The Department of Human Centered Design and Engineering (HCDE) at the University of Washington (UW) Seattle seeks an ethnographer of data science for a 36-month postdoctoral research scientist position, starting January 2017.

The hired candidate will work with Prof. David Ribes in Seattle, and in collaboration with Geoffrey C. Bowker (and an additional postdoc) at the UC Irvine School of Informatics. The postdoc will collaborate in the investigation of the Big Data Regional Innovation Hubs and Spokes program (BDHubs), an NSF funded “umbrella organization” for US Big Data and data science. The project will investigate the ongoing activities at the BDHubs and its partner institutions, study their emerging plans for the future, and tie these to the history of research infrastructures. The goal is to understand the rise and institutionalization of the “data sciences,” including organizational, methodological, epistemological and infrastructural transformations at the nexus of science, industry and state.

The ideal candidate will be trained in the social and/or information sciences and have a grasp of the field of Science & Technology Studies (STS); have good communication skills; have a strong background in qualitative methods; and be able to navigate a highly interdisciplinary field of investigation. Additional methodological skillsets welcome!

At UW, the postdoc will be encouraged to engage with a variety of related investigations of big data and data science by scholars in HCDE, the iSchool, ethnographers at the eScience Institute, and the broader Science, Technology and Society Studies (STSS) network.

Review of applicants begins October 1st 2016 and the position will remain open until filled. To apply, please submit:

1. A brief letter;
2. A curriculum vita;
3. A sample of scholarly work; and
4. The names of two university faculty members who can serve as referees (no letters of recommendation required).

Specific questions regarding the research profile of the position should be addressed to David Ribes (dribes@uw.edu).

Health in urban areas has played a major role in determining trajectories of demographic growth, economic success and individual and community well-being across time. However, the relationship between health and urban space has not been constant over either time or place. Before the early twentieth century, towns and cities suffered a probably universal urban mortality penalty, and in some periods acted as “demographic sinks,” characterized by high death rates largely due to air and water-borne infections. The improvement of urban environments, together with the development of better preventive and curative medical services which tend to be based in cities, means that urban areas today have lower mortality than their surrounding areas. Although the decline of mortality in urban areas has been studied, there is little consensus about how urban spaces were transformed from unhealthy to healthy places. Such changes are unlikely to have happened at the same time or stage of industrial, economic or infrastructural development in every place, but it has not been established whether there are any key developments which are necessary or sufficient for such transformations to occur. Attempts have been made to link declines in mortality to the introduction of sanitation and water supply, but with mixed success. The roles of housing, street paving, air pollution, and animal keeping in fostering a hostile disease environment have been addressed less often. Municipal governance and institutions have been linked variously to poorer and to better health. How migration contributes to observed mortality rates is also poorly understood: migrants seeking work or a better life are often selected for better health, but may lack immunity to specific urban diseases. Chronic conditions such as tuberculosis may be linked to return or health-seeking migration, and such factors make it hard to disentangle the ways that migration, as other possible influences, might be linked to health outcomes.

We invite any paper which investigates the transformation of urban health or demographic regimes and we hope to gather a program which will allow comparisons of a range of places which experienced urban growth of different speeds and characters, or with different disease environments. We welcome papers addressing a wide spectrum of historical eras from the earliest cities up to the present day, and from all continents. We invite contributions from a variety of aspects including: the demographic risks of mortality and ill-health for individuals, groups and places, and the development of institutions and infrastructure and the health environment. Studies focusing on particular components of mortality (e.g. by age or cause) are encouraged as well as those which investigate less easily measured aspects of health. We welcome those who can examine the spatial details of urban health using GIS, and those who aim to shed light on the role of migration.

The IUSSP Panel on Historical Demography invites researchers to submit online a short 200-word abstract AND an extended abstract (2 to 4 pages, including tables) or a full unpublished paper for consideration. Details on submission are available at the link below.

In addition to dissemination through posting on the member-restricted portion of the IUSSP website, seminar organizers will explore possibilities for publishing the papers as an edited volume or a special issue of a journal. Papers submitted should be unpublished and, as for a journal or an edited book, authors, by submitting a paper, agree they will not propose it for publication to another editor until the committee makes a decision with regard to its possible publication.

This webinar will introduce “Free Mapping Online,” a new online map service distributed by the University of Michigan’s Spatial Data Center and the China Data Center as a promotion for the spatial study of the US and China. This web-based spatial system offers tens of thousands of free live maps with data from US and China, including census data, business data, land use data, and nighttime data.

This workshop will discuss the data sources, data access, and options for mapping and outputs. It will show how users can make maps online with their own data (in Excel file) by uploading the data to the server without any GIS tools and experience. It will also discuss future directions for data expansion and sharing.

This webinar is free and open to the public. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

The Fogarty International Center is dedicated to advancing the mission of the NIH by supporting and facilitating global health research conducted by U.S. and international investigators, building partnerships between health research institutions in the U.S. and abroad, and training the next generation of scientists to address global health needs.

FIC is seeking individuals to provide scientific leadership and manage extramural global health grant portfolios in the Division of International Training and Research. One position will serve as Program Director of the HIV Research Training Program and will provide leadership for the FIC HIV portfolio. Expertise in HIV/AIDS research and research training is desired. The second position involves leadership of the Medical Education Partnership Initiative portfolio (https://www.fic.nih.gov/Programs/Pages/mepi-junior-faculty.aspx;https://www.fic.nih.gov/Programs/Pages/medical-education-africa.aspx), which promotes health professional education and faculty career development in Africa. For this position, experience in health professional education (physicians, nurses, or other health professions) is preferred.

Qualified candidates are expected to be able to work across a wide spectrum of global health research areas. Besides having the flexibility and intellectual curiosity to work across discipline boundaries, qualified individuals should also have the ability to collaborate widely, both within NIH and outside the agency, and to work effectively as both a team member and team leader. Additionally, FIC is particularly interested in individuals with research or research training experience in low- or middle-income countries and with strong interests in the development of research career pathways for scientists from low-and middle-income countries.

This vacancy is for a Data Dissemination Specialist position in the Customer Liaison and Marketing Services Office (CLMSO) duty stationed in Seattle, WA.

Duties

The individual selected for this position will:

• Conduct outreach to key stakeholders and the public with emphasis on creating and delivering presentations and workshops to explain the availability and usability of Census data
• Use communication skills in using tactics and tools to educate audiences about Census Bureau and its programs
• Work with diverse audiences to meet their data needs and elicit support for surveys and other census activities
• Conduct research and analyze the demographics of the assignment area to assist with the development of communications strategies
• Advise senior management on local matters affecting the agency’s mission
• Document activity in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system
• Collaborate with colleagues to accomplish communication projects with measurable results

The University Honors Program has an outstanding opportunity for a part-time Counseling Services Coordinator to join our dynamic and collaborative team.  This individual represents the University Honors Program in a variety of capacities to organizations and groups within and beyond the University community and serves as an adviser for prospective and current members of the University Honors Program.  Primary responsibilities for this position include academic advising, assisting in the management of a travel fellowship, assisting with the instruction of a first year course, and providing support for recruitment, admissions, and data management.

The University Honors Program at UW has an exciting opportunity to hire three graduate student admissions readers for Winter Quarter, 2017. This is an excellent chance for graduate students to work with higher education professionals from across campus in the review of undergraduate freshmen applications to the Honors Program for admittance Autumn Quarter 2017.

Readers will assess freshman Honors Program applications using a combination of personal and academic factors. Applications are assessed separately by multiple readers, and final admission decisions are made by Honors Program staff based on a holistic assessment rubric.

A detailed position description can be found below.

Interested in studying a foreign language and learning about different cultures? FLAS Fellowships award $7,500-$33,000 to UW students studying foreign languages!

These fellowships are available to current and incoming undergraduate, graduate and professional UW students who are U.S. citizens or U.S. permanent residents. For more information, including a list of upcoming information sessions, click below or email Robyn Davis at rldavis@uw.edu.