Under the direction of the Principal Investigator (Prof. Peter Bearman), the successful candidate will play an integral role in a large-scale research project on labor migration to Gulf Coast Countries. The Research and Empirical Analysis of Labor Migration (REALM) research program is designed on a PO1 model: An administrative and data core at Columbia University supports a series of substantively interlinked projects, all of which seek to understand an aspect of low-skilled labor migration, ranging from recruitment processes to impacts on sending communities. The primary task will be analysis of original survey data arising from REALM projects based in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal. These surveys include information on socioeconomic and health outcomes of general interest and unique to the migration process, as well as detailed data on social networks, recruitment pathways, migration financing, and risk perception. Candidates should hold a doctoral-level degree in the social sciences or a related field.  Ideal candidates will have a background or interest in migration, the sociology of labor, or social network analysis, and have the capacity to be self-directed. Strong statistical skills, documented experience in analyzing large data sets, and a record of peer-reviewed publications are highly preferred qualifications. Although the candidate will dedicate most of their effort to the project’s research activities, they will be encouraged to pursue independent research interests.

Objectives: The long term persistence of our human dominated global system requires meeting the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Threats to sustaining our societies include climate change, anthropogenic extinctions, depletion of non-renewable resources, deteriorating ecosystem services, potential failures to maintain infrastructure, educational and health achievements, and security threats posed by unstable political systems. Sustainability is a major intellectual challenge in addition to being a practical policy challenge. Answering these challenges requires a true multi-disciplinary approach.

The complexity of the earth system makes precise forecasting of the future impossible, so any decisions we take to favor (or not) sustainability are taken under great uncertainty. Future technological tools to manage human impacts are uncertain. Thus we don’t know the possibilities for substituting human capital for depleted natural capital. The response of global temperature to greenhouse gas forcing, perhaps the most intensively studied sustainability issue, is estimated with coupled ocean-atmosphere climate models that give a large range of predictions. They also have to leave out many feedback processes that may be important due to computational and data limitations. The political institutions to manage global scale sustainability issues are weak, with nation-states being the strongest actors. Nation-states themselves often are not particularly stable or competent to manage their own commons issues. Issues of intra- and international inequalities can vex decision-making. Many social scientists, natural scientists and mathematicians are actively working on theoretical and empirical topics related to sustainability. For example, recent mathematical modeling suggests that the natural-human capital substitutability problem is more tractable than thought a few years ago. Cultural evolutionary modeling and empirical work to understand the processes of social and political change has advanced quickly in recent years and can potentially provide useful tools to understand the human dimensions of sustainability.

Building on earlier efforts, including NSF’s workshop Toward a Science of Sustainability (2009), and DIMACS’ workshop Mathematical Challenges for Sustainability (2010), this workshop will review the state of sustainability theory. Major themes of the workshop include the role of cultural evolution, the role of evolving technology and R&D investments, diffusion of technology, uncertainty in ecosystem management, models of institutional change, and non-autonomous dynamics of important socio-environmental processes, e.g. climate change. We will convene approximately 40 participants drawn from a broad range of active scholars from the fields of economics, socio-political evolution, the natural sciences and mathematics to present the latest developments in their fields. Based on these presentations, the participants will discuss where the most promising areas for new research lie. We will look for gaps in the modeling enterprise, particularly ones opened up by disciplinary divergences and new empirical findings.

The Social and Behavioral Context for Academic Learning (Social-Behavioral) topic supports research on social-behavioral competencies (i.e., social skills, attitudes, and behaviors) that improve student achievement and progress in the K to 12 education system. The long-term outcome of this research investment includes a richer understanding of ways to improve or assess students’ social-behavioral competencies, and teacher practices that support them, that over time will improve student academic achievement and successful progression through school.

International Conference on Health, Wellness, and Society attendees include leaders in the field, as well as emerging scholars, who travel to the conference from all corners of the globe and represent a broad range of disciplines and perspectives. A variety of presentation options and session types offer opportunities for attendees to share their work, discuss key issues in the field, and build relationships with attendees.

The Centre for Population Change at the University of Southampton is looking to recruit two researchers with interests in family demography and/or quantitative sociology. The project will explore factors associated with partnership formation, union dissolution, and childbearing.

One post-doc will work for 18 months under the direction of Dr. Brienna Perelli-Harris, who has been awarded an ESRC Secondary Data Analysis Initiative grant. You will undertake research on relationship quality and partnership transitions by analysing complex survey data from the UK Household Living Survey, and the European Generation and Gender Surveys.

The other post-doc will be funded for 27 months through the Centre for Population Change and supervised by Prof. Ann Berrington and Dr. Brienna Perelli-Harris. You will use the UK Household Living Survey to study partnership, fertility, housing, and labour market transitions across the lifecourse.

You will have a PhD* or equivalent in a quantitative social science and experience with advanced quantitative methods, excellent knowledge and solid practical experience in the use of STATA or a similar software program and good written and oral communication skills. Prior experience with analysing the UK Household Living Survey is desirable.

*Applications for Research Fellow positions will be considered from candidates who are working towards or nearing completion of a relevant PhD qualification.  The title of Research Fellow will be applied upon successful completion of the PhD.  Prior to the qualification being awarded the title of Senior Research Assistant will be given.

Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison seeks to support researcher-practitioner partnerships committed to analyzing existing program, administrative, and other data to inform the effectiveness of policies or programs targeted at or likely to affect low-income populations. This initiative has been generously funded by The JPB Foundation. Proposals are invited from researcher-practitioner teams in which at least one partner is an affiliate of a U.S. Collaborative of Poverty Centers (CPC; see sidebar) institution or a member of one of IRP’s Thematic Research Networks. IRP anticipates funding two to four projects, with total funding (including direct and indirect costs) ranging from $50,000 to $175,000 per project, over a one- to two-year award period beginning September 1, 2018. The proposal deadline is August 1, 2018.

The deadline for the Fall Edition of Applied Demography is August 6!

The Applied Demography Newsletter welcomes submissions of materials for publication in the Fall 2018 edition. Submissions may include book releases, recruitment with deadlines after September 1, 2018, or upcoming conferences. We would like to hear from the members of the State Data Centers (SDCs) and what is being done in your units. In addition, you may submit announcements about applied demography tools, future workshops/training/courses, jobs, and short essays about your applied demography research. These submissions should not exceed 250 words.

We are interested in two new types of submissions:

1. Visualization Note: a chart, map, or visualization of data relevant to applied demographers with a 200 words explanation.
2. Policy Impact Note: we are interested in items up to 750 words in which you discuss the policy implications of your research. You may include links to other materials (i.e. YouTube, SocArXiv, etc.).

Given the emergence of the #DemographersLaughToo hashtag, we will consider funny anecdotes or jokes that would make demographers laugh.

Due to space constraints and the productivity of our community, we will not publish lists of journal articles. If you have any question about the suitability of materials, feel free to contact the editor.

Please send your materials to Alexis R. Santos by August 6, 2018.

The Program in Neuroscience and Behavior at Mount Holyoke College invites applications for a full-time tenure-track assistant professor in systems neuroscience beginning July 1, 2019. The successful candidate will demonstrate the ability to build a rigorous program of high quality research that integrally involves the contributions of undergraduate students. Research interests across the discipline of neuroscience are welcome and may include vertebrate and invertebrate models, or computational approaches. We also seek candidates with a strong commitment to undergraduate education who will teach 4 courses per year, which may include an introductory course, the development of an intermediate neuroscience course, and upper-level laboratory and seminar courses in the candidate’s area of expertise.

Mount Holyoke supports faculty scholarship through competitive start-up funds, travel support, internal grants, and a generous sabbatical policy. Newly renovated laboratory spaces are available to accommodate mammalian and non-mammalian model organisms. Mount Holyoke also offers a comprehensive faculty mentoring program and invests in faculty across their career span. All candidates should have a doctorate at the time of application; postdoctoral experience is preferred.

The Department of Anthropology at Baylor University seeks to fill a post-doctoral fellowship focused on biomedical anthropology. This Fellow will join a growing department with interest in applied perspectives on the anthropology of health, broadly conceived. Candidates should have personal research interests that combine topics and tools from the social/behavioral and physical/life sciences to address problems relating to global/public health, human biology, and/or evolutionary medicine. The Fellow will work with Dr. Mark Flinn on ongoing projects related to child health and family relationships, and will assist with grant writing, database management and statistical analyses, and research project implementation, likely outside the United States. The Fellow will also be tasked with forming linkages among current faculty in Anthropology with those in related disciplines, including Biology, Psychology and Neuroscience, Environmental Science, Sociology, Education, Family Studies, Public Health, and the College of Medicine.

The successful candidate for this position will have high proficiencies in health-related research design, management, and analyses, with strong interests in combining field work with laboratory methods. Addressing global health issues using methods and perspectives from anthropology in international settings is critical.