Emily Willard is conducting her dissertation research on women’s experience of conflict in Guatemala. She is a research fellow at the University of Washington Center for Human Rights “Unfinished Sentences” project conducting research on El Salvador, and manages the Center’s Freedom of Information Project. Previously, she worked at the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C. where she co-founded the Genocide Documentation Project, and also worked on the Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador, and Colombia documentation projects, filing Freedom of Information Act requests for documents to be used as evidence in human rights trials, and advocating for access to information as a human right.

Contemporary families live in a world that is complex, increasingly interconnected, and culturally diverse. Families are affected by continuously evolving economic, technological, ideological, cultural, and political changes. In many areas, a decreasing fertility rate, the decline in household size, the aging population, and the sharp increase in the proportion of women entering the labor force have led to new and diverse family arrangements.

Despite these changes, families remain a central arena for promoting the well-being and resiliency of their members. The 2018 NCFR Annual Conference will focus on innovative approaches, theories, research, policies, and programs that support and strengthen families in all types of Western and non-Western settings. Of particular interest are proposals that focus on new lines of research and prevention and intervention approaches, programs, and policies that support vulnerable families.

Please download and read through the full call for proposals (PDF) for details on conference presentation formats, criteria, topics, and more.

The online system for submitting conference proposals is now open. Proposals are due March 1, 2018 — 11:59 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.

Oxford Abstracts, the online submission database for NCFR conference proposals, has been redesigned to improve your experience submitting a proposal. Please read through these detailed instructions for a thorough understanding of these changes.

Sample Presentation Topics

The 2018 conference theme allows for a wide variety of topics, debates, and policy analyses, including these examples:

• The current state of empirical research on families of difference races and ethnicities
• The intersection of social class, gender, ethnicity, and race from a global perspective
• Reproductive technologies and new conceptualizations of motherhood and fatherhood
• How families are responding to increasing racial and cultural diversity around the world
• Families’ increasing use of technology to maintain connections globally
• The effect of immigration issues on families in Western and non-Western societies
• Multiple-partner fertility and parenting
• Evaluating family support programs and their utility from the lens of complex families
• Incorporating family complexity into quantitative and qualitative research
• Changing demographics in the European Union, Asia, Latin and South America, and Africa, and policy responses to those changes
• Gender–work balance in the Asian context, in Canada, in the European Union, as well as how gender-work balance compares in the United States

Twenty years ago the National Research Council published the ground-breaking People and Pixels: Linking Remote Sensing and Social Science (NRC, 1998).  The volume focused on emerging research findings that linked population dynamics and human activities to changes in land use and land cover, revealing the many ways that human activities affect landscapes from the Latin America to Southeast Asia. Separate chapters also addressed health- and famine-related applications of remote sensing. Since that time, new research opportunities are opening because of the increasing array of social science data from both traditional (e.g. censuses, surveys) and new sources (e.g., mobile phone and social media data), the growing variety of satellite and aerial data sources (e.g., high resolution, VIIRS nightlights, radar, UAVs), and the access to computation cyberinfrastructure for the analysis of massive spatiotemporal datasets.

This cyberseminar aims to identify and review the primary research breakthroughs and future directions opened by this digital revolution. The “people and pixels” move in geography shed light on the concerns of sustainability, human livelihoods, land use planning, resource use, and conservation, and led to practical innovations in agricultural planning, hazard impact analysis, and drought monitoring. What will the next 20 years bring?

Key future directions for human-environment interactions that build on original People and Pixels research priorities include:

1. Integration of RS and survey data: combining spatially expansive satellite imagery with nationally or regionally representative household surveys, and with censuses;
2. Integration of RS and big data: use of data from portable digital devices to achieve new research objectives, such as population downscaling, and “poverty mapping.”
3. Breakthroughs in RS-based product development: global analysis of co-located landscape processes over long periods of time using recently developed satellite-derived data products (e.g. global human settlements, forest change, and surface water data sets).
4. Computational advances: advances in computation and GUI platforms for implementing machine learning, deep learning, pattern recognition, anomaly detection, large-scale unsupervised mapping/clustering, etc.
5. Remote sensing as validation technique: confirming high impact hypotheses around disaster impacts, land grabbing, violent conflict, famine, and illicit economies through their interaction with landscapes.

In this Cyberseminar, we will assess where we’ve come since 1998, identify key extensions of the People and Pixels foundation, and their significance for the demographic aspects of local to global sustainability problems: disasters, famine, drought, war, poverty, climate change, and migration.

Abstract
Our social, personal, and political lives are increasingly mediated by technology. This change has introduced new problems, such as echo chambers and viral hoaxes. But it has also brought exciting new opportunities to understand the social world, using data and methods that earlier social scientists could only dream of. The first generation of computational social science focused on sensing technologies and social network analysis; the next generation will be driven by artificial intelligence, which makes it possible to operationalize social science constructs such as influence, attention, formality, and respect. In this talk, I will present an approach to computational social science that leverages customized machine learning models of heterogeneous data, including language, social networks, and spatiotemporal cascades. First, I will show how unsupervised machine learning over social network labelings and text makes it possible to induce the social meanings of address terms such as “Ms” and “dude.” Next, I will describe how the spread of linguistic innovations can serve as evidence for sociocultural affinity and influence, using Bayesian vector autoregressive models and the Hawkes process. Finally, I will present recent research analyzing the causal impact of closing forums for hate speech.

Winona State University seeks one or more individuals to join our Community of Learners as Instructors/Assistant Professors of Sociology.  These positions are fixed-term/9 month appointments with an expected start date of August 20, 2018.  As a faculty member, you will be responsible for teaching four courses (12 credits) per semester.  Courses include, but are not limited to, some combination of Introduction to Sociology, Introductory Research Methods, Sociology of Families, and additional upper-level sociology courses per department needs.  Minimum qualifications for these positions are (1) an earned doctorate or ABD in Sociology and (2) a demonstrated commitment to quality teaching.

For a complete job description and information on applying for this position, please go to www.governmentjobs.com/careers/winona. Review of applications begins 2/26/2018.

Job Summary

The Department of Psychology, Sociology and Criminal Justice at Ohio Northern University invites applications for a tenure track position in clinical psychology at the rank of assistant professor. Candidates in all areas of clinical psychology will be considered. Salary and rank are commensurate with qualifications and experience. A competitive fringe benefits package is offered.

Scope

The Department of Psychology, Sociology and Criminal Justice at Ohio Northern University invites applications for a tenure track position in clinical psychology at the rank of assistant professor.

Principal Responsibilities

The successful applicant will be expected to teach courses in the areas of clinical and counseling psychology as well as courses in introduction to psychology, research design, and other courses in their specialty area. Applicants should be committed to excellence in teaching and to mentoring and advising undergraduate students. In addition, applicants will be expected to involve undergraduates in an active program of research in their area of specialization.

Required Skills: A strong commitment to excellence and innovation in teaching at the undergraduate level.

Minimum Qualifications: PhD in-hand or ABD will be considered

Preferred Qualifications: PhD in Psychology; university teaching experience; evidence of teaching effectiveness, and scholarly publications.

Appointment Length: 9-months

Aurora University invites applications for the tenure track Assistant Professor of Sociology. A generalist prepared to teach all undergraduate level courses in sociology program. Development of scholarship in any area of individual interest is expected, but the focus on issues of peace, social justice, and the role of digital technology in shaping social life is preferred. A completed PhD in sociology and a commitment to maintain a high standard of teaching are required. Experience in teaching is preferred and a record of teaching excellence is desirable.

All faculty positions offer a competitive salary and excellent benefits including health, dental, vision, life, long term disability, a 403(b) retirement plan through TIAA, and tuition remission included for benefit-eligible positions. Applications must include a letter of intent including description of education, certifications held, and all relevant experience, current curriculum vitae, and contact information for three references including phone numbers (candidates will be notified prior to references being contacted). Electronic applications welcomed. More information can be found at aurora.edu/facultyjobs.

Applications received by March 1, 2018 will receive full consideration. 

Please submit application materials as follows:

Hardcopy submissions
Faculty Search, Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs
Aurora University
347 S. Gladstone Ave.
Aurora, IL 60506

Electronic submissions
facultysearch@aurora.edu

As part of a broader Henry Luce Foundation funded initiative on China’s domestic and export infrastructure development, The Center for Asian Studies (CAS) at the University of Colorado Boulder invites applications for the Luce Postdoctoral Fellowship in Chinese Infrastructures, beginning August 15, 2018. The Luce initiative seeks to bring together the field of China studies and the broader ‘infrastructure turn’ in the humanities and social sciences.

Fellowship: The fellowship provides a two-year 9-month salary of $50,000 + benefits, and two summer research/travel grants of $5,000. The recipient will be provided with office space and access to the libraries and resources of the University of Colorado.

Responsibilities: The Fellow is expected to be actively engaged in research on Chinese infrastructures, and will work with CAS in organizing an international workshop in 2019, as well as take the academic lead in editing the workshop’s subsequent published collection. Residence in the Boulder area and participation in CAS activities is also expected.

Eligibility: All requirements for the PhD must be completed prior to commencement of appointment. Applicants should have received their PhD no earlier than August, 2013. A PhD from any discipline will be considered, but research experience and interest in Chinese infrastructure development is required. Infrastructure here is defined in a broad sense as comprising physical/material as well as social/institutional or digital/electronic phenomena. This includes, but is not limited to, the infrastructures of transport, energy, telecommunications, food & waste, and natural resources. We are particularly interested in the political, social, and cultural implications of infrastructural developments, and the relationships between such developments and state formation, urban development and design, social stratification and conflict, and cultural change.

Position Overview

Butler University invites applications for a full-time instructor in medical anthropology that will also contribute substantially to the university’s core curriculum. The position is non-tenure track with an initial two-year contract beginning August 2018, and with the possibility of continuing appointment.

Candidates should demonstrate excellence in teaching, and a strong commitment to undergraduate education. Preference will be given to candidates who complement existing faculty expertise in the Department of History & Anthropology and who can contribute to some of Butler’s interdisciplinary programs (Science, Technology and Environmental Studies, Gender Studies, International Studies, and Peace Studies). Areas of specialization within medical anthropology are open. Preference will be given to applicants with expertise in Africa, although candidates working in other geographic areas will be considered.

Responsibilities

The teaching load is 4/4.  Most teaching will be in Butler’s First Year Seminar (FYS) and Global and Historical Studies (GHS) programs; within these programs instructors have latitude to choose courses and topics that utilize their expertise

Qualifications and Requirements:

• Successful candidates will enjoy teaching across disciplines and topics
• Must be committed to the teaching of writing
• Applicants should have PhD in hand or anticipate defending by the beginning of their appointment

To Apply

Please send the following electronically to Elise Edwards, search chair, at medanthrosearch@butler.edu

• A letter of application
• Current curriculum vita, (unofficial) transcripts
• Three letters of recommendation
• Evidence of teaching excellence

Review of applications will begin Feb 26, 2018 and continue until the position is filled.

The Harvard Kennedy School seeks candidates for a three-year lecturer position focusing on Quantitative Methods and Digital Learning. Responsibilities for this position include classroom teaching, the development of separate on-line modules for teaching degree program students, and developing methods for using digital tools for more effective classroom instruction. Preference will be given to candidates who combine technical expertise in quantitative methods with prior experience in curriculum development and on-line instruction.

The mission of Harvard Kennedy School is to train enlightened public leaders and generate the ideas that provide solutions to the world’s most challenging public problems. The school serves about 900 degree program students and about 3800 executive program participants each year. Applicants must be willing and able to successfully teach in two-year degree programs and our other teaching programs. The ability to convey conceptual as well as practical knowledge and commitment to the public service mission of Harvard Kennedy School are crucial.

Please submit application materials, including a cover letter, CV, relevant publications (if any), list of references and evidence of teaching potential to http://academicpositions.harvard.edu/postings/8096. Applications will be accepted beginning immediately and until the position is filled.

Preference will be given to candidates who combine technical expertise in quantitative methods with prior experience in curriculum development and on-line instruction.