The Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California, invite applications for the position of Professor of Sociocultural Anthropology and Chair of the Department of Anthropology. The appointment will be at the rank of Professor. Candidates should have a stellar record of research and publication as well as leadership in the field. While the area of specialization is open, we seek candidates with a vision for how anthropology should engage with significant contemporary problems. Applicants must have a doctoral degree in their field of study.

In addition to the letter of application, interested candidates should provide a research statement and their curriculum vitae. All application materials must be combined into and uploaded as one PDF document. In order to be considered for this position, applicants are required to submit an electronic USC application; follow this job link or paste in a browser: https://usccareers.usc.edu/job/los-angeles/professor-of-sociocultural-anthropology-and-chair-of-the-department-of-anthropology/1209/9669672 . Review of applications will begin on November 20, 2018, and will continue until the position is filled. Inquiries may be directed to Nancy Lutkehaus:  lutkehau@usc.edu.

Location: Seattle, WA

Open Date: Oct 19, 2018

The Census Bureau’s mission is to be the preeminent collector and provider of timely, relevant, and quality data about the people and economy of the United States. Over 200 years ago, the United States Constitution laid the foundation for what is today the world’s largest and most comprehensive data gathering organization. The Census Bureau was founded in 1902. Today, the Census Bureau is the provider of the Nation’s official economic, population, and demographic statistics. Every month, quarter, and year, the Census Bureau plans, implements, and evaluates over 100 sample surveys that update and add to information from the economic and decennial censuses- information that mirrors the concerns of the people. The variety and magnitude of the surveys make the Census Bureau the world’s most sought-after source of information about the United States. These sample surveys would be impossible to conduct without continuous research and development.

The objectives of the Census Bureau Postdoctoral Research Program are to provide postdoctoral candidates of unusual promise and ability opportunities for research on problems, largely of their own choice, that are compatible with the interests of the Census Bureau, and to contribute to the overall efforts of federal statistical agencies.

For fullest consideration, submit application by January 31

A Postdoctoral Researcher is a resident researcher and a temporary employee of the Census Bureau. Postdoctoral Researchers are analogous to fellows or similar temporary researchers at the postdoctoral level in universities and other organizations.

Announcement: On Wednesday 31 October 2018, the Medical Anthropology and Global Health Seminar Series is pleased to present

 “A plurality of stories: Women, mental illness, HIV risk, and sexuality in two low-resource settings”

Professor Pamela Y. Collins, Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and Global Health

Director / Global Mental Health, University of Washington

Women with severe mental disorders are vulnerable to health disparities in settings around the world. Many women with a diagnosed mental illness may carry multiple stigmatized statuses that influence health outcomes. In some contexts, these include being identified as a person with a mental illness, being a member of an ethnic minority group, being an immigrant, being poor, and being a woman who does not live up to gendered expectations. These potentially stigmatizing identities influence both the way women’s sexuality is viewed and their risk for HIV infection. Given their knowledge of the behavioral issues related to psychiatric illness, mental health care providers are in a unique position to help prevent HIV among women with severe mental illness. This presentation examines how different stigma influences women’s risk of HIV infection and the responses to it in distinct health care settings in North America and Sub-Saharan African.

Dr. Pamela Y. Collins is Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and of Global Health at the University of Washington (UW). She is also Director of the UW Global Mental Health Program, a joint program of the Departments of Global Health and Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Collins’s research has largely focused on the intersections of HIV and mental health in the US and sub-Saharan Africa, including HIV prevention among women with severe mental illness, integration of care for people with HIV and mental illness, and the impact of social stigma on HIV risk. Newer work addresses the mental health of adolescents in global cities. Dr. Collins served as the Director of the Office for Research on Disparities & Global Mental Health at the National Institute of Mental Health prior to arriving at UW. She has led global mental health initiatives, including the Grand Challenges in Global Mental Health and the RISING SUN initiative, and served on numerous international committees and advisory boards. Dr. Collins is currently part of a working group for the WHO-World Bank initiative on mental health and is a Commissioner for the Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health and Sustainable Development. Dr. Collins’s research has been published in a wide range of journals, such as Social Science and Medicine; AIDS; and Nature.

Patrick Ball

Director of Research, Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAg)

Data about mass violence can seem to offer insights into patterns: is violence getting better, or worse, over time? Is violence directed more against men or women? But in human rights data collection, we (usually) don’t know what we don’t know – and worse, what we don’t know is likely to be systematically different from what we do know.

This talk will explore the assumption that nearly every project using data must make: that the data are representative of reality in the world. We will explore how, contrary to the standard assumption, statistical patterns in raw data tend to be quite different than patterns in the world. Statistical patterns in data tend to reflect how the data were collected rather than changes in the real-world phenomena data purport to represent.

Using analysis of mortality in Chadian prisons in the 1980s, killings in Iraq 2005-2010, homicides committed by police in the US 2005-2011, killings in the conflict in Syria, and analysis of genocide in Guatemala in 1982-1983, and predicting the locations of hidden graves in Mexico since 2015, this talk will contrast patterns in raw data with estimates of total patterns of violence – where the estimates correct for heterogeneous underreporting. The talk will show how biases in raw data can — sometimes — be addressed through estimation. The examples will be grounded in their use in public debates and in expert testimony in criminal trials for genocide and war crimes.

This fall’s hands-on workshop on qualitative data analysis using ATLAS.ti will take place Friday, Nov. 2, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. in Savery 121. Registration and details are available online. Space is limited, so please sign up soon.

CSSS WORKSHOP

Principled Data Processing: goals and practices for auditable, replicable, scalable, and transparent data work

Patrick Ball, Human Rights Data Analysis Group

If we have the data and the code, it should be easy to re-calculate results from work we did in the past. In most projects, this turns out to be difficult or impossible. In this workshop, we will discuss principles for data processing: transparency, auditability, replicability, and scalability. I’ll propose a series of practices that help work get closer to these principles. Some of the practices include:

• A task is a quantum of workflow
• Standardizing small tasks
• Using basic unix tools to standardize and link tasks
• Executable documentation: if it runs, it’s true
• Separating data and logic
• Testing: unit-level, file-level, project-level

Patrick Ball has spent more than twenty-five years conducting quantitative analysis for truth commissions, non-governmental organizations, international criminal tribunals, and United Nations missions in El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, South Africa, Chad, Sri Lanka, East Timor, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Kosovo, Liberia, Perú, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Syria. Patrick has provided expert testimony in several trials, including those of Slobodan Milošević, the former President of Serbia; José Efraín Ríos Montt, former de-facto president of Guatemala; and Hissène Habré, the former President of Chad.

Patrick founded the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) in 1991, where he currently serves as Director of Research.

In 2018, Patrick received the Karl E. Peace Award for Oustanding Statistical Contributions for the Betterment of Society; in 2015, the Claremont Graduate University awarded Patrick a Doctor of Science (honoris causa); in 2014, he was elected a Fellow of the American Statistical Association; in 2005, the Electronic Frontier Foundation gave him their Pioneer Award; and in 2003, the ACM gave him the Eugene Lawler Award for Humanitarian Contributions within Computer Science and Informatics.

Patrick is on the Advisory Council of Security Force Monitor, a project of the Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute; a Fellow at the Human Rights Center at Berkeley Law of the University of California-Berkeley; and a Research Fellow at Carnegie Mellon’s Center for Human Rights Science. Patrick received his bachelor of arts degree from Columbia University, and his doctorate from the University of Michigan.