Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

CSDE Fellow Spotlight: Hilary Wething

How do labor policies affect workers and their families in low-wage and precarious jobs? CSDE Fellow Hilary Wething answers this question through her research on labor market policy and household economic security. In September 2020, Hilary will take her interdisciplinary training in public policy and demography to the Pennsylvania State University School of Public Policy where she will be the Jackman-McCourtney Career Development Professor of Public Policy and a faculty associate with PSU’s Population Research Institute. Hilary’s interdisciplinary training includes two undergraduate degrees in Mathematics and Economics from Creighton University and a forthcoming PhD in Public Policy and Management at the UW Evans School, along with a certificate in Demographic Methods and a Shanahan Endowed Fellowship in Demography.

During her time as a PhD student at UW, Hilary completed multiple interdisciplinary publications, papers, book reviews, and presentations intersecting labor economics and the sociology of work. For example, Hilary worked on a publication for Social Service Review titled “An Introduction to Household Economic Instability and Social Policy” with her advisor and Dissertation Committee Chair CSDE Affiliate Heather Hill. They also wrote a working paper titled “Worker Knowledge and Interpretation of the Seattle Minimum Wage Ordinance.” Additionally, the New York Times, The Economist, and NPR cited one of her working papers on minimum wage increases in Seattle written alongside CSDE Affiliates Mark Long, Jacob Vigdor, and Robert Plotnick. Hilary’s papers demonstrate her use of both quantitative and qualitative research methods to estimate the impacts of labor market policies and changes in economic instability on family well-being.

Beyond her academic achievements, Hilary has been involved in various Evans School committees such as the Committee for Equity and Inclusion and is a part of the CSDE Employment and Population Health Working group. In addition, she has experience in lecturing on Executive Economics for the Evans School and Poverty and Inequality for the UW MSW program.

CSDE congratulates Hilary on her many accomplishments!

CSDE Biomarker Working Group Meeting: Portable Methods for Biomarker Data Collection in the Field

Mark your calendars! The CSDE Biomarker Working Group is having its first meeting on Wednesday, January 22, 3:00 – 4:30 PM in Raitt Hall 230. The meeting will be a hands-on workshop in biomarker methods that provides quick on-site measurements in non-clinical settings without the need to transport samples back to a lab. You will get to practice proper technique for minimally invasive measures like height, weight, body composition, and blood pressure, and the use of simple tools for biomarker testing with blood collected from a finger prick. Additionally, a brief lecture component will cover costs, logistics, human subjects implications, and strengths and limitations of this approach to biomarker data collection. If you are interested in joining the Biomarker Working Group, you can find out more emailing Ellie Brindle (ebrindle@uw.edu).

IAPHS Awards Nominations

Nominations are now open for the IAPHS Awards! You can recognize a colleague (or yourself!) who has contributed to IAPHS and the field of population health. IAPHS has 6 award opportunities for members of the organization. To be eligible, individuals are required to be current members of the organization. Award winners will be recognized at the annual IAPHS Conference in September. Nominations are due on March 23, 2020.

Submit a nomination! Please contact Sue Bevan, IAPHS Executive Director, with any questions (sbevan@iaphs.org)

An Earth-Scientist’s View of Human Population Dynamics

This Friday, Stephen Warren from the UW Department of Atmospheric Sciences and UW Department of Earth & Space Sciences will discuss today’s fertility rates and population sizes and how these are examined in the context of past and future centuries. During the 20th century, the world’s population grew by the factor 3.5. What permitted this growth was the agricultural advances of the 20th century; without those advances the population would not have grown as it did, from 1.7 billion in 1900 to 6 billion in 2000. Now in the 21st century, the ability to secure adequate food and water worldwide is threatened by continued rapid population growth, which has been steady at ~80 million per year for each of the last 50 years. For some countries the growth has instead been nearly exponential, as in the Philippines, whose population grew from 7 million in 1900 to 100 million in 2014, by doubling every 28 years (requiring on average 4 children per couple surviving to reproduce).

NIH Matilda White Riley Honors Early Stage Investigator Paper Competition

NIH OBSSR Matilda White Riley Early Stage Investigator Paper Competition

The NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) Early Stage Investigators (ESI) Paper Competition awards recognize emerging scientists whose research reflect Dr. Matilda White Riley’s vision of research excellence in health-related behavioral and social sciences.

Important Dates

ESI Paper Competition Open: January 02, 2020 – January 25, 2020
Submission Deadline: January 25, 2020 at 11:59 p.m ET
Awardees Notified: March 30, 2020
NIH Matilda White Riley Honors Event: June 08, 2020 (Wilson Hall, Bldg. 1, NIH Campus)

OBSSR will pay the travel expenses for up to four ESI awardees to present the findings from their accepted paper and participate in a moderated discussion of future research possibilities during the event.

Eligibility Criteria

1. Candidates must meet NIH’s definition of an early stage investigator (ESI), at the time of the nomination due date:

a. Completed their terminal research degree or end of post-graduate clinical training, whichever date is later, within the past 10 years.

b. Has yet to hold a substantial, independent NIH research award as a PD/PI (e.g., R01) at the time of this competition.

2. Applicants may submit only one (1) original research article on the study of behavioral and social phenomena relevant to health. Conceptual, review, or meta-analysis papers are not eligible for this competition and, if submitted, will not be considered. Articles without direct relevance to health will not be considered. Applicants who submit more than one (1) article will not be considered.

3. Applicants must be the sole or primary author of the article. If the author appears other than as first-author, the contestant should provide a supporting explanation (e.g., disciplinary or institutional practice) in the ‘Additional publication information’ text box.

4. The article must be published or accepted and in-press between January 1 and December 31, 2019.

5. The article must involve original research published in a peer-review journal.

6. The article must meet the following criteria that reflect Dr. White Riley’s vision of research excellence in health-related behavioral and social sciences:

a. Impact on theory and/or method: How well does the paper use sophisticated methodological approaches to address important empirical questions that are derived from or that inform theoretical frameworks?

b. Integration of individual and social system influences: How well does the paper integrate multiple levels of influence, and/or the dynamic, longitudinal, and bidirectional effects of social systems on individuals and vice versa?

c. Integration of scientific disciplines: How well does the paper integrate approaches from multiple disciplines to address the research question?

Selection Process

A review committee of NIH scientists will consider all relevant submissions to assess both the potential impact or influence of the paper on the field and how well the paper meets the eligibility criteria.

Awardees will be notified on or by March 30, 2020.

Applicants, please click this link to submit

Administrators/reviewers, please click this link

IAPHS Call for Submission

IAPHS’ Fall Conference “Policies, Places, and Profits: Manufacturers of Illness and Health” promises an exciting and diverse set of offerings:

CALL FOR PANEL SUBMISSIONS

Groups of individuals are invited to submit panels that will present original research or engage in innovative discussions that push the boundaries of population health science, practice, theory, methods, student training, or technological innovations (or a combination of these) around a significant issue related to population health.Note that work presented in these panels should not yet be published.All proposed panels should include the session organizer, and 3-4 panelists.

All population health topics are welcome.Topics related to the conference theme are especially encouraged.

Click here to learn more.

CALL FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS

Individuals or co-authored teams are welcome to submit an original abstract for consideration on the program. Accepted abstracts will be presented in either a Poster or Oral contributed session.Abstract may present original research, practice, theory, methods, and new ideas on student training, to technological innovations.

Click here to learn more.

CALL FOR ABSTRACT REVIEWERS

We are soliciting abstract reviewers for the conference.The abstract review will begin on March 30, 2020.

Click here to learn more.

Key dates:

Submission Deadline: March 09, 2020

Registration Opens: April 1, 2020

Conference: September 30 – October 2, 2020

Conference Location:

Minneapolis Marriott Center

30 South 7^th Street

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Conference Website:

https://iaphs.org/conference/

IAPHS Membership:

IAPHS members receive discounted rates to attend the conference. Join/Renew for the 2020 calendar year!

INED Tenured Researchers

Two tenured researchers in Demography and associated disciplines at INED (Paris, France)

Deadline for requesting an application form: 17 January 2020, 5 pm (Paris)
Deadline for applications: 20 January 2020

The French Institute for Demographic Studies (INED) will recruit two tenured researchers in 2020 in Demography and associated disciplines.

Post: Research scientist
Qualification required: PhD
Location: INED, Campus Condorcet, 9 cours des Humanités, 93322 Aubervilliers cedex (Grand Paris)
No age, gender or nationality requisites

More information is available at:
https://www.ined.fr/en/institute/joining-ined/competitive-examination/researchers-exams/

Lecturer Full-time, Medical Anthropology and Global Health

The Department of Anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington invites applications for an anthropologist to teach in the area of medical anthropology and global health (MAGH). The criteria for merit evaluation and promotion in this position will be based primarily on teaching and service and not on research. This is a 3-year, renewable, full-time Lecturer position with competitive salary, university benefits, opportunities for promotion, and protection of academic freedom. The appointment will begin in September 2020.

UW Anthropology lecturers engage in teaching, advising, and mentoring and have an annual service period of nine months (September 16-June 15). Other professional duties will include service to the Department and University, most of which will be curriculum-related. The Department of Anthropology is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive academic community. Members of the Department of Anthropology who participate in the MAGH option maintain strong connections to a variety of other units on campus, including the Center for Teaching and Learning, Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies, Center for Social Science Computation and Research, Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences, Department of Global Health, Indigenous Wellness Research Institute, The Burke Museum, Jackson School for International Studies, Schools of Public Health and Medicine, the Science Studies Network, and the Simpson Center for the Humanities. The University of Washington serves a diverse population of 80,000 students, faculty and staff, including 34% first-generation college students and over 27% Pell Grant students.

Teaching responsibilities are (6) classes over 3 quarters, including a lower division, introductory course that is offered each quarter in Medical Anthropology and Global Health (ANTH 215, a large lecture class with 3 teaching assistants). The remaining courses will include upper division courses that are or can be approved for the MAGH option (see http://depts.washington.edu/anthweb/undergrad/tracks-options/med).

NSF Developmental Sciences (DS)

DS supports basic research that increases our understanding of cognitive, linguistic, social, cultural, and biological processes related to human development across the lifespan. Research supported by this program will add to our knowledge of the underlying developmental processes that support social, cognitive, and behavioral functioning, thereby illuminating ways for individuals to live productive lives as members of society.

DS supports research that addresses developmental processes within the domains of cognitive, social, emotional, and motor development across the lifespan by working with any appropriate populations for the topics of interest including infants, children, adolescents, adults, and non-human animals. The program also supports research investigating factors that affect developmental change including family, peers, school, community, culture, media, physical, genetic, and epigenetic influences. Additional priorities include research that: incorporates multidisciplinary, multi-method, microgenetic, and longitudinal approaches; develops new methods, models, and theories for studying development; includes participants from a range of ethnicities, socioeconomic backgrounds, and cultures; and integrates different processes (e.g., memory, emotion, perception, cognition), levels of analysis (e.g., behavioral, social, neural), and time scales.

The budgets and durations of supported projects vary widely and are greatly influenced by the nature of the project. Investigators should focus on innovative, potentially transformative research plans and then develop a budget to support those activities, rather than starting with a budget number and working up to that value.

While there are no specific rules about budget limitations, a typical project funded through the DS program is approximately 3 years in duration with a total cost budget, including both direct and indirect costs, between $100,000 and $200,000 per year. Interested applicants are urged to explore the NSF awards database for the DS program to review examples of awards that have been made.

The DS program also accepts proposals for workshops and small conferences. These typically have total cost budgets, including direct and indirect costs, of approximately $35,000.

In addition to consulting the NSF awards database, it is often useful for interested applicants to submit (via email) a summary of no more than one page so that the Program Director can advise the investigator on the fit of the project for DS prior to preparation of a full proposal. New Investigators are encouraged to solicit assistance in the preparation of their project proposals via consultation with senior researchers in their area, pre-submission review by colleagues, and attendance at symposia and events at professional conferences geared towards educating investigators seeking federal funding.

Kam Wing Chan Addresses Growing Population of Left-Behind Children in China

China has the world’s largest elderly population—a population concern that is now leading to critical social and economic challenges in the country. Paradoxically, China also faces a growing population of ‘left-behind’ children. In a recently published paper titled “China’s Precious Children” (published in Eurasian Geography and Economics), CSDE Affiliate and Professor of Geography Kam Wing Chan finds a growing population of left-behind rural children and urban children separated from their parents. Chan finds there are now about 88 million such children who are separated from their parents, do not receive substantial education, and are left in deprived situations—these children account for nearly 40% of all Chinese children.

Chan connects this growing population issue to “seriously misdirected policies and neglect.” He also criticizes current policy efforts to increase female fertility in China and emphasizes that alternatively, the country must shift its focus to the huge population of left-behind children to secure the country’s future laborforce. Chan concludes the paper by stating, “only when families are protected and kept intact and when children are properly taken care of will the country and the big cities have a future.”

Click this link to read Chan’s full paper.