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Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

*New* Registration is now open for the Northwest Nature and Health Symposium (Register by 4/26/24)

Registration is now open for the Northwest Nature and Health Symposium on May 1 in Seattle! This year’s event features eight talks, one moderated discussion, a student poster session, and the chance to connect with colleagues in the Nature and Health community. Nature and Health illuminates the connections between nature and human health and well-being. They work with the community and decision makers to translate research findings into programs and policies that promote equitable engagement with nature. Registration ends on April 26th. Early bird pricing expires on April 1st. Don’t delay, register today!

Deadline Extended: PAR-22-233 (Time-Sensitive Opportunities for Health Research)

The NIH announced that the deadline for the funding opportunity, Time-Sensitive Opportunities for Health Research (PAR-22-233), has been extended for an additional year. Please note that the OBSSR contact has changed to Rosalind King, PhD, Chief, Scientific Development and Coordination Section. This funding opportunity aims to expedite the review and award process to support research focused on understanding health outcomes related to unexpected or time-sensitive events, such as emergent environmental threats and pandemics or changes in local, state, or national policies, as well as natural disasters. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until March 2, 2025.

McElroy Authors New Book on Technocapitalism in the San Francisco Bay Area and Romania

CSDE Affiliate Erin McElroy (Geography) published a new book, entitled Silicon Valley Imperialism. Erin McElroy maps the processes of gentrification, racial dispossession, and economic predation that drove the development of Silicon Valley in the San Francisco Bay Area and how that logic has become manifest in postsocialist Romania. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and archival research in Romania and the United States, McElroy exposes the mechanisms through which the appeal of Silicon Valley technocapitalism devours space and societies, displaces residents, and generates extreme income inequality in order to expand its reach.

*New* NSF Funding Opportunity: Confronting Hazards, Impacts and Risks for a Resilient Planet (CHIRRP) (Proposal due 6/9/24)

Natural hazards compounded by changing climates, rising populations, expanding demands for resources, and increasing reliance on technology are putting our economy, well-being, and national security at risk. The goal of Confronting Hazards, Impacts and Risks for a Resilient Planet (CHIRRP) (PD 24-297Y) is to help safeguard communities and ecosystems for a resilient planet by supporting the co-design of projects that deliver evidence-based, actionable solution pathways reducing the risk from earth system hazards compounded by global environmental change.

Researchers, academics, and community leaders will work together on NSF-supported projects to advance understanding, forecasting and/or prediction of future Earth system hazards and risks, develop community-driven research questions, and inform actionable, science-based solutions that increase community resilience now and in the future.

CHIRRP projects will demonstrate convergence of three essential elements:

  1. Equitable community partnerships
  2. An Earth-system science approach to advance knowledge of hazards, impacts and risks
  3. Pathways to actionable solutions to increase environmental and societal resilience

CSDE Seminar – Displacing Kinship: an Affective and Aesthetic Study of the Vietnamese Refugee Family

CSDE invites you to attend a seminar with CSDE Affiliate Linh Thuỷ Nguyễn (American Ethnic Studies, UW) on Friday, April 5th from 12:30-1:30 PM in 360 PAR and on Zoom (register here). This event is co-sponsored by the Population Health Initiative. Besides being a CSDE Affiliate, Linh Thuỷ Nguyễn, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor in American Ethnic Studies, Adjunct Assistant Professor in Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies, faculty associate in the Center for Southeast Asia and its Diasporas, and the Harry Bridges Labor Center at the University of Washington. See the full story to learn more about Dr. Nguyễn and her talk.

Abstract: How does the way we study refugee inclusion shape family and national history? This research examines how second-generation Vietnamese American texts situate themselves in relation to the past and their family history, and squarely in the war. Policy makers and scientists made quick work of predicting the successful assimilation of Vietnamese refugees into the US, speculating that their ties with the US government, projected model minority status, and proximity to white values would spare them the “downward assimilation” faced by their Black and brown neighbors. Through close readings of sociological studies of refugee resettlement and Vietnamese American art, music, and writing, I show how a racialized ideal of the national family became the site for projecting desires and disappointments of American life. Second-generation works reveal that narratives of familial loss are situated not only in displacement and war, but rather, in present experiences of economic insecurity and racism. Through ethnic studies and feminist and queer-of-color critique, Displacing Kinship offers a critical approach for reading family tensions and interpersonal conflict as affective investments informed by the material, structural conditions of white supremacy and racial capitalism.

CSDE Welcomes June Yang!

June Yang recently joined CSDE and the eScience Institute as a research scientist. As a Computational Demographer, June focuses on applying Natural Language Processing methods to the study of population family formation processes, gender disparity, and demographic inference. She is expanding her skill set by using Large Language Models in text data annotation and measurement development. A second strain of her current research focuses on complex survey analysis, particularly using network-based samples to study vulnerable, hard-to-reach populations. June also has extensive experience working with administrative data sources.

To make an appointment with June or any other CSDE Research Scientist, use the CSDE Science Core Consultation Request form.

Hana Ševčíková Joins CSDE as a Senior Research Scientist!

Hana Ševčíková is a Senior Research Scientist at CSDE and CSSS. She has worked on various projects in statistical computing and demography. She has been working with the United Nations on developing methods for probabilistic population projections and has developed R packages that the UN has been using for their official world population forecasts. Hana also works as a Data Scientist for the Puget Sound Regional Council focusing on regional agent-based land use modeling.

To make an appointment with Hana or any other CSDE Research Scientist, use the CSDE Science Core Consultation Request form.