The Department of Geography at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky is searching for a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Geography in the area of health geography to begin August 2018. Our goal is to build upon and strategically expand the Department’s strengths in health and medical geography, critical human geography, environmental studies, and critical mapping. We welcome candidates conducting research across the broad spectrum of health geography including but not limited to critical health geographies; social differentiation of health outcomes; health and illness behaviors; health and the environment; political ecology of health; and global health and disease.
This position is part of a college-wide interdisciplinary cluster hire in health. The successful candidate will also contribute to the College of Arts and Sciences interdisciplinary undergraduate major in Health, Society & Populations, and will be encouraged to seek out broader initiatives across programs, including public health, medicine, Appalachian Studies, and International Studies. A PhD in geography or related discipline is required at time of appointment.
Using the Violence Triangle to Understand the Lived Experience of Latino Male Youth in Urban Communities
Adrian Huerta, University of Southern California
Thursday, November 2
Savery Hall, Room 409
2:30-4:00 PM
In the US, Latino youth are overexposed to various forms of violence in their daily lives. Although Latino adolescents are often the victims of violence, the dominant narrative is that this group are the perpetrators of violence and are embedded in deviance and crimes. In this presentation, which focuses on the qualitative experiences of 26 Latino male youth from low to middle-income urban communities share their experiences with violence at home, schools, and their local communities.
Adrian Huerta was awarded a Minority Dissertation Fellowship in 2015 by the American Educational Research Association for his work on college access for Latino males in urban schools. His work focuses on the Latino male high school experience, and is currently working on a book based on this re-search. He is continuing research to identify at-risk factors for Latino male students who drop out. During the current academic year, he is a postdoc supported by the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin.
The Statistical Crisis in Science
Andrew Gelman, Professor of Statistics and Political Science
Columbia University
Oct. 25, 2017, 3:30 p.m.
Physics/Astronomy Auditorium (PAA), A102
Abstract: Top journals routinely publish ridiculous, scientifically implausible claims, justified based on “p < 0.05.” And this in turn calls into question all sorts of more plausible, but not necessarily true, claims, that are supported by this same sort of evidence. To put it another way: we can all laugh at studies of ESP, or ovulation and voting, but what about MRI studies of political attitudes, or stereotype threat, or, for that matter, the latest potential cancer cure? If we can’t trust p-values, does experimental science involving human variation just have to start over? And what do we do in fields such as political science and economics, where preregistered replication can be difficult or impossible? Can Bayesian inference supply a solution? Maybe. These are not easy problems, but they’re important problems.
Affiliate Ali Rowhani-Rahbar, Professor of Epidemiology, co-authored a recent study that examines the nature of loaded handgun carrying in the US. From a nationally representative survey of adults conducted in 2015, lead author Rowhani-Rahbar and his co-authors were able to assess carrying behavior among handgun owners within a 30-day period, as well as concealed carrying in the context of individual state carrying laws. The outcomes of the study—which has been featured in the Washington Post and US News, among other sources—indicate that an estimated nine million handgun owners carry loaded weapons on a monthly basis, while three million carry them on a daily basis. Of those respondents who carry, the majority cited protection as their primary motivation for doing so. The full study is available below.
A recent study by affiliate Donald Chi, Associate Professor of Oral Health Sciences, and colleagues explores the role that treatment by Dental Therapists plays in dental health outcomes in Alaska Native communities in the Yukon Kuskokwim (YK) Delta. Using data from the YK Health Corporation dental clinic electronic health record (EHR) and 10 years of Medicaid claims, principal investigator Chi and his co-investigators assessed five community-level outcomes—three for children and two for adults—based on number of Dental Therapist treatment days. The study, which was cited last week in a Huffington Post article, demonstrates that a higher number of Dental Therapist treatment days is associated with better dental health outcomes—specifically, greater rates of preventative care and lower rates of treatment, such as extractions—for communities in the YK Delta. The full study is accessible below.
CSDE Staff Matt Dunbar, Assistant Director and Spatial Demographer, and Michael Babb, former Research Scientist and Trainee, were a critical component of this project’s study team. Donald Chi made use of CSDE’s expertise in geocoding and data linking in order to bring together Alaska Medicaid Data and Dental Clinic Health Records based on community of residence. Please contact CSDE staff within any one of our service areas to inquire about how we can support your population research.
Affiliate Jake Vigdor, Professor at the Evans School, was quoted in a recent Politico article that considers Amazon’s growth within and impacts on the city of Seattle in light of the upcoming deadline for the company’s second headquarters, “HQ2”. Though Amazon was certainly responsible for explosive economic growth in Seattle, these effects will not necessarily translate to another city in the same way. According to Vigdor, this is in part due to Seattle’s uniquely innovative and entrepreneurial atmosphere, which has long attracted and retained talented workers. “There’s this inclination to think, ‘Hey, this is a town where new stuff is happening, where there’ll be some startup or some other opportunity for me,” which applies even for those who are unemployed. Though Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has expressed his desire for the location of HQ2 to share qualities with Seattle, similar cities are likely to be expensive. As Vidgor notes, “bringing in 40,000 highly paid employees to compete for the same relatively constant supply of housing” would only compound the issue of affordability, which is one of Amazon’s selection criteria. The full article is available below.
Affiliate Clair Yang was quoted last week in a Forbes article regarding potential outcomes for China as its 19th Congress convenes, and President Xi Jinping is set to begin his second term. According to Yang, who is an Assistant Professor of International Studies at the Jackson School, there could be a “strengthening of censorship,” as well as implications for economic policy in light of the nation’s slowing economic growth. “In the short run, there is a possibility that we see China reverting to more conservative policies, trading economic vitality for stability,” she said. The full article is available below.
Josh Goldstein, Department of Demography, UC Berkeley
Josh will discuss early analysis of a newly created, very large public data set on old-age, individual mortality in the United States. By linking individual records from the 1940 census and Social Security Administration deaths, Josh and colleagues have built a new data set that allows the study of detailed covariates on a sample of millions of people. Josh will explain how the data set was created, some special methods needed to estimate mortality, and preliminary results on trends in educational, income, and racial disparities in mortality at ages 65+.