• When: Friday, 10/23/2026 @ 12:30-1:30 PM PT
• Where: 360 Parrington Hall and on Zoom (register here)

We are looking forward to hosting Joan Casey (Associate Professor and Associate Chair of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington) on Friday, Oct. 23rd in Parrington Hall 360 and on Zoom. This seminar is co-sponsored by the Population Health Initiative.

Wildfires are increasing in frequency and severity, impacting larger numbers of Americans annually, making previously once-in-a-lifetime exposures routine. What repeated exposure means for chronic disease remains largely unknown. Dr. Casey will present research using nationwide Medicare claims and electronic health records from Kaiser Permanente Southern California to examine repeated wildfire smoke exposure and neurological disease.

CSDE affiliate Melanie Martin (Associate Professor, Anthropology) and colleagues published new research in Nature showing that many gut microbes travelled with humans as they migrated out of Africa and into the Americas, and that industrialized populations are now losing these microbes. The team sequenced gut microbiomes from Tsimane forager-horticulturalists in Bolivia and compared them with those of Hadza hunter-gatherers in Tanzania. Although the ancestors of these two groups separated tens of thousands of years ago, they share nearly 90% of their gut microbial species--the majority of which are rare or absent in people living in industrialized societies. The loss of these species may matter for population health, since gut microbial composition has been linked to chronic metabolic and inflammatory diseases.

CSDE Affiliates Scott Allard and Heather Hill (Evans School of Public Policy and Governance) recently published a perspective article in The Milbank Quarterly titled, “State Labor Market Policies and Health.” Beginning in the 2000s, state governments started adopting labor market policies such as minimum wage laws, earned income tax credits, paid family and medical leave programs, paid sick leave mandates, and scheduling laws, and the presence or absence of these laws can affect workers’ health and well-being. Drawing on a review of the existing literature, the authors find emerging evidence that state actions to raise earnings and improve job quality for low-wage workers can lead to better health.

CSDE Affiliate Emily Williams (Health Services) and co-authors recently published a research article in JAMA Network Open titled, “Patient Travel Experiences for Methadone Dosing Visits.” Patients often face travel-related barriers to methadone dosing at opioid treatment programs (OTPs), but little is known about the nature of these experiences. Using an embedded mixed-methods design, the authors surveyed 98 patients and interviewed 16 of them at two OTP sites in Washington state, including mobile units, between November 2024 and February 2026. Patients spent a mean of 82.5 minutes round trip and $15.80 in travel-related costs for each dosing visit. Interviews revealed that distance was only part of the picture, as unpredictable wait times and conflicts with work, medical, or family obligations also mattered considerably.

CSDE External Affiliate Kristine Joy Chua (Assistant Professor, Anthropology, University of Notre Dame) and co-author Kaylin E. Hill recently published a conceptual paper in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews titled, “Incorporating Context and Co-Occurring Internal Processes into Psychophysiological Research.” While psychophysiology research has traditionally relied on single measures of specific processes within lab-based settings, the authors draw on complementary expertise from psychology and anthropology to argue for incorporating context and co-occurring internal processes into the field, with a particular focus on neural and cardiac assessments of how individuals respond to their surrounding environments and what this reveals about risk for psychopathology.

CSDE Affiliate Teresa Ward (School of Medicine) and co-authors, led by Dr. Weichao Yuwen (School of Nursing & Healthcare Leadership, University of Washington Tacoma) recently published a research article in the Journal of Medical Internet Research titled, “Development and Preliminary Evaluation of a Conversational Agent Delivering Problem-Solving Therapy for Family Caregivers of Children With a Chronic Health Condition: Multiphase Mixed Methods Study.” Family caregivers of children with chronic health conditions often experience substantial physical and mental health burdens, yet validated digital mental health tools tailored to them remain limited. The authors describe the iterative development of COCO (Caring of Caregivers Online), a conversational agent that integrates problem-solving therapy and motivational interviewing, progressing from rule-based interactions to a large language model-powered design across four phases.

The Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce has proposed rule changes to the 2030 Census that are extraordinary and unprecedented, requiring comment and feedback.  Those can be made until November 2 in the Federal Register where you can also read the full text of the proposed changes.  Comments can be made by both individuals and organizations.

This week, CSDE will offer a workshop centered around data manipulation in R on Tuesday, October 20th. The workshop will run 75 minute introduction and will cover reading and writing data, summarizing data, creating new variables, and moving between long and wide data formats.

This workshop is the second in a series of 3 workshops, and will be followed by Intro to R III: Data Visualization.

The workshop will be remote and a Zoom link for online attendance will be provided upon registration.

The Center for Social Science Computation and Research (CSSCR) at UW will be hosting two workshops on campus over the coming week. Details for each workshop are below. We encourage you to see more information about the workshops below and consider registering!

The organizers of a study on responsible practices and AI use in scientific fields from Ai2 (Allen Institute for AI) and Carnegie Mellon University are recruiting interview participants in various scientific fields including:

• applied sciences (agricultural science, computer science, environmental science, engineering, medicine)

• natural sciences (biology, chemistry, physics, meteorology, geology, astronomy)
• social sciences (psychology, economics, anthropology, sociology, political science)

The September 2026 issue of Studies in Family Planning, a journal of the Population Council, is now available. Highlights include a commentary on addressing women’s concerns about contraception and future fertility, and a new client-experience measure for injectable contraceptive care developed and tested with 400 women in Lilongwe, Malawi. 

The Natural Hazards Center, with funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, has launched the Health and Extreme Weather Research Award Program to address gaps in knowledge about the health risks and consequences of wildfires, hurricanes, droughts, floods, extreme heat, and other extreme weather events. Findings from funded research will help communities across the United States understand and reduce health risks associated with extreme weather. 

Accurate and respectful measurement of demographic information is fundamental to high-quality population research, yet researchers increasingly face challenges related to population diversity, multiracial and multiethnic identities, measurement error, and the demand for more detailed demographic data. This interactive workshop explores how demographic classification decisions, question design, and analytic approaches influence data quality, validity, comparability, and the usefulness of research findings.

The Sheldon Danziger Pipeline Grants Competition for early-career researchers supports early-career scholars who are underrepresented in the social sciences and/or who are employed at under-resourced institutions. The competition seeks to support a cohort of scholars who are diverse in their geographic origins, life experiences, and community backgrounds. Only researchers who have not previously received a trustee or presidential research grant or fellowship from RSF will be eligible to apply. 

Description: Cognitive diagnostic models (CDMs) are widely used in educational and psychological assessment to provide fine-grained information about individuals’ mastery of specific skills or attributes. Partial-mastery cognitive diagnostic models (PM-CDMs) extend traditional CDMs by allowing latent attribute mastery to vary continuously rather than being restricted to binary mastery indicators. In PM-CDMs, each individual is characterized by a fixed continuous latent mastery vector, from which item-specific binary attribute profiles are independently generated. This formulation provides a bridge between CDMs and continuous latent variable models.

The Evans School of Public Policy & Governance at the University of Washington invites applications for a Teaching Associate position to teach a one-quarter course in the 2026-2027 academic year.  Teaching Associates are quarterly faculty who may be rehired based on programmatic need.  We anticipate instructional need for Winter Quarter (December 16–March 15) and Spring Quarter (March 16–June 15).  Applicants may be considered for one or both of these quarterly appointments.  We seek applicants who will demonstrate commitment to excellence in teaching in a diverse and inclusive academic community.

The Call for Papers for the 18th Conference of Young Demographers is now open! The conference will take place at the Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague on 3–5 February 2027. You can find all the necessary information, including the submission form in the Call for Papers. The deadline for submission is 26 October 2026. For more information, please visit the conference website.

The University of Washington Office of Public Lectures presents: What Feeds Us: Science, Climate, and the Future of Food with Dr. Pamela Ronald

Monday, October 26th at 6:30pm

Suggested ticket price $10
Where: Town Hall Seattle (1119 8th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101)

Register here

Description: Historical archives preserve some of the written record, yet social scientists are interested in more than just facts. We are also interested in taken for granted cultural assumptions, such as how much prestige was accorded to certain occupations in different historical periods. In this talk I ask whether large language models, trained on vast historical text, can recover these lost “collective mentalities,” and whether we can trust that recovery as faithful. 

Core Research Grants provide up to $200,000 for PhD holders to conduct research projects aligned with RSF’s research priorities and special initiatives. Funds can be used for salary support and research expenses in accordance with RSF budget guidelines. Grants over $75,000 include 15 percent in indirect costs. RSF is accepting Letters of Inquiry for the following programs: Social, Political and Economic Inequality (SPEI);  Future of Work (FOW); Implications of the 2023 Supreme Court Decision to Ban Race-Conscious Admissions at Colleges and Universities for Educational Attainment and Economic Mobility (SCD23).

The U.S. Census Bureau is scheduled to release the 2025 American Community Survey (ACS) 1-year estimates and 1-year Supplemental Estimates on Oct. 29.

Data will be available for states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, congressional districts, metropolitan statistical areas, and other geographic areas that meet the product’s publication threshold. The publication thresholds are populations of 65,000 or more for the ACS 1-year estimates and populations of 20,000 or more for the 1-year Supplemental Estimates.

Seminar—Quantification as an Epistemic Practice: Activist Documentation of Anti-Trans Violence in Brazil 

Thursday, October 29, 2026 at 10 ET/2pm GMT/3pm CET (Check in your time zone here)

Sign up to receive the Zoom link on the day.

The Center on Aging, Health, & Environment has a new call out for seed grant proposals. Additional information here!

Proposal Deadline: October 30, 2026

People who have contact with the criminal justice system experience disproportionate social and health disadvantage both prior to and following their justice involvement, compared to the broader community. Achieving equity in areas such as health, housing, and education among people with justice system involvement should be a global priority. Simultaneously, the need to reduce offending and recidivism is central to improving public safety, strengthening justice system legitimacy, and reducing future victimisation.

In partnership with the Center for Aging and Policy Studies and Center for Policy Research at Syracuse University, The Milbank Quarterly will publish a special issue to advance knowledge on the connections between policies and population health in a changing U.S. context. The special issue seeks empirical, methodological, and theoretical contributions on the topic.

The IUSSP Early Career Awards aim to honour outstanding contributions to the broad field of population studies by early career scholars in different world regions and boost the global visibility of their achievements. Nominate colleagues by November 1, 2026. Nominees must have received their PhD within the last seven years and be IUSSP members. For more information about the Award and the nomination procedure and to fill out the application form, please go to IUSSP Early Career Awards.

Health Policy Fellows

Organization: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Award amount: Up to $195,000

Sponsor deadline: 11/03/2026

Description:

The RWJF Health Policy Fellows program provides the nation’s most comprehensive midcareer learning experience at the intersection of health, science, and policy in Washington, D.C. Fellows participate in the policy process at the federal level and leverage that leadership experience to promote policies, practices, and systems changes that advance the health of the nation.

The PAA Applied Demography Conference is back in-person in 2027! The organizers are excited to provide applied demographers with a unique opportunity to participate in a conference designed to showcase developments applied demography, receive feedback on work in progress, and strengthen professional and personal ties within the applied demography community. Save the date for February 17 – 18, 2027 in Washington, DC.

Submissions deadline: November 7, 2026

The Global Innovation Fund supports research that launches new projects, builds international networks, and lays the groundwork for future large-scale initiatives.

Seed Grants: Up to $5,000 for projects limited in scope or just beginning. This can be an opportunity for faculty who wish to add a global dimension to their research for the first time. Open to any discipline and geographic focus.  

Development Grants: Up to $15,000 for projects that have already established significant impact.

The countdown to the sixth UN World Data Forum has begun! Registration is now open for the biggest global gathering of data and statistics leaders, policymakers, innovators, researchers and development partners, taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from 9–12 November 2026.

Panel—A Conversation with Queerdem* Europe

Tuesday, November 10, 2026 at 9am ET/2pm GMT/3pm CET (Check in your time zone here)

Sign up to receive the Zoom link on the day.

The University of Colorado Population Center, part of the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado Boulder, is pleased to announce the 2026 Reproductive Demography Workshop, November 11-13, 2026 in Boulder, Colorado and online. The workshop will provide training on reproductive demography (including conception, pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion, and birth).

Join the UW Office of Research on Tuesday, November 17 for the inaugural UW Shared Research Facilities & Resources Fair, an opportunity to discover the people, services, technology, and expertise that support research at the UW!

Faculty, researchers, trainees, facility staff, and campus partners are invited to explore shared research facilities, learn about available research support services, connect with potential collaborators, and discover new funding opportunities that help researchers access specialized facilities and services.

The UW EDGE Center (Interdisciplinary Center for Exposures, Diseases, Genomics, and Environment, a NIEHS P30 Center) intends to provide pilot funding (up to $40K) to members of the faculty of UW, Seattle Children’s Hospital, and/or the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. We encourage early career scientists to partner with faculty to apply. Pre-applications for environmental health sciences research are due November 19, 2026, invited full proposals are due January 12, 2027, and funding begins no sooner than April 2027.

Applications for the 2026-2027 Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy awards are now open. The application date is December 1, 2026, including recommendation forms. Start your application now!

The amount of each award is $10,000, and twenty awards will be given. In addition, the Foundation offers two Special Awards: the Trustees’ Award for the most innovative project (an additional $3,000) and the Irving Louis Horowitz Award for the most outstanding project (an additional $5,000).

The Scholars-in-Residence Program offers both long-term and short-term fellowships designed to support and encourage top-quality research and writing on the history, politics, literature, and culture of the peoples of Africa and the African diaspora, as well as to promote and facilitate interdisciplinary exchange among scholars and writers in residence at the Schomburg Center. Awards can range from $3,000-$35,000. 

The Russell Sage Foundation’s Margaret Olivia Sage (MOS) Grants support research by multi- or inter-disciplinary teams on social, economic, and political challenges with generational consequences for social and living conditions in the United States. Such challenges are typically national in scope, involve both systemic and individual factors, and the questions they raise are as urgent for policymakers and communities as they are for researchers. 

The NIH’s Development of Collaborative Research Facilities or Research-Resource Facilities program (PAR-26-106) supports the construction or modernization of shared-use research facilities that benefit broad research communities, through two tracks: the Biomedical Research Facilities (BRF) program, funding $2–8 million for facilities advancing basic, translational, clinical, or behavioral science research, and the HIV/AIDS Research Facilities (HRF) program, funding $2–4 million for facilities aligned with NIH Office of AIDS Research priorities. 

CACHE will be at the GSA 2026 Annual Scientific Meeting, November 4 – 7 in National Harbor, MD, and is organizing a symposium “Pushing the Boundaries on Aging-Climate Topics and Methodologies”. To learn more about the GSA and to connect with leaders in aging and gerontology, find out more here. This year’s theme: “Reinforcing Resilience in Aging Science, Research and Education.”

Seminar—TBD with Dr. Byron Villacis

Tuesday, December 8, 2026 at 11:30am EST/4:30pm GMT/5:30pm CET (Check in your time zone here)

Sign up to receive the Zoom link on the day.

(read more)

Recognize a fellow demographer (or yourself!) who has contributed to the profession. Five awards will be presented at the PAA 2027 Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington in April. Each award winner receives a check, plaque, and longstanding recognition to their innovative contributions to the field.

All nominees should exemplify the highest standards of professional conduct. See each webpage for individual nomination criteria and instructions. The deadline for nominations is Monday, December 14, 2026. 

Demographic Research invites contributions to the Special Collection on Kinship Demography: Structures, Dynamics, and Inequalities in the journal Demographic Research, organized by Ashton Verdery, Bussarawan Puk Teerawichitchainan, Diego Alburez-Gutierrez, and Elena Maria Pojman. Submissions to this collection are possible from June 15, 2026 until December 15, 2026. Please find more information on the collection’s description and goals as well as on submission procedures here.

Seminar—TBD with Dr. Christopher A. Julian

Thursday, January 7, 2027 at 10am EST/3pm GMT/4pm CET (Check in your time zone here)

Sign up to receive the Zoom link on the day.

(read more)

Seminar—Examining transnational families: Cross-perspectives from administrative data and statistical surveys

Thursday, March 18, 2027 at 9am EST/1pm GMT/2pm CET (Check in your time zone here)

Sign up to receive the Zoom link on the day. 

BMC Geriatrics is currently welcoming submissions of original research to a “War and aging” Collection. CSDE Affiliate Amy Hagopian is one of three Guest Editors for the Collection, with Rolf Kleber and Alice Aiken. If you’re interested in submitting a manuscript for the BMC Geriatrics Collection, submissions will be welcomed anytime until 30 April 2027.

The Collection welcomes original research addressing climate adaptation challenges across Africa, with particular interest in studies that provide credible scientific evidence, innovative analytical approaches, and practical solutions to support climate-resilient development. The Collection is particularly interested in interdisciplinary research involving climate science, earth observation, artificial intelligence and machine learning, socio-economic analysis, governance, indigenous knowledge, early warning systems, climate risk assessment, adaptation planning, nature-based solutions, and community-led approaches. 

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