We look forward to welcoming Dr. Bussarawan “Puk” Teerawichitchainan from the National University of Singapore on Friday, April 10, in Parrington Hall 360 and on Zoom. This seminar is co-sponsored by the Population Health Initiative. To Join By Zoom, register HERE. Follow this link to sign up for a 1:1 meeting with Dr. Teerawichitchainan during their visit on April 10. Rapid demographic transitions and changing family structures are increasing the number of adults aging with limited close kin. Drawing on mixed-methods evidence from Thailand and Singapore, this talk examines how childlessness and other forms of constrained kin availability shape long-term care and advance care planning in later life. Findings reveal substantial heterogeneity among childless older adults, pronounced gender differences in care vulnerabilities and planning behaviors, and persistent tensions between familistic norms and the lived realities of kin limitation. Moving beyond deficit-based framings, the presentation highlights adaptive strategies through which older adults reconfigure care and planning, and argues for reimagining kin, care, and policy in low-fertility, family-oriented societies.

CSDE External Affiliate Mick Cunningham (Western Washington University) published a study in the Journal of Family Violence examining cumulative consequences of intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization over the life course by gender and sexual orientation, using data from the U.S. National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey. Women and sexual minorities experience IPV consequences — including fear, post-traumatic stress, injury, and missed work or school — at younger ages than straight men. Women experience more  IPV consequences than men overall, and sexual minority women and men report more cumulative IPV consequences than their straight counterparts, with the burden particularly high for sexual minority women. This recent paper on IPV consequences extends research from a previous study highlighted gender differences in IPV victimization over the life course. Compared to men, women experience IPV at younger ages, with greater frequency, and by more perpetrators. These findings hold true for psychological aggression, coercive control, physical violence, and sexual violence. Novel measures of life course victimization provide important evidence refuting findings of gender symmetry in intimate partner violence.

The Dog Aging Project, whose Data and Analysis Core is headed up by CSDE Research Scientist Matthew D. Dunbar, PhD, was recently spotlighted on the CBS news program 60 Minutes: “Research to help dogs live longer, healthier lives could unlock secrets for people to age better, too”

Why study aging in dogs? Companion dogs share genetic diversity, environmental exposures, and cognitive traits with humans. Dogs vary tremendously not only in size, shape, and behavior, but also in life expectancy and age-related risk of disease. They share our disease burden as well as our environment, and have a sophisticated health care system to diagnose, treat, and prevent diseases. Given their relatively short lifespan, we can learn from an observational study of dogs what would take decades in humans.

Dr. Dunbar, in his role as the Data Core Director for the Dog Aging Project, helped build the operational infrastructure for the Dog Aging Project to support this diverse national cohort of over 50,000 companion dogs for an in-depth, longitudinal analysis of aging and cognitive health over their lifespan. A complex and well-maintained research platform was critical to facilitate enrollment, retention, ongoing participant surveys, and collection of biospecimens. Dr. Dunbar has decades of experience designing primary data collection systems, managing field data campaigns, and he currently oversees CSDE’s own REDCap instance supporting population researchers.

To arrange a consultation appointment with Matt Dunbar or any of CSDE’s scientific support staff, please use the CSDE Science Core Consultation Request form.

CSDE Affiliates Katarina Guttmannova (Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences) and Griselda Martinez (Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences)  assessed the  Communities That Care Brief Depression Scale (CTC-BDS) for measurement equivalence across Latinx and white youth by immigrant generation status, using confirmatory factor analysis of survey data collected across sixth, eighth, tenth, and twelfth grades. The study, published in Journal of Community Psychology, found evidence for both the one-factor structure and measurement equivalence of the CTC-BDS across ethnicity, immigrant generation status, and grade level throughout adolescence, supporting its use as a valid tool for comparing depressive symptoms across these groups in community monitoring and research.

CSDE External Affiliate Elizabeth Hirsh (University of British Columbia) published a study in the International Journal of Comparative Sociology with collaborator, Erica Mildner (PhD student, University of British Columbia), examining individual support for government-provided childcare across 26 countries, using data from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). Household-level dynamics, particularly the “dual load” of both partners working full-time or overtime, are key predictors of support for government childcare.  Women's own full-time employment is associated with greater support for government childcare, while for men, having a full-time working partner is the stronger predictor. The findings suggest that households experiencing the heaviest work-life burdens form a natural constituency for government childcare policy.

On Wednesday April 15, from 10 – 11:30 AM, CSDE will host a workshop that provides a basic introduction to Agent-Based Modeling (ABM). The workshop will be divided into three sections. During the first third of the course we will review and discuss the basic elements of ABMs and their applications in a variety of fields including demography, sociology, anthropology, political science and public health. In the second section of the course we will work through one or two seminal examples of ABMs and reproduce the models in base R. Students will not need these packages to complete the workshop.

By the end of the workshop participants will be able to describe the unique features of ABM that make them distinct from other modeling approaches, write R functions to produce a simple ABM, and be familiar with additional R packages that provide functionality for ABMs

CSDE is hosting three sets of office hours to help you prepare data visualizations for PAA! Join CSDE Training Core PI Audrey Dorélien, 2026-2027 CSDE Seminar Chair Min Cha, and CSDE Training Director Jessica Godwin to get feedback and consultation on figures for your PAA oral presentations or posters. Both faculty and students are welcome!! Please sign up for a consultation slot here on 4/15/26, 4/22/26 or 4/29/26 between 12 and 1 PM.

CSDE is pleased to announce the availability of 12-month fellowships supported by the NIH Training in Advanced Data Analytics (TADA) T32 fellowship program. These Data Science and Demography Training (DSDT) fellowships begin mid-September 2026. There are three openings for the DSDT fellowship program this year. The fellowship program is available to U.S. Citizens or Permanent Residents.  The goal of the training grant is to provide rigorous training in advanced data science methodologies for the next generation of behavioral, social science and population health researchers or to provide advanced demographic training for data scientists. More information is available here.   Applications are due Friday, April 24, 2026, by 5:00 PM PT. (read more)

The CSDE Development Core is once again hosting its annual Grant Writing Summer Program (GWSP) to assist scholars (UW postdocs, researchers, and professors affiliated or planning to affiliate with CSDE, as well as other researchers in the Seattle area) in preparing applications to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Applications are now open and due May 15! More info here, including pricing for non-UW researchers, and application page here. Note that the program is in person and meets once every two weeks, late June – mid Sep, on the UW Seattle campus. Final schedule is set based on the schedules of the selected participants.

Make sure to read all the FAQ's. Past participants report great success, and lots of support and even fun along the way. Applications are due May 15. Additional questions?  Contact goodreau@uw.edu.

CSDE collaborates with the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in a doctoral training program called the International Max Planck Research School for Population, Health and Data Science (IMPRS-PHDS). This program is based in Rostock, Germany, but includes 12 doctoral programs in the U.S. and Europe. CSDE has one IMPRS-PHDS fellowship application slot available to current CSDE Trainees. The fellowship funding will support a one quarter research stay at the MPIDR any time between July 1, 2026 and June 30, 2027.  Information about the program, the faculty, and partner institutions can be found here. Applications are due to CSDE by Tuesday, May 26. Apply here.

NICHD has released their funding strategy and guidelines for Fiscal Year 2026. You will find they are generally similar to past years, though there are some nuances: NICHD Funding Strategies: Guidance for Fiscal Year 2026.

The Center for Social Science Computation and Research (CSSCR) offers drop-in office hours for computational and statistical issues in research and coursework. This service is offered M-F 8am-6pm in Savery 119.  We have graduate student staff from the departments of Anthropology, Economics, Education, Geography, Political Science, Social Work, and Sociology.  The center supports R, Stata, Python, ArcGIS, QGIS, Matlab (limited), and Atlas.ti. 

The Washington State Department of Housing invites survey responses to inform recommendations for how to structure a new Department of Housing that will serve as the state’s coordinating and problem solving hub for ensuring adequate housing supply and housing stability for all Washingtonians. Your feedback will help inform the Task Force’s final report, due November 15, 2026, which will include recommendations on the mission, structure, programs, and goals of a new Department of Housing.

The Population Studies Group at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine published a self-study course Introduction to Demographic Methods and Population Analysis for students and professionals. This course contains 28 interactive lectures, grouped into 3 modules. Topics include the very basics of the measurement and analysis of fertility, mortality and migration, but also cover population projections, life table applications, and population models. No prior training in demography or mathematics is required.

The Center for Social Science Computation and Research (CSSCR) released its spring workshop schedule. The bulk of sessions focus on data analysis and analytical methods using Codex, Atlas.ti, Python, R, and Stata. This quarter, CSSCR will also have workshops on how create an academic research poster using PowerPoint.

On Wednesday, April 15, CSSS will host Dr. Charles Lanfear (Cambridge University) who will deliver a seminar titled, “Reciprocal Relationships, Reverse Causality, and Temporal Ordering: Testing Theories with Cross-lagged Panel Model,” in Savery 409. Sign-ups for meeting with Dr. Lanfear are available here. CSSS is also sponsoring a lunch for students. Those interested can add their name/email to the this google sheet.

Join the Association of Public Data Users (APDU) on April 15 from 11- 12 PM PT for a webinar on “Demystifying Data Privacy in the US.“ APDU has created a set of resources to help policymakers, researchers, advocates, and the public better understand the mechanics of the Privacy Act of 1974 and how the federal government manages and discloses personal information. These materials can help you effectively assert your rights, close harmful loopholes,

The Data Science and AI Accelerator pairs eScience Institute data scientists with researchers from any field of study to work on focused, collaborative projects. Collaborations may center on analysis of an existing dataset to answer a specific research question, an implementation of software for processing or analyzing data, data visualization tools, or tools for data interpretation. This program is centered around building capacity — helping researchers to learn the skills and tools they need to do their projects rather than providing people to write code for them. Projects for Summer 2026 must be received by April 26 at 11:59 PM. PT.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation invites applications for the following Grand Challenges grant opportunities. Applications for all RFPs are due no later than April 28, 2026, at 11:30 AM Pacific Time.

• Innovations in Cost-Disruptive Tools for Diagnosis and Screening
• Novel Interventions Targeting Placental and Gut Inflammation to Improve Fetal Growth
• Addressing Physiological Barriers to Micronutrient Absorption from Fortified Foods
• Cost-Disrupting Innovations to Reduce the Cost of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food
• Breakthrough Innovations to Significantly Reduce the Cost of Severe Acute Malnutrition Treatment
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Accelerate Charitable Giving

Please join the East Asia Center for a special public panel, “From Malthus to Musk: Searching for Population Equilibrium in East Asia“, that will feature CSDE Director Sara Curran and three other scholars on April 30 from 3:30 – 5 PM, in HUB 337, University of Washington.

From Malthus’s warnings of overpopulation to Musk’s urge to boost fertility, the drastic turn of humanity’s relationship with population growth is one of the defining features of East Asian societies. . Competition and proactive government intervention—both operating within the context of deep-seated cultural traditions—have defined the region's current demographic challenges. We conclude, however, that policy interventions alone will likely prove insufficient without addressing the fundamental shifts in social values and the complex interplay of economic, cultural, and political factors driving this historic demographic transformation.

IPUMS will be exhibiting at the PAA 2026 Annual Meeting. Stop by their booth to talk with IPUMS research staff. Share any powered by IPUMS work on the PAA program so we can highlight your session and bring some specialty IPUMS swag for you. 

• Advances and Resources in Linking Full Count Census Data from IPUMS: Wednesday, May 6; 9:00am-2:00pm | America’s Center Room 103
• Harmonizing Geographic U.S. Census Data Across Time: Resources from IPUMS NHGIS: Thursday, May 7; 6:30-7:30pm | Marriott St. Louis Grand - Room L1
• The Future of DHS: Supplemental and Alternative Data Sources: Friday, May 8; 6:00-7:30pm | Marriott St. Louis Grand - Room L6

Heat is one of the most frequently examined environmental influences on population health, and a wide variety of data sources exist to measure exposure. This pre-PAA workshop, sponsored by the Center on Aging, Health, and Environment (CACHE), provides an overview of heat measures and examples of two, including hands-on experience with code available via the CACHE website. Participants will generate temperature exposure measures from publicly available data, as well as wet bulb temperatures.

As a part of its Advancing Well-Being in the Arts Initiative’s Field Studies program, Wallace is interested in funding a small set of research studies that investigate aspects of how community-based arts organizations contribute to the economic mobility of their communities. “Communities” may include organizational staff, artists, audiences, program participants, local constituents served, and/or others as defined in proposals. For this RFP, the Wallace Foundation broadly defines and understands economic mobility, and pathways to economic mobility,

Studies in Family Planning is calling for submission for a special issue on “Pandemic and Epidemic Impacts on Reproduction, Sexual and Reproductive Health, and Family Dynamics: Longer-Term Consequences and Cross-Crisis Perspectives,” due September 16, 2026. The special issue aims to broaden the field by situating COVID-19 within a broader landscape of pandemics and epidemics with demonstrable implications for reproduction, family life, and SRHR.