Join UW professor Anu Taranath as she reads from her new book, Beyond Guilt Trips: Mindful Travel in an Unequal World. The book

unpacks our baggage about who we are, where we come from, and how much we have. With engaging personal travel stories and thought-provoking questions, she provides us with tools to grapple with our discomfort and navigate differences with accountability and connection.

 

Speakers: Gregg Colburn, Real Estate and Rick Mohler, Architecture, College of Built Environments
Reading: Hood and Gao (2018): “The Elephant in the Region: Charting a Path for Bay Area Metro to Lead a Bold Regional Housing Agenda; Sound Communities 1-pager

It is my pleasure to invite you to get tickets to the red carpet premiere of On the Brink on Sunday, June 9^th at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute. The film starts at 4pm and is followed by a Q&A with film participants and then a reception where people can continue the conversations about carrying forward the legacy of the Central District.

Come watch the film along noted government leaders such as Deputy Mayor Shefali Ranganathan, State Senator Jamie Pedersen, and King County Councilmember Larry Gossett who are all planning to attend. You will also spot a Hall of Fame athlete or two such as Lenny Wilkens and successful musicians like the Black Tones. UW Foster School of Business and LANGSTON Seattle are partnering to host the event, which is shaping up to be a memorable evening.

Brian Greenhill

Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Albany, SUNY 

When it comes to developing environmental policy, we often try to learn from the successes and failures of other countries.  But which countries does the US public consider to be most relevant?  And what factors drive these evaluations?  We present the results of a survey that asked a sample of 3,000 US adults to evaluate the relevance of the environmental policies adopted by a randomly-selected panel of countries.  We explore the ways in which a combination of individual and state-level variables influence the perceived relevance of the focal countries.  Our preliminary findings suggest that the actual environmental performance of the focal countries matters less than the degree to which these countries have committed themselves to a similar set of environmental goals as the US.

Coauthored with Charmaine Willis

We invite you to attend this year’s EPI 514 annual presentation of results of analyses using the CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) dataset

All are welcome to drop in, or stay for the entire session – refreshments served during the poster session 2-3pm

Our diverse topics this year include various projects on mental health, alcohol, e-cigarettes, tobacco and marijuana use, cardiovascular disease and hypertension, firearm storage practices, gender and sexual identity, fast food labeling, stress related to caregiving, physical activity, influenza vaccination, native populations, childhood asthma, contraceptive contraindications and use, arthritis, neighborhood safety, social support, and access to health care.

Attached is the program schedule.  We hope to see you there!

EPI 514 Teaching Team: Alyson, Steve, and Graduate Student TA Matthew

P.S.  If you are attending from outside the UW, let us know and we may be able to help with parking.

The UW Eviction’s Research Project is expanding our current work in the state of Washington (see https://evictions.study) to include Baltimore, Maryland and linking local homelessness service recipient data to understand links between evictions and homelessness, especially among young adults and youth. This work will inform policies on housing insecurity in upcoming legislative sessions and lead to several academic publications.

We are looking for one full-time or two part-time computational social science Graduate Research Assistant(s) (GRA) for paid hourly work for the summer of 2019. Candidates are required to have at least intermediate skills in R (e.g., you use R on a regular basis for your work and other projects), statistics, and academic research (e.g., literature reviews, writing, etc.). Preferred skills include git, python, machine learning, gis or spatial statistics, related computational skillsets, and an understanding of population and/or sociological research. GRA duties will include attending weekly meetings, data management and analysis, literature reviews and write-ups for reports and publications, and assisting in other tasks to move the project forward.

Depending on the pool of candidates, we may mix and match individuals with a partial list of the above skills and will train all candidates in any skillsets needed to accomplish the work. So, if you are at least interested, please apply.

Please email your CV and a cover letter (statement of interest and qualifications) to Tim Thomas at t77@uw.edu by June 9th. Applications will be reviewed until we fill the position(s).

Thank you!

Tenure-track position in Sociology, at the rank of assistant professor, with expertise in criminology, corrections, punishment, and/or crime. These topics may be stand-alone areas of inquiry, or they may be highlighted substantially in conversation with other areas of inquiry such as public health, demography, race and social inequalities. Qualified applicants will also have expertise in quantitative methods. Desirable candidates will also have a demonstrated desire to connect with local organizations for community-based research and/or teaching. Effective August 2020. Ph.D. required.

Yue Hou, University of Pennsylvania

Are ethnic minorities treated differently from the Han Chinese in the Chinese courts? How does ethnic identity of judges affect sentencing severity? Using a newly and publicly available dataset of more than 120,000 drug offense cases in ethnically diverse provinces, we present the first analysis of ethnic bias in sentencing patterns in the Chinese local courts. We identify a degree of ethnic bias in the criminal justice system, but that the bias varies substantially across different jurisdictions. In Yunnan province, ethnic minority defendants receive longer sentences than Han defendants that have committed equivalent crimes, while bias is less prevalent in nearby provinces. Theoretically, this finding raises the possibility of ethnic minority concentration being a key determinant of sentencing outcomes. When ethnic minority groups hold a large share of the population in a region, and when that region witnesses social instability, minority defendants face disproportionately harsh sentences. Further analysis of county-level data from Yunnan province reveals evidence in favor of this hypothesis. We also test how the presence of lawyers might affect judge rulings. (Project and analysis completed with Rory Truex, Princeton University.)