The University of Colorado Population Center (CUPC), CU’s Institute of Behavioral Science and the  International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP), are hosting the 4th annual workshop on  Climate, Migration and Health. This year’s subtheme is focused on trapped populations.

The two‐day workshop, held in Boulder, Colorado, will bring together approximately 10 researchers and  policy communicators to discuss, and move forward, research on this important intersection.

Key is that researchers need only possess expertise in at least one aspect of the workshop.  We aim to  introduce scholars of migration‐climate, to scholars of climate‐health and to also hear from scholars on  trapped populations.

We will spend much of the workshop brainstorming about knowledge gaps and beginning papers/proposals  designed to fill those gaps. Contributors will include members of IUSSP’s Special Emphasis Panel on Climate,  Migration and Health.

Funds are available for partial reimbursement for domestic travel and lodging.

Applicants must be post‐PhD and we aim for an interdisciplinary mix of junior and senior scholars.

To be considered for this workshop, please send a CV and a complete paper, working draft, or an extended abstract of a related research project by March 19, 2018.  Decisions will be made by March 23th.

The conference organizers are Lori Hunter and Fernando Riosmena from the CU Population Center, Institute  of Behavioral Science, CU Boulder. Please address questions to Lori.Hunter@colorado.edu.

Please submit papers to Jessica.LaRue@colorado.edu.

The Berkeley Population Center at the University of California Berkeley and the Center on the Economics and Demography of Aging Present

Workshop and Conference on Formal Demography: Special Emphasis Topic – Mortality   

June 4‐8 2018
To be held at the UC Berkeley Clark Kerr Conference Center

Speakers 
Joshua Goldstein, Professor, Departments of Demography, UC Berkeley  Magali Barbieri, Scientist, Department of Demography, UC Berkeley and INED And more to be announced

Join us for an educational program designed to train the next generation of population researchers in the methods in formal demography. This week‐long program, with funding by  NICHD R25HD083136 consists of three days of hands-on training followed by two days of  research presentations by invited faculty. Trainees may choose to take part in a mentored research project and present a poster at the 2019 Population Association of America annual  meeting.

The workshop is targeted to advanced graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, assistant  professors and other early career researchers. We are particularly interested in supporting  underrepresented minorities. Those studying aspects of mortality, health disparities,  economics, sociology, and public health will particularly benefit, but those with other interests should also apply.

Financial Support: Trainees’ expenses for materials, lodging and meals will  be covered. Need-based support for travel is available. We regret that we cannot cover travel  from outside the United States.

Application materials and more information about the program and formal demography can be found on the Workshop website: http://www.populationsciences.berkeley.edu/populationcenter/programs/formal‐demography. Apply by March 5, 2018.

This paper considers capitalist agricultural development in the Philippines and the emergence of a transpacific proletariat across two colonial regimes. Specifically, capital’s reorganization of landscapes for the production of sugar introduced a new way of structuring power relations through the ownership of land and the private exploitation of natural resources.

The paper begins with an historical analysis of the commodification of the land, which defined the scope of legitimate forms of social reproduction reinforced by state violence during the late Spanish and early American periods. The remainder of this paper explores how the displacement and dispossession of Filipino peasants worked hand-in-hand with American colonial education and agricultural development efforts to remake Filipinos into “free labor.”

This working paper seeks to develop an argument about how the capitalization of land and the proletarianization of labor, under the guise of land distribution and paternalistic tutelage, produced the Philippine colony and generated a mobile population of labor.

We will distribute Roneva’s paper by the end of this week. Light lunch and coffee will be provided. Please RSVP to hbcls@uw.edu.

The Institute for Hazards Mitigation Planning and Research (IHMP) will be holding a series of workshops bringing planners, scientists, emergency managers, student and faculty together to improve communication and exchange ideas.  We hope these discussion will also lead to increased understanding along with student theses, dissertations and research.

These “Bridging the Gap” sessions are being promoted through the University of Washington, College of the Built Environments, Department of Urban Design and Planning’s Institute for Hazards Mitigation Planning and Research.

Our first workshop will address:

Topic: “Opportunities to address Hazards Mitigation through the Growth Management Act”.

Panel: Opportunities will be introduced by John D. Schelling MPA, Emergency Management & Safety Administrator; and Mark McCaskill AICP, Managing Director, Growth Management Services, Local Government Division Washington Department of Commerce.

University of Washington input will be by Himanshu Grover PhD and Bob Freitag CFM, Directors of the Institute for Hazards Mitigation Planning and Research; and Joe Tovar FAICP, Project Manager, The William D. Ruckelshaus Center.

Maximilian Dixon, MUP, MIPM Earthquake Program Manager will be our facilitator.

Abstract
Many new theoretical challenges have arisen in the area of gradient-based optimization for large-scale statistical data analysis, driven by the needs of applications and the opportunities provided by new hardware and software platforms. I discuss several recent, related results in this area: (1) a new framework for understanding Nesterov acceleration, obtained by taking a continuous-time, Lagrangian/Hamiltonian/symplectic perspective, (2) a discussion of how to escape saddle points efficiently in nonconvex optimization, and (3) the acceleration of Langevin diffusion.

Don Setiawan from UW APL will speak on “Python and R via JupyterHub and server RStudio”.

Background

In recent years, the Python programming language has emerged as a popular choice for geoscientists. Python is an easy to learn, easy to read, fast to write, open source, multi-platform platform language. Accompanying the Python language is a large community of free, open source projects that have facilitated rapid scientific development and data analysis. This informal seminar series focuses on new and existing Python tools and applications within the geoscience community and aims to connect Python users across the UW campus.

This seminar series was started in Fall 2015 by Joe Hamman (formerly at UW-CEE, now with NCAR) and Emilio Mayorga (UW-APL), and is currently coordinated by Emilio with help from Anthony Arendt (UW-APL & eScience Institute) and Don Setiawan (UW-APL). Thanks go to the eScience Institute for their support in hosting the seminars from the start!

Mailing list

We use the python_for_geoscience[at]uw.edu list to announce seminars. But if you’re subscribed, feel free to send an email on a relevant topic! You may subscribe, unsubscribe or change your settings, at this link.

APPLICATION CYCLE
Open: February 20, 2018
Close: March 30, 2018 at 5:00 PM PST

Fund Eligibility

The Peter Mack and Jamie Mayerfeld Fund provides financial resources to benefit graduate students to study and/or conduct research about human rights. In 2018, we anticipate having approximately $5000 to distribute. Available funds may be issued in a single award or split between multiple awardees. The number of awards and amounts will vary depending on the number and quality of applications. The committee may combine this fellowship with the Lisa Sable Brown fellowship to make a more substantial award.

• Any graduate student who is currently enrolled and will be enrolled in the upcoming academic year is eligible to apply.
• This award is open to graduate students at all three branches of the University of Washington (Seattle, Bothell, or Tacoma).
• The award may be used towards tuition, research, travel, books, materials, or equipment.
• US citizenship or permanent resident status is NOT REQUIRED.

Application Materials

To be considered, apply between February 20, 2018 and March 30, 2018 at 5:00 pm (Pacific Standard Time) via the Jackson School Fellowship and Scholarship Application System.

You will be asked to provide the following information:

1. Biographic information, status as student, contact information, GPA, etc.
2. CV/Resume with current contact information.
3. Proposal that answers the following questions (approx. 1000 words):
   • A description of the research/study and the goals of the travel, if any travel is included.
   • What experiences do you have (if any) in the field of human rights?
   • Outline the purpose of your research/study and its relevance to the study of (or practice of promoting) human rights.
4. A detailed budget describing how the funds would be used and, if applicable, how this support would supplement other funds, fellowships, and grants.
5. Unofficial transcripts.
6. A letter of recommendation from the student’s primary advisor or committee member. (Incoming students may provide letter of recommendation from most recent faculty member who is familiar with the student’s work).
7. The names and full contact information (campus address, phone, and email) of two University of Washington (or past non-UW) faculty members who are familiar with your work.

If you have any questions about the application process, please do not hesitate to contact us at uwchr@uw.edu.