers. This includes making health equity and racial justice a priority. To support this mission, the Bureau of Epidemiology Services (BES) conducts systematic data collection and monitoring, rigorous analysis, and effective data communication. BES seeks to provide accurate and timely public health data to inform decision-making, to optimize data use, and to ensure accurate analysis of health data. The Bureau is responsible for developing, collecting and facilitating the use of population-based survey data and other data sources; and providing support to DOHMH in study design, questionnaire development, and survey weighting.
Pandemic Urbanism Symposium (5/29/2020)
A virtual symposium on COVID-19 and cities | May 29, 2020
What does COVID-19 mean for city life? What are the implications of this pandemic for urban mobility, sociability, politics, and density?
Featuring an opening plenary with:
ANN FORSYTH
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
ERIC KLINENBERG
New York University Dept. of Sociology
RÍO OXAS
Co-founder, RAHOK
Join the conversation on our emerging state of pandemic urbanism in this virtual symposium.
The novel coronavirus pandemic has transformed cities around the world virtually overnight. Much of the cultural vibrance, economic strength, and social innovation that characterizes cities can be credited to their concentration of people and activity. Put simply, cities bring people together, and togetherness allows for complex and fruitful exchange, resilient social structures, efficient use of pooled resources, and so on. But togetherness also brings risks, notably from infectious disease. A pandemic feeds on propinquity. “Social distance,” while a short-term public health imperative, is antithetical to the very idea of the urban. Long-term responses have also, historically, tended to be anti-urban, in that the risk of infection has been used as justification for slum clearance and suburban sprawl. At the same time, the current pandemic is revealing the resilience of cities, and provoking radical reimaginings of what the city could be.
This one-day event creates a forum for a wide range of voices to share early thoughts on COVID-19 and cities.
Organized by current and recent University of Washington doctoral students, with support from the College of Built Environments, the PhD Program in the Built Environment and the Interdisciplinary PhD Program in Urban Design and Planning.
Full schedule to be announced soon.