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Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

*New* CSDE Computational Demography Working Group (CDWG): Chaytan Inman (11/05/25)

When: November 5, 2025, 10 – 11 am

Where: Raitt 223 and on Zoom

On November 5, CSDE’s Computational Demography Working Group will host Chaytan Inman (Seattle Strange), who will present on “Studying Disinformation Narratives on Social Media with LLMs and Semantic Similarity.” Inman will be demonstrating the Twitter Narrative Analysis Dashboard developed for their graduate degree thesis. The tool is capable of tracing a short target narrative of natural language text across a dataset of tweets or other short form text. It computes a similarity score with each other text item in the dataset and graphs the resulting similarities over time for analysis. Inman validated this methodology by recreating the findings of disinformation researchers studying the 2020 election hoax narrative, and also by benchmarking the model on the GLUE STS-B. The benchmark findings show that the model strongly correlates to human judgement for rating similarity of natural language. The case study findings show that the dashboard tool is useful to find nuanced ways of spreading disinformation like sewing early seeds of doubt, while drastically reducing the researcher’s labor to code misinformative tweets. The Twitter Narrative Analysis Dashboard is available publicaly with my permission, and researchers interested in using it or forking the repository are welcome to contact Inman to chat!

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Chaytan Inman is a researcher and political activist with a passion for applying AI and machine learning to real-world challenges. Inman earned aBachelor’s in Computer Science from the University of Washington in 2024, where they founded and led Interactive Intelligence, a diverse community fusing AI and neuroscience. One of their proudest achievements was developing free introductory NeuroAI courses for UW students, ensuring accessible education in emerging fields. Later, Inman ran for office in Washington state, advocating for Earth rights and environmental justice. As a recent graduate of the Master’s in International Studies at the UW Jackson School, Inman completed their thesis on social media analysis and disinformation research to leverage AI at the intersection of technology, society, and politics. Now Inman is a software developer, helping the Seattle Stranger and EverOut build strong local progressive media in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

 

Call for UW Graduate Student Submissions: CSDE Lightning Talks Autumn 2025 (due 11/07/25)

Announcing CSDE’s Autumn 2025 Lightning Talks and Poster Session! CSDE I am Mingze Li, a CSDE Trainee and doctoral student at the Department of Sociology. This year, I am the organizer of the CSDE’s Autumn 2025 Lightning Talks and Poster Session. Applications are currently open for graduate students to present their research and receive feedback at this event, and we would love to receive your submission! This is an excellent, low-stakes opportunity to practice your presentation skills, grow your network, and prepare for upcoming conferences. I am listing the general descriptions of the event below. If you are interested, apply here.

 What is the purpose of the session?

This session is a unique opportunity to make new connections with faculty and students working in your area, and to improve your presentation and poster-making skills in advance of larger conferences. Many professional organizations and their associated conferences include space on their programs for posters or lightning talks (sometimes known as flash talks). This session is a great opportunity for:

  • Preparing a poster presentation for an end-of-the-quarter requirement for a class;
  • Preparing to present work at a conference;
  • Receiving feedback on a new research idea.

Faculty attending the poster sessions find it to be one of the most rewarding experiences because it gives them an opportunity to meet students and talk about research. If you are selected, CSDE will work with CSSCR to get your poster printed for you (no fees, no hassle – you just have to send your poster and slides to me by the date below).

What will the session look like?

As of this moment, the lightning talks are scheduled to take place in person. The session will be split into two sections: the Lightning Talks and the Poster Session.

Each participant will prepare 2 PowerPoint slides and one poster PDF to submit should they be selected. The 2 PowerPoint slides will be high-level summaries for the lightning talk portion, and the poster PDF will be a separate file so we can have it printed for you. Two previous winning posters are attached to this email for reference.

Each presenter will have 2-3 minutes for their lighting talk presentation, followed by each presenter being available at their poster while attendees circulate and engage with the posters’ content. There will also be refreshments available to fuel conversation!

Will there be judges?

Yes, there will be a faculty panel that will give all participants feedback on their slides and presentation and determine a winner. CSDE will recognize the best poster with an award and prize. Posters will be assessed based on the following criteria:

  • Relevance to demographic research or population health;
  • Innovative aspects of the research project;
  • Quality and appropriateness of research design and methodology;
  • Effectiveness in communicating key aspects of the project;
  • Overall design and quality of visuals, images and/or tables.

Is my research a fit for the CSDE Trainee lightning talks?

CSDE seeks to build bridges across disciplines and aims to highlight a broad array of research topics. If your research focuses on demographic measures and methods, population growth, population health, population and environment, mobility, migration, fertility, mortality, family composition, life course, neighborhood change, or other related topics, you should consider participating! Learn more about CSDE HERE.

How do I apply to participate?

To apply, you only need to submit a brief abstract and information about yourself and your collaborators on the project. Please apply here.

Dates and deadlines:

COB Friday, November 7th: Deadline to Submit an Abstract (200 word maximum)

By COB Friday, November 14th: Presenters Announced/Notified

By Noon Monday, December 1st: deadline to email presentation slides + poster to Mingze Li (mingzeli@uw.edu)

Friday, December 5th: CSDE Lightning Talks and Poster Session from 12:30-1:30pm, Raitt 221.

The Environmental Destruction and Degradation of Gaza: The Resulting Public Health Crisis (11/05/25)

The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee of the Department of Global Health and Public Health for Peace and Justice in Palestine invite you to join the second session in a series exploring Environmental Health in Palestine on November 5, 2025 at 10am PT with Dr. Amira Aker and Dr. Ahlam Abuawad. Register here.
The environmental destruction and degradation of Gaza: The resulting public health crisis
Gaza is currently facing an unprecedented environmental and public health catastrophe, driven by extensive military operations carried out by Israel and its military, which have systematically collapsed the region’s essential life-support systems. General conditions are defined by a profound multi-faceted environmental health crisis stemming from a systemic breakdown of infrastructure. This presentation examines the interconnected threats across water, sanitation, waste management, and pervasive contamination. The immediate consequences are a catastrophic surge in communicable diseases, extreme food insecurity, and the saturation of the environment with approximately millions of tons of hazardous debris and contaminants. The crisis locks in a legacy of intergenerational harm. Exposure to contaminants, chronic noise pollution, and the total destruction of essential services will likely drive adverse health outcomes for generations to come.
Dr. Amira Aker is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Boston University School of Public Health. Her inter-disciplinary research is focused on identifying the exposures sources of environmental contaminants and their potential health impacts in collaboration with Indigenous communities.
Dr. Ahlam Abuawad is a postdoctoral fellow in the Epidemiology Department at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. She is a Palestinian-American who earned her PhD in Environmental Health Sciences, and her research primarily focuses on arsenic, nutrition, and metabolic outcomes such as BMI and diabetes.

*New* AI Triad: A Dialogue Across Differences (11/05/25)

Join the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University on November 5, 2025 from 12:30 – 1:30 pm ET for a dialogue competing values, incentives, and worldviews around AI. Register to attend on zoom.

This conversation brings together Jason Crawford (Roots of Progress), Amba Kak (AI Now Institute), and Brian McGrail (Center for AI Safety Action Fund) to explore the fault lines and shared assumptions among three major schools of thought, what we at the Berkman Klein Center call the AI Triad. Together, they’ll examine where accelerationists, safetyists, and skeptics most productively disagree, and where their goals may unexpectedly align.

Moderated by BKC Faculty Director Jonathan Zittrain, this event is part of our ongoing effort to foster dialogue across divided intellectual communities and to surface the moral, technological, and empirical premises driving the AI debate.

Accelerationists see AI as a force for human progress, unlocking new frontiers of innovation and economic growth. Safetyists warn that its rapid development could unleash existential risks that outpace our capacity for control. Skeptics take issue with salvation and doomsday narratives, instead grappling with how AI’s deployment amplifies existing social and economic inequalities. Too often, these camps speak past one another. Yet to chart a responsible path forward, their dialogue is essential