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Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

CSDE Alumni Lecture: Amy Bailey

“They expect more from you” – Working-Class Transitions to Adulthood

This project examines an understudied topic at the intersection of life course and social mobility research: the transition to adulthood among working class youth. In an era when family wage jobs that do not require a college degree–jobs like those that many of their parents hold–are disappearing, how do working class adolescents navigate the array of options available to them, and make decisions about what to do once they leave high school? Using data collected from focus groups with young people aged 16-21 living in a cluster of working class neighborhoods in Chicago, Amy Kate Bailey finds that these young people universally want to go to college, but lack a clear sense of the actions required to accomplish that goal, or the social and institutional resources to effectively guide them.

Amy Kate Bailey (Department of Sociology, University of Illinois at Chicago) is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research is broadly focused on issues of race and inequality, with an historical line of inquiry that focuses on racial violence, and a body of contemporary work on institutions and inequality. Her work has been published in journals including The American Sociological Review and The American Journal of Sociology. Her 2015 book, Lynched: The Victims of Southern Mob Violence, co-authored with Stew Tolnay, received the 2015 IPUMS-USA Research Award from the Minnesota Population Center.

You are also invited to schedule a meeting with Dr. Bailey: http://doodle.com/poll/cgs7txutx594fzkm

2017 Demographic and Health Surveys Fellows Program

The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program is now accepting applications for the 2017 DHS Fellows Program. The DHS Fellows Program, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is designed to increase the capacity of countries to conduct further analysis of DHS data.

Applications must be from teams comprised of three faculty members from the same university who teach in departments of demography, public health, economics, sociology, geography, or other social sciences. The team strongly encourages faculty members in relevant departments who are interested in quantitative research in the areas of family planning, reproductive health, fertility, maternal and child health, sexual behavior, HIV/AIDS, or gender issues to apply.

Advancing Systemic Changes to Promote Healthy School Environments

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation seeks to advance systemic changes that embed health in school environments. To help advance these systemic changes, the Foundation will support a collaborative, multipronged strategy with three complementary areas of work related to Research, Policy, and Strategic Action. This Call for Qualifications (CFQ) represents Phase I of a two-phase selection process designed to identify eligible organizations to lead each area of work, which include:

  • Applied Research and Translation (one to two grants awarded) to use research to facilitate the implementation of practices and policies that generate healthy, safe, and nurturing school climates that help to reduce health disparities.
  • Policy Analysis and Development (one to two grants awarded) to identify and elevate effective and equitable policies that generate healthy, safe, and nurturing school climates that help to reduce health disparities.
  • Strategic Action and Alignment (one lead grantee with core partners) to expand support from decision-makers, practitioners, and other key stakeholders who will ultimately be responsible for establishing and supporting policy, implementing best practices, and embracing school-change efforts that address the real conditions that support or impede children’s health and learning.

Visit the link below for more information and application instructions.

PI for National Longitudinal Survey of Youth

The Center for Human Resource Research (CHRR) in the College of Arts and Sciences at The Ohio State University invites applications for the position of Principal Investigator of the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79). This position may be either as a tenured (associate or full) professor within the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS), or as a research scientist at CHRR. Candidates should have a strong ongoing record of scholarly research, and should be interested in taking the lead scientific role in shaping the NLSY79. As Principal Investigator (PI) of the NLSY79, the candidate will provide scientific leadership for all aspects of the survey, including questionnaire design and seeking outside funding. Interests in retirement and/or health preferred. Expertise in survey research is desired but not required. The most important qualification for the PI position is willingness to develop and implement a vision for the future of the survey, in collaboration with the Bureau of Labor Statistics as the funding agency, team members at both CHRR and NORC at the University of Chicago, and the user community.
If applying as a faculty member, the successful candidate will be housed in an SBS department in the area of economics, sociology or survey methodology. The individual will be expected to contribute to their department by maintaining a productive research program, teaching and advising PhD students, and providing service to the department and university. The successful candidate’s academic tenure home will be in an SBS Department, and the allocation of his or her time and effort between the department and CHRR will be governed by a memorandum of understanding.

If applying as a Research Scientist, the position will be fully funded for the first 3 years. During this time period the candidate will be expected to pursue additional grant opportunities.

Qualifications
The candidate sought will have an established, active and ongoing record of scholarship at the highest level. He or she will have an international reputation in research. A doctoral degree in a relevant social science discipline is required at the time of application. Appointment is contingent on the university’s verification of credentials and other information required by law and/or university policies, including but not limited to a criminal background check.

Call for Submissions: CSDE Trainee Special Seminar on Dec 2 – Lightning Talks & Posters

CSDE invites its trainees to submit a project abstract for this Fall’s Trainee Lightning Talks and Poster Session, as part of the CSDE Seminar series “Next Population Science Insights.” Selected trainees will introduce their project via lightning talks and continue the conversation over posters.

Proposals are due October 28, 2016

This is a great opportunity to showcase your research to an excitingly diverse set of colleagues from across the university, make new connections with scholars working in similar areas, and celebrate your continued development as a strong demographic researcher.

CSDE will recognize the best poster with an award. Posters will be assessed based on design, content, and presentation.

Poster Session Date: Friday, December 2, 2016
Time: 12:30-1:30pm
Location: Green A, Research Commons, Allen Library South

Submit your project abstract: https://goo.gl/forms/WkonUkp4patj7BTB2

CSDE Big Data To Knowledge (BD2K) Predoctoral Graduate Fellowships

CSDE announces two 12-month fellowships funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as part of the Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) initiative. The fellowships are the result of a partnership between CSDE, CSSS and the eScience institute. The BD2K fellowship program is designed to provide integrated training in three core areas essential for future advances in demographic research: demography, statistics (and machine learning), and computing (programming, data management, etc). The goal of this initiative is to prepare a new generation of population scientists who are well versed in data science, computational methods and social statistics and who will harness the power of new, diverse, complex, and unstructured data sources to address important research questions in the biomedical, behavioral and social sciences.

The fellowships will begin in the Winter 2017 quarter, and provide fellows with a monthly stipend at the NIH predoctoral level and $500 to attend conferences. CSDE will pay full tuition, the graduate operating fee, and health insurance premiums.

Current Graduate Students who are in PhD programs of CSDE Affiliated Departments or Schools (Anthropology, Epidemiology, Geography, Health Services, Public Affairs, Social Work, Sociology, and Statistics) are eligible to apply.

Fellowship recipients are required to maintain continuous residence, remain in good standing in their home department, complete the core sequence of courses in demography (e.g., CSDE/SOC 533 “Demographic Methods” and SOC 590 “Data Science and Population Processes”), pursue advanced training in statistics or machine learning (e.g., by completing a CSSS track or other coursework, as appropriate), and take appropriate courses in the area of Software Development and Data Management (e.g., CSE 599 “Software Development for Data Scientists, CSE 414 “Introduction to Data Management”). Successful applicants have likely completed some coursework in at least two of the three core areas.

Fellowship recipients are required to attend at least one quarter of the CSDE seminars, at least one quarter of the CSSS seminars and at least one quarter of the eScience Community seminars. Fellows are also required to work with a mentoring team on a mutually agreed upon research project for 15-19 hours per week. The mentoring team should be composed of at least 2 affiliates of CSDE, CSSS or eScience, with the appropriate expertise in methods and the substantive area of research.

The application package includes:

  1. Curriculum Vitae
  2. Current transcripts
  3. Statement of proposed research project (max 600 words, not including references and figures)
  4. Three brief essays (200 words max) describing your interest, experience, and competency in each of the BD2K core areas (demography, statistics, and computing). For any areas in which your background is deep, explain how your previous activities (e.g. research projects, CSDE training program, specific courses, CSSS track) provide competency in the area. For areas in which you have less experience, explain how the BD2K fellowship will catalyze new research and learning opportunities that will advance your career. Successful candidates will likely demonstrate competency in at least two of the three areas.
  5. Responses to an online questionnaire. As part of the questionnaire, you will be asked to list the names and affiliations of two mentors that would be part of your mentoring team. Priority will be given to mentoring teams that span the competency areas (demography, statistics, and computing). Mentors should be affiliates of CSDE, CSSS, or the eScience institute. Please contact your mentors before listing them on your application. If you are selected as a finalist, the selection committee will request letters of support from both mentors.

All the documents (except for the online questionnaire) must be submitted in .pdf format. Please combine all the documents into a single pdf document. Please use the following file name: CandidateLastName_CandidateFirstName_BD2K.pdf where you replace CandidateLastName with your last name and CandidateFirstName with your first name.

Submission link for single PDF file: https://www.dropbox.com/request/7sHujYHICwHy1RhkKG6P

Link to the online questionnaire: https://goo.gl/forms/LUvXL0w9uiBdHWh22

Online and Activity-Based Social Networks Workshop

Communities in the fields of health, social sciences, and computer and information sciences have recently become interested in online and mobile applications dedicated to improving health-related behavior. Researchers studying these topics focus on everything from software and hardware development to understanding and modeling the social exchange and peer influence on these new platforms. These activity-based social networks are important environments for improving the health and well-being of individuals; they also offer numerous opportunities for use by the broader medical community. The Center for Disease Control (CDC), for example, has identified a series of issues related to improving an individual’s health-related behavior, including “encouragement, support, or companionship from family and friends” all of which are supported in popular activity-based networks. Building on the combination of technological foundations, emergent social dynamics and health implications, this workshop looks to bring together researchers from across variety of disciplines to share current findings and help build a community around this engaging new area of research.

In this workshop, the organizers invite researchers and practitioners from different disciplines such as sociology, economics, psychology, social computing, public health, statistics, communications, computer science, engineering and other related areas to share their ideas and research achievements in order to better understand online and mobile applications dedicated to improving health-related behavior. Their goal is for this workshop to be inclusive and broadly expose both researchers and practitioners to current advances in a variety of fields.

Topics
They solicit original, unpublished and innovative research work on all aspects around, but not limited to, the following themes:

  • Sampling from activity-based networks
  • Measuring activity-based networks
  • Modeling activity-based networks
  • Experiments on activity-based networks
  • Influence of activity-based networks
  • Designing activity-based networks
  • Recruiting participants for activity-based networks
  • Building applications to engage activity-based networks
  • Measuring the health effects and/or efficacy of activity-based networks
  • Policy implications of activity-based networks

Format and Submission
Submission of regular research papers (6-8 pages) as well as position papers (2-4 pages) is welcome.

They recommend that applicants follow the formatting of SocInfo2016 general submissions according to Springer LNCS paper formatting guidelines. The submissions will be evaluated by the Organizing Committee on the basis of quality and fit to the workshop theme. Accepted papers will be presented as short presentations or lightning talks at the workshop.

Participants who are interested in attending but do not submit a research paper or a position paper should submit a paragraph explaining why they are interested in participating, what they would gain from participation, and how they can contribute to the workshop.

Authors of accepted papers need to register for either the Workshop day or SocInfo2016 conference (http://usa2016.socinfo.eu/registration/). 
All submissions must be submitted in PDF format according to the guidelines through the Easychair installation: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=abn2016

NSF INCLUDES Conference on Multi-Scale Evaluation in STEM Education

Effective program evaluation is an essential component of STEM education and workforce development. The conference and associated events will enhance participants’ abilities to develop an evaluation plan that meets the needs of an INCLUDES Alliance Project. Participants will include individuals involved in current INCLUDES projects, those considering collaborating in such projects and STEM educators considering inclusion of formal evaluation in their projects. Examples of program evaluation developed by the program organizers are available at http://www.nimbios.org/NISER.

Associate Professor in Demography

There is an exciting opportunity for a full time Population Scientist to work as an Associate Professor in demography for 4 years at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. They are looking for an academic with relevant skills and a commitment to population research, for a post which offers a range of opportunities in research, teaching and management in the Population Studies Group. The successful candidate will be expected to build their own portfolio of research projects as well as having an opportunity to join other research projects undertaken by the group. She/he will supervise PhD and MSc students and teach on our two world leading MSc courses in Demography and Health, and Reproductive and Sexual Health Research, including Distance Learning versions of the courses taught face to face at the School.