Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

Assistant Professor, Medical Sociology, Health, Migration

The Department of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign invites applications for a full-time tenure-track Assistant Professor. The substantive focus of the candidate’s research is open, including a research focus on medical sociology, health, migration, and other related areas. Priority will be given to a sociologist who complements the department’s longstanding strengths in inequalities and global and transnational sociology. Candidates must possess strong theoretical, analytical, and empirical skills; a commitment to excellence in research and teaching is essential. Successful candidates are expected to teach effectively at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, establish and maintain an active and independent research program, and provide service to the department, the university and the profession. Ideal candidates will be able to teach Introduction to Sociology, Research Methods in Sociology, or Sociological Theory.

The Illinois College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is a world leader in research, teaching, and public engagement. Faculty in the College create knowledge, address critical societal needs through the transfer and application of knowledge, and prepare students for lives of impact in the state, nation, and globally. To meet these objectives, the College embraces and values diversity and difference through hiring faculty candidates who can contribute through their research, teaching, and/or service to the diversity and excellence of the Illinois community.

The University of Illinois is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action employer. Minorities, women, veterans and individuals, with disabilities are encouraged to apply. For more information, please visit http://go.illinois.edu/EEO.

PhD in Sociology or a closely related field is required. PhD is required at time of application or by June 20, 2020 to be appointed as an Assistant Professor. Candidates with superior qualifications who will complete all the Ph.D. requirements within the first appointment year may be appointed at the rank of Instructor. After the Ph.D. requirement is met, the appointment will be changed to Assistant Professor.

Target start date is August 16, 2020. Salary is commensurate with qualifications and experience.

To apply, create your candidate profile through the University of Illinois application login page at https://jobs.illinois.edu and submit your application materials: a letter of application, curriculum vitae, statement of teaching and research interests, up to three representative publications or writing samples, evidence of teaching effectiveness, and contact information or Interfolio ID for three professional references. References will be contacted electronically within 2–3 days of application submission. Only electronic applications submitted through https://jobs.illinois.edu will be accepted.

To ensure full consideration, all required application materials must be submitted by October 15, 2019; letters of reference must be received no later than October 22, 2019. Early application submission is encouraged to allow time for referees to submit letters of recommendation. The University of Illinois conducts criminal background checks on all job candidates upon acceptance of a contingent offer. For additional information, please contact Rebecca Riley at rriley@illinois.edu.

Assistant Professor, Criminology, Law and Society

The Department of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign invites applications for a full-time tenure-track Assistant Professor in the fields of criminology, law and society, broadly defined. We are especially interested in candidates with research interests and expertise in one or more of the following areas: 1) Digital transformations; 2) Global challenges in criminology, law and society; 3) Health criminology; 4) Developmental and life-course criminology; and 5) Environmental criminology. Priority will be given to a criminologist with a digital specialization who can research and teach about the multifaceted role performed by

digital technologies in the criminal justice field. We also aim to deepen our longstanding departmental strengths in global and transnational sociology. Candidates must possess strong theoretical, analytical, and empirical skills; a commitment to excellence in research and teaching is essential. Successful candidates are expected to teach effectively at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, establish and maintain an active and independent research program, provide service to the department, the university and the profession.

Target start date is August 16, 2020. Salary is commensurate with qualifications and experience.

For additional information, please contact Rebecca Riley at rriley@illinois.edu.

27th Annual Symposium on Family Issues – Families and Food (State College, 10/21-10/22/2019)

Families play a crucial role in their members’ eating behaviors and orientations toward food. For example, responsive parenting practices can promote the development of healthful eating behaviors, and the social and emotional climate of mealtimes can serve as a context for promoting healthful behaviors around food. At the national level, overweight and obesity have reached epidemic levels, and low-income and minority families bear a disproportionate burden. Yet, there is a paradoxical relation between obesity and food insecurity: many low-income communities with high rates of obesity are also considered food deserts ─ with little or no access to fresh produce and nutrient-dense foods. Speakers will discuss the latest research on the role of family in food access, diet, and health as well as policies and programs aimed reducing food insecurity and promoting healthful eating.

Dan Goldhaber Comments on Teacher Shortages and Pay for The Associated Press

Across the U.S., teachers and school districts are grappling with the realities of educator pay, emboldened by the national teacher protest movement demanding higher wages and better conditions and a steadily brewing shortage of educators. CSDE Regional Affiliate and UW-Seattle Affiliate Professor Dan Goldhaber, who is also the director of the UW Center for Education Data and Research, spoke to The Associated Press about these challenges.

It’s difficult to compare school pay scales because of the endless variables across classrooms and campuses, said Goldhaber, but merely increasing salaries for all without differentiating for other factors such as student population and regional issues means pay disparities will remain. “If it doesn’t address the relative differentials between school systems, there’s no reason to think it would help with teacher equality,” he added.

Jennifer Utrata Discusses Women’s Invisible Labor and Masculine Heavy Drinking in Russia

The heavy drinking of alcohol remains primarily a masculine ritual worldwide. Yet, scholarship has undertheorized women’s practices in shaping the boundaries of masculine rituals, including drinking. CSDE Visiting Affiliate and Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Puget Sound Jennifer Utrata addresses these questions in her paper, “Invisible Labor and Women’s Double Binds: Collusive Femininity and Masculine Drinking in Russia,” published recently in Gender & Society.

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with mothers, fathers, and grandmothers, she demonstrates that Russian women perform extensive invisible labor to produce responsible men. Constrained by a gender division of domestic labor, wives and mothers engage in “patriarchal bargains” as they shape men’s drinking practices, co-producing hegemonic masculinity.

Whereas in the Soviet period women also managed men’s drinking, today more women are held accountable to a collusive femininity involving both accommodation and resistance, upholding men’s drinking privileges only if breadwinning occurs. Some women embrace an alternative femininity by becoming single mothers and refusing to manage men’s drinking. Theorizing collusive and alternative femininities advances our knowledge of how multiple femininities shape, and may in time change, hegemonic masculinity.

Connor Gilroy Receives Graduate School Award for Distinguished Masters Thesis in the Social Sciences

CSDE Fellow Connor Gilroy, PhD Student in Sociology, was awarded the Graduate School Award for Distinguished Thesis in the Social Sciences for his thesis titled “How Distinct is Gay Neighborhood Change? Patterns and Variation in Gayborhood Trajectories.” Gilroy, who is also the co-leader of CSDE’s Computational Demography Working Group, did a significant part of the work for his thesis while a CSDE fellow.

Gilroy believes that residents of gay neighborhoods, and everyone who cares about their future, deserve an accurate account of what these spaces were like in the recent past, and how they’ve changed up until now. He hopes that his work shifts the narratives we have about change — gay neighborhoods aren’t “disappearing,” and it’s wrong to ascribe the changes we do see in some places to their special status as enclaves for LGBTQ people. Instead, we need to shift our focus to local urban forces that impact gay and other neighborhoods alike. Capitol Hill, for example, might have more in common with Belltown in Seattle than Boystown in Chicago.

According to Gilroy, his adviser, CSDE Affiliate and Professor & Chair of Sociology Kate Stovel, had a significant impact on his work by pushing him to think more generally and abstractly about the concrete empirical puzzles he deals with in this work.

Tim Thomas Presents on the History and Impacts of Redlining to King County Council

CSDE Affiliate Tim Thomas, Postdoctoral Fellow at the eScience Institute and Sociology, was recently invited by the King County Council Equity and Social Justice Team to present on the history of redlining in Washington and how it impacts King County today. Thomas walked the audience through an account of the great migration, redlining, restrictive housing covenants, the home ownership gap, gentrification, and evictions. He also facilitated a lively policy discussion and presented recommendations regarding home ownership, renter protections, and development & zoning.

Thomas is transitioning to a CSDE Regional Affiliate as he is soon starting as a Postdoc at Berkeley’s Urban Displacement Project. There he will work on tools that identify residential displacement risk, analyzing risk in relation to other neighborhood dynamics, write policy briefs for U.S. cities, and publish his findings in academic journals. He will continue to be the PI for the Evictions Study where CSDE Affiliate and eScience data scientist Jose Hernandez will be the local lead. Thomas says he is incredibly grateful to CSDE for the training and research support making his projects a reality.

PAA Submissions Are Due September 29!

The Population Association of American (PAA) is holding its annual conference in Washington, DC, April 22-25 2020. Submissions are due September 29. PAA is the premier professional organization in demography, and its annual conference has increasingly expanded to capture a range of disciplinary approaches to population processes. Check out PAA 2020 Call for Papers which includes the submission rules and instructions and the list of sessions. (Here is the program from last year.) The quality of the presented work is always very high and the conference is a great opportunity to learn about new and innovative approaches to demography, as well as a chance to connect with some of the best scholars in the field.

To help you prepare and to share some tips on structuring an effective submission, CSDE is hosting a PAA Prep and Review workshop. Here’s how it will work:

Join us for discussion on best strategies for PAA submission Monday, September 9 from 12-1:30 pm in Raitt 115. We’ll provide pizza and drinks!
RSVP to David Fernandes by Wednesday, September 5 at 5:00 p.m. Please also provide your paper working title, co-authors and their institutions.
Prepare for the workshop by reading the PAA 2020 Call for Papers carefully and bringing questions.
Submit a draft of your submission by the following Monday, September 16.
You’ll receive brief comments on your submissionwithin a few days from a faculty member and a fellow student (which means you’ll be asked to review a colleague’s proposal).

Even if you’re a PAA veteran, I very much hope you can join us to share your perspective and offer some guidance for PAA rookies.

Heather Hill Appointed to Population Health Initiative Executive Council

CSDE Affiliate Heather Hill, Associate Professor at the Evans School, joins CSDE Director Sara Curran and CSDE Executive Committee Member India Ornelas, Associate Professor of Health Services at the School of Public Health, on the 30-member Population Health Initiative Executive Council. Ali Mokdad, Professor of Health Metrics Sciences, Chief Strategy Officer for Population Health, and Executive Council Vice Chair of the Population Health Initiative is also a CSDE Affiliate.

The Population Health Initiative addresses the most persistent and emerging challenges in human health, environmental resilience and social and economic equity and CSDE is honored to collaborate with the initiative on a number of research efforts.

Through partnerships with local, national and global communities, they develop, implement and disseminate transformative knowledge through our research, service and teaching. The Initiative is governed by a 30-member executive council responsible for developing, implementing, and measuring progress toward the initiative’s goals.

Advancing BSSR to Address National Priorities for Health Care and Population Health Improvement, Dr. Felicia Hill-Briggs (Webinar, 9/24/2019)

Please join OBSSR for a virtual presentation by Felicia Hill-Briggs, Ph.D., ABPP, Professor of Medicine and Core Faculty of the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology, and Clinical Research at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, on Tuesday, September 24, from 2:00 to 3:00 pm ET. Please feel free to share this information with your colleagues and stakeholders.

Register: https://obssr.od.nih.gov/advancing-bssr-to-address-national-priorities-for-health-care-and-population-health-improvement/

Presentation Overview
In the era of transformation to value-based care, new accountability is placed on health care delivery systems to provide high quality care that improves the health of populations, improves the patient experience of care, and concurrently reduce costs. Many priority conditions for value-based care have associated lifestyle, behavioral, and/or mental health components that contribute to disease outcomes and costs. To address these factors, there is a growing demand for BSSR interventions that are reliable, effective in achieving desired prevention and management outcomes, acceptable to patients, and flexible for integration directly into health care and population health practice. Despite the volume of effective interventions resulting from BSSR funding, adoption of these interventions into care delivery remains rare.

Facilitators of BSSR intervention integration into practice are emerging. To illustrate, diabetes is presented as a priority disease example for value-based care. Diabetes, which affects over 30 million Americans and costs $327 billion annually in direct medical costs and reduced productivity, is a disease with concomitant lifestyle, behavioral, and mental health factors. Three diabetes-related BSSR interventions are used to demonstrate pathways to BSSR integration into health care and population health practice: the Collaborative Care Model; the National Diabetes Prevention Program; and DECIDE, a diabetes self-management program. Features of pathways to integration are discussed. Implications for the design and outcomes reporting of BSSR interventions to facilitate readiness for integration into practice in the current era are identified.

Presenter Biography
Felicia Hill-Briggs, PhD, ABPP is Professor of Medicine and Core Faculty of the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology, and Clinical Research at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She is Senior Director of Population Health Research and Development for Johns Hopkins HealthCare LLC and Co-Lead of the Behavioral, Social, and Systems Science Translational Research Community for the Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (an NIH CTSA). A clinical psychologist, neuropsychologist, and behavioral scientist, Dr. Hill-Briggs conducts clinical trials of individual- and systems-level interventions for the prevention and management of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and related conditions. A particular emphasis of her research is effective intervention design and adaptation for populations of health inequity. She is developer of the DECIDE program, a problem-solving training approach to chronic disease self-management in high-risk populations, developed through NIH-funded trials. Her dissemination and implementation work extends internationally to governmental and private sector partnerships for population health management and improvement in regions with high diabetes burden, including the Caribbean and Middle East.

Dr. Hill-Briggs served as 2018 President of the American Diabetes Association, Health Care and Education. She has served on the NIH Interagency Committee on Diabetes Mellitus and several NIH Special Emphasis Panels. Dr. Hill-Briggs is the recipient of the Rachmiel Levine Medal from ADA, the Nelson Butters Award for Research Contributions to Clinical Neuropsychology from the National Academy of Neuropsychology, and the Tracey Orleans Award from the Society of Behavioral Medicine. In 2017, Dr. Hill-Briggs was elected to the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM).

The recording of this webinar will be available with closed captioning on OBSSR’s website approximately one month after the event: https://obssr.od.nih.gov/advancing-bssr-to-address-national-priorities-for-health-care-and-population-health-improvement/