Howard University’s Center on Race and Wealth and the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison seek applications for the second annual Summer Dissertation Proposal Writing Workshop. This week-long workshop, held at Howard University in Washington, D.C., is aimed at pre-proposal doctoral students in the social sciences from underrepresented racial and ethnic populations who are studying topics related to poverty or inequality in the United States. The workshop is designed to help provide students the skills, knowledge, and resources needed to prepare a dissertation proposal. Funding is provided by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as part of IRP’s National Poverty Research Center award.

Applicants must be pre-dissertation proposal doctoral students from underrepresented racial or ethnic populations (Black, Hispanic, Native American) studying at U.S. universities.

Applications are due by January 31, 2018.

For questions about the workshop or eligibility, contact Dr. Janet Griffin-Graves at jrgriffin-graves@howard.edu. For questions about the application, please contact Dave Chancellor at dave.chancellor@wisc.edu.

This lecture has reached capacity. As a courtesy, we will offer standby seating on a first-come, first-served basis, with a line beginning at 6:30 pm in Kane Hall. We will also post a video of Farmer’s lecture at simpsoncenter.org.

Medical anthropologist and physician Paul Farmer has dedicated his life to improving health care for the world’s poorest people. He is a founding director of Partners in Health, an international non-profit that provides direct health care and conducts research and advocacy on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty. Farmer is Kolokotrones University Professor and Chair of the Department of Global Health & Social Medicine at Harvard University and is Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Farmer holds an MD and a PhD from Harvard University. He is the United Nations Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Community Based Medicine and Lessons from Haiti. His books include In the Company of the Poor: Conversations with Dr. Paul Farmer and Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez, Reimagining Global Health: An Introduction, and To Repair the World: Paul Farmer Speaks to the Next Generation.

Farmer is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Margaret Mead Award from the American Anthropological Association, the American Medical Association’s Outstanding International Physician (Nathan Davis) Award, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and, with his Partners in Health colleagues, the Hilton Humanitarian Prize. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Farmer delivers a Katz Distinguished Lecture in the Humanities. Free and open to the public.

Below you will find the listing of workshops offered by Center for Social Science Computation and Research (CSSCR) during the first part of the quarter.

We are developing a few new workshops given we have a set of new consultants this year with new programming talents but we will still continue to offer our old standby courses as well.

As always, registration is open and free to anyone in the UW community. Please let your colleagues, staff, and students know by sharing this newsletter. Individuals can subscribe to the newsletter here, and our newsletter archive is found here.

 

Short Course/Workshop Offerings Winter Quarter Part I (listed in order of scheduled appearance)

Introduction to R with RStudio

Description:

This class will teach you how to get started with R using the free integrated development environment called Rstudio. The course will cover the basic organization of R and RStudio, where to find good help references, and how to begin a basic analysis. This class is ideal for users who have little or no experience with R.

Instructor: Yunkang Yang, CSSCR Consultant
Date: Thursday, 11 January 2018
Time: 10:30am – 11:30am
Place: Savery 121
Register here.

Introduction to Qualitative Research and ATLAS.ti

Description:

This course provides a brief, practical introduction to working in ATLAS.ti, covering basic terminology and functionality of the program. This will include importing text documents, coding and annotating documents, and exploring relationships through analysis and query tools. Time permitting, we may also briefly discuss best practices for data management. The course assumes no prior use of Atlas-ti.

Instructor: Riddhi Mehta-Neugebauer, CSSCR Consultant
Date: Tuesday, 16 January 2018
Time: 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Place: Savery 121
Register here.

Introduction to using MATLAB

Description:

This course provides a first look at MATLAB, a high-performance language for technical computing. MATLAB integrates computation, visualization, and programming in an easy-to-use environment.

Instructor: Jasmine Jiang, CSSCR Consultant
Date: Wednesday, 17 January 2018
Time: 10:30am – 11:30am
Place: Savery 121

Introduction to GIS

Description:

This course will provide students with a broad overview of what geographic information systems (GISs) are and how social scientists can benefit from using them in their research. Students will explore basic GIS concepts through hands-on exercises using ArcGIS, a widely used GIS software package, as well as freely available data sets.

Instructor: Will Brown, CSSCR Consultant
Date: Monday, 22 January 2018
Time: 2:30pm – 3:20pm
Place: Savery 117
Register here.

Introduction to STATA

Description:

This course will introduce you to the basic Stata statistical package including reading in STATA datasets, basic data manipulation in Stata, and common statistical procedures.

Instructor: Stephanie Lee, CSSCR Consultant
Date: Monday, 29 January 2018
Time: 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Place: Savery 117
Register here.

Introduction to SPSS

Description:

This courses introduces the SPSS package including reading in datafiles as well as basic data management and introductory statistical procedures. Additional topics include computing and recoding variables and selecting and filtering cases.

Instructor: Galen Kerrick, CSSCR Consultant
Date: Thursday 1 February 2018
Time: 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Place: Savery 121
Register here.

 The American Public Health Association is now accepting abstracts for the APHA’s 2018 Annual Meeting & Expo.

The theme of the meeting is Creating the Healthiest Nation: Health Equity Now. Authors are encouraged to submit abstracts on the theme and current and emerging public health issues.Submission Deadline — Abstracts are due between Feb. 20-24. See the list of components below for specific deadlines.

Abstract Notification — Presenters will be notified via email of abstract status on Monday, June 4, 2018.

Rules and Regulations

• You do not have to be a member to submit an abstract. However, if your abstract is accepted for presentation, the presenting author MUST become an individual APHA member and MUST register for the Annual Meeting by the pre-registration deadline (membership does not apply to Faculty of APHA Learning Institutes or Speakers of invited sessions).
• Abstracts submitted and accepted for the APHA Annual Meeting may not be presented at any other meeting or published prior to Mon. Nov. 6, 2017.
• An author may not present more than three abstracts during an APHA Annual Meeting and each abstract must be different. Violators will be removed from the program.
• It is the policy of the American Public Health Association to hold events (meetings, conferences and professional gatherings) where physical and communication barriers do not exclude people with disabilities from attending and participating. Presentations must be accessible to all including closed captioning of videos.
• Abstracts can be submitted to only one component/group, otherwise all abstracts will be removed and not considered for presentation.
• Presenters whose abstracts were accepted for presentation but subsequently withdrawn two or more times within the last five years may not be considered for inclusion in the program.

Abstract Requirements/Instructions

1. Select a component/group to submit your abstract. If you are unsure where your presentation would best fit in the program view the list of topic areas suggested by each group.
2. Please read and follow the instructions provided by the specific component.
3. Learning objectives must be described and be from the learner’s perspective. Please use one of the examples of measurable action words provided on the submission form. Learning objectives should not be included in the abstract text word count.
4. Only one author can be identified as the presenter and make the presentation.
5. Qualification statements MUST be specific to the abstract and describe his/her qualification and areas of expertise as it relates to the topic.
6. Do not include trade or brand names in your abstract.
7. APHA suggests that abstracts be developed off-line before accessing the online submission form.

Use Detailed Instruction for the Abstract Submission Process to help you walk through the steps of submitting an abstract. PPT (with audio) | PPT (no audio)

NIH Office of Disease Prevention (ODP) is gathering broad public input on the ODP Draft Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2019–2023 via an online Request for Information. Respondents are encouraged to review and provide comments on:

• A set of draft strategic priorities, which will outline activities coordinated by the ODP to assess, facilitate, and stimulate research in disease prevention, and disseminate the results of this research to improve public health.
• Other strategic priorities and scientific opportunities not already proposed by the ODP, suggested new partnerships, and areas that transcend disease prevention research that the Office should consider as it develops its new plan.

Interested parties may include, but are not limited to, prevention researchers in academia and industry, health care professionals, patient advocates and advocacy organizations, scientific or professional organizations, federal agencies, and other interested members of the public.

To ensure consideration, responses must be received by January 22, 2018.

We are interested in obtaining input from a variety of stakeholders on how the ODP could enhance the prevention research portfolio at the NIH. Visit the link below to learn more and submit a comment.