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Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

Call for Applications: Summer Institute in Computational Social Science

From the evening of Sunday, June 17 to the morning of Saturday, June 30, 2018, the Russell Sage Foundation will sponsor the Summer Institute in Computational Social Science, to be held at Duke University. The purpose of the Summer Institute is to bring together graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and beginning faculty interested in computational social science. The Summer Institute is for both social scientists (broadly conceived) and data scientists (broadly conceived). The co-organizers and principal faculty of the Summer Institute are Christopher Bail and Matthew Salganik.

The instructional program will involve lectures, group problem sets, and participant-led research projects. There will also be outside speakers who conduct computational social science research in academia, industry, and government. Topics covered include text as data, website scraping, digital field experiments, non-probability sampling, mass collaboration, and ethics. There will be ample opportunities for students to discuss their ideas and research with the organizers, other participants, and visiting speakers. Because we are committed to open and reproducible research, all materials created by faculty and students for the Summer Institute will be released open source.

Participation is restricted to Ph.D. students, postdoctoral researchers, and untenured faculty within 7 years of their PhD Most participant costs during the workshop, including housing and most meals, will be covered, and most travel expenses will be reimbursed up to a set cap. About thirty participants will be invited. Participants with less experience with social science research will be expected to complete additional readings in advance of the Institute, and participants with less experience coding will be expected to complete a set of online learning modules on the R programming language. Students doing this preparatory work will be supported by a teaching assistant who will hold online office hours before the Institute.

Application materials should be received by Monday, February 19, 2018.

International Conference: Aging Workforce – Older Workers and Immigrants as New Pillars of Western Economies

Western population is aging. In 2060, the EU will only have two people of working age for every person aged over 65 – half of today’s figure. In Japan there will be only 1.3 Japanese and in the USA 2.5 Americans of working age on every person over 65.  What actions can we take to increase our odds of having a longer and more satisfying life? How will we manage financing pension and social systems? What is the situation of older people in the labour market? How we can extend working lives and avoid premature retirements? How to equip companies with the right skills and knowledge when attracting, managing, and retaining mature workers? What is the right immigration policy to be beneficial for both the western economies and the immigrants?

Preliminary conference program available here. Working language of the conference is English.

You can learn more about and register for the conference at the link below. Registration is open until February 15.

Request for Information: Nancy Potok – Chief, Statistical and Science Policy, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs

The Chief Statistician of the United States and the Statistical and Science Policy Branch (SSP) in the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) seek to establish priorities and coordinate research efforts across the Federal Statistical System to focus on improving federal statistics. In particular, a priority has been placed on using new techniques and methodologies based on combining data from multiple sources. To support this effort, information is requested on: (1) Current and emerging techniques for linking and analyzing combined data; (2) on-going research on methods to describe the quality of statistical products that result from these techniques; (3) computational frameworks and systems for conducting such work; (4) privacy or confidentiality issues that may arise from combining such data; and (5) suggestions for additional research in those or related areas.”

We would like to get a robust response to this request and are hoping that you can help spread the word.  If you haven’t already, please share this link with your constituencies, in newsletters, and with anyone you think would be interested in responding.  The details on how to submit a response are in the RFI.

Please contact us with any questions.

Federal Register Link:

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/01/12/2018-00400/request-for-information

Request for Proposals: Graduate Pursuits – Collaborative, Socio-environmental Synthesis Research

The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) in Annapolis, MD invites proposals from highly qualified graduate students interested in conducting collaborative, socio-environmental synthesis research (i.e. “Graduate Pursuits”).

Graduate Pursuits are supported for a period of 18 months. Such support centers around 3–4 team meetings at SESYNC, but also includes a suite of services ranging from team facilitation to computational and cyber infrastructure resources to science communication.

SESYNC is particularly interested in Graduate Pursuit proposals that bring together diverse backgrounds and disciplines as well as diverse sources of data in novel, integrative ways. Graduate Pursuit proposals that are designed to be applicable or generalizableacross multiple locations and scales in addition to those with potential to contribute to decision-making and non-academic communities are also of special interest to SESYNC.

The full Request for Proposals can be found at the link below. Proposals are due May 15, 2018.

 

Call for Applications: Graduate Certificate in Demographic Methods

The Graduate Training Program at CSDE is accepting applications from students looking to train in demography and qualify for the Graduate Certificate in Demographic Methods. The certificate program is the academic pathway to advanced interdisciplinary training in population science, in addition to discipline-based courses of study.

APPLICATION PROCESS

  1. Submit applications no later than 5pm on February 12, 2018
  2. The application is in the form of an online WebQ survey hosted on https://catalyst.uw.edu/webq/survey/dechter/347475 and requires a UW NetID.
  3. Register for the next spring CSDE weekly seminar (CSDE 501) and autumn Population Proseminar (CSDE 502), if the required credits have not already been completed.

VALUE OF THE PROGRAM

Recognized by the National Institute of Child Health and Development and the UW Graduate School, the completion of the Certificate Program provides graduate students with credentials as a skilled demographer to position them in academic and applied job markets, and to succeed in research funding competitions. The Program is designed to enhance training beyond the requirements of a graduate degree. It provides a coherent body of study in demography, enhanced mentored research experiences, and the following benefits:

  • Access to CSDE’s significant research support services (computing, research consultations, workshops, a biodemography lab and equipment, and more). Check out the CSDE services and computing webpages for more details
  • Assistance in matching students with CSDE Faculty Affiliate mentors and potential research collaborators. Check out the exciting research conducted at CSDE and the faculty working in those areas on the research webpage.
  • Training, research experience, and curriculum to prepare trainees for meeting the evaluative criteria—including all required courses—of the CSDE Fellowship application
  • Financial support (when available) for travel to present research at the Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America
  • Graduate certificates are recorded on your official transcript, and acknowledged with a framed certificate awarded at CSDE’s end of year reception.

CURRICULUM

The program can be completed in 2 years while concurrently pursuing a graduate degree in any department.

The Certificate Program curriculum consists of five elements:

  1. Required core courses on the substance and methods of demography
  2. Three electives chosen from a broad array of courses in multiple disciplines, listed on https://csde.washington.edu/training/demographic-certificate/certificate-curriculum/
  3. Professional development in the field through a Proseminar and mentoring
  4. The CSDE Weekly Seminar Series, which meets on Fridays 12:30-1:30, and features presentations of current research in demography.
    • CSDE 501: 1 credit for 6 quarters, total of 6 credits. Students in terminal master’s programs may complete 3 credits
    • CSDE Seminar Series 2017-2018 schedule is here
  5. Research mentoring

The Graduate School imposes restrictions on how the credits you earn in your coursework are allocated to meet the requirements of your degree program.  However, credits received for all the courses you complete for the CSDE curriculum count as credits toward your degree. Specifically, credits for required courses in your degree program or the Demographic Methods Certificate Program cannot count as required courses or official electives in the other program. Credits of official elective courses in your degree program or the certificate program can count as electives in the other program, but only up to 6 credits. Completing the certificate program may not require extra coursework above your degree program’s required number of credits if you plan accordingly.

Please read the requirements and the policies and procedures webpage, and consult your advisor before submitting the application so that you are confident that the certificate program is consistent with your goals and expectations.

Visit the CSDE Demography Training website at https://csde.washington.edu/training/demographic-certificate/ for more details on the Demographic Methods Graduate Certificate Program. If you would like to learn more about the certificate program or CSDE, please consult with the CSDE Training Program Coordinator, the Training Director, or another CSDE Faculty Affiliate.

Questions? Email the Training Program Coordinator, Aimée Dechter (Dechter@uw.edu)

Call for Applications: Alene Morris National Education for Women’s Leadership Institute

Applications for the 2018 Alene Moris National Education for Women’s (NEW) Leadership Institute are now open. 

Every year, the University of Washington Women’s Center hosts a 6-day Institute for undergraduate and graduate women to provide them with skills and training to become leaders in their communities. The NEW Leadership Institute aims to improve women’s representation in leadership positions across all sectors.

We are looking for applicants from all over Washington. The Institute is open to undergraduate and graduate women who are attending a higher education institution in Washington State. Housing will be arranged for participants who live outside of Seattle.

Important dates:

  • Deadline to nominate someone – March 25, 2018, at 11:59 pm
  • Deadline to apply – April 8, 2018, at 11:59 pm
  • Institute Dates – June 18-23, 2017

 

Please direct questions to newlead@uw.edu or  (206) 685-1090.

Demographer/Statistician – Supporting UNICEF Activities for Mortality Estimation

Purpose

The main objective of this consultancy is to conduct a desk review of existing data sources, case studies and peer-review literature on major mortality crises, to compile a public use reference dataset on mortality by age and sex for each major types of mortality crisis, and to generate model patterns of age and sex distributions of excess deaths by type of mortality crises to be used in future revisions of UN IGME work on child and adolescent mortality. The consultancy will be conducted under the supervision of the Statistics and Monitoring specialist in the Data and Analytics Section, Division of Data, Research and Policy in consultation with other UN IGME partners working on such information (e.g., UN Population Division and WHO).
Expected Results
For each type of mortality crisis such as (1) conflicts (battle-deaths, insurgency and civil wars, mass killings and genocide, direct vs. indirect deaths), (2) famines, (3) natural disasters: earthquake, flood/tsunami/hurricane/cyclone/landslides, droughts, (4) major types of epidemics – excluding HIV/AIDS): 

  1. Expand and update (by type of mortality crisis and country/periods) existing collection of articles, case studies, grey literature, book chapters, etc. already accumulated by IGME partners, and complement/update literature review based on Google Scholar and reversed search of relevant citations;
  2. For each relevant data source, review and extract information about mortality by age and sex upon its availability (counts, rates, excess);
  3. In coordination with relevant IGME partner(s), analyze supplementary relevant public use datasets (HMD, and possibly LAMD, natural disasters, and additional data on epidemics from WHO mortality database and relevant retrospective mortality surveys for excess mortality during crisis period);
  4. Update and expand structured dataset with its associated metadata to produce a public use reference dataset for further research;
  5. Perform a meta-analysis of this information with the aim to generate model patterns of age and sex distributions of excess mortality by type of mortality crises.
  6. Explore different statistical modelling approaches to estimate patterns of age and sex distributions of excess mortality by type of mortality crises including uncertainty.
  7. Prepare a synthesis paper providing an overview of the key concepts, main relevant data sources, key findings of the meta-analysis about mortality by age and sex for each major types of mortality crisis, computation of model patterns of age and sex distributions of excess mortality by type of mortality crises, and a discussion of the strengths and limitations of this analysis, data and modelling.

Key competences, technical background, and experience required 

  • Advanced Degree in demography or equivalent in relevant sociology or public health related field.
  • Minimum 5 years of professional experience in the area of demographic and statistical analysis.
  • Professional experience in methods of demographic analysis and child mortality estimation.
  • Solid data analytical and research skills.
  • Advanced experience in statistical programming with R.
  • Excellent communication and writing skills.
  • Detail-oriented.
  • Ability to take initiatives and work independently.
  • Creativity and enthusiasm.
  • Ability to work well in a team environment.
  • Fluent in English.

You can learn more about the position and apply at the link below.

UW Ranks Fifth in the Nation for Social Science Research Funding

According to rankings recently released by the Consortium of Social Science Associations, the University of Washington—which in FY 2016 had over $38.6 million in social science funding—is number five on the list of academic institutions for Federal Social and Behavioral Science R&D. This marks an improvement from UW’s previous seventh place ranking, and this year, it is the only west coast institution in the top five. The rankings are based on a combination of federal research and development expenditures for disciplines including communications, law, psychology, the social sciences, and social work. As a population science center, CSDE both contributes to and benefits from UW’s ability to garner funding for social science research. You can read more about the rankings at the link below.

Kyle Crowder Discusses New Book, “Cycle of Segregation”

Affiliate and Professor of Sociology Kyle Crowder was recently interviewed by Colorlines about his new book, “Cycle of Segregation,” which he co-authored along with fellow sociologist Maria Krysan. In the book, Crowder and Krysan—Professor and Department Head of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago—take a critical look at the systems that continue to reinforce residential segregation five decades following the passage of the Fair Housing Act. The authors examine these systems through analysis of data from the American Housing Survey and Panel Study of Income dynamics, along with interviews with residents of various races in the Chicago area.

UW International Research and Study Fellowships

These one-quarter grants provide support to UW graduate students doing international research or study. Successful applicants are awarded either a Chester Fritz Fellowship or a Boeing International Fellowship.

The fellowships are available to fund research and/or study periods of one quarter (three full months) abroad during the 2018-2019 year (autumn 2018 – summer 2019). These awards DO NOT support faculty-led UW study abroad programs.

Awardees will receive a stipend of $2,400 per month, and paid health insurance (GAIP). During the quarter of their award, fellows are required to register for an independent learning program through UW Study Abroad. The program fee is covered by this fellowship. No extra money is included for airfare.

Eligibility

  • Must be a currently enrolled student in a UW master’s or doctoral tuition-based program at the time of application and receipt of fellowship. Students who are on academic leave are not eligible.
  • Students in fee-based programs are not eligible.
  • Students who have already received a previous Graduate School Fritz or Boeing fellowship are ineligible.

For complete information about this opportunity, including how to apply, click here.