This Friday, David Van Riper from the Minnesota Population Center will present on differential privacy, the 2020 Decennial Census, and subsequent implications for social scientists. A team of IPUMS research scientists, led by Van Riper, analyzed the implementation of differential privacy by the Census Bureau and the impact on the accuracy of summary data tables. This presentation will provide an overview of differential privacy, describe the Census Bureau’s proposed algorithm, discuss the policy decisions required for its implementation, analyze the differentially private 2010 decennial data released by the Bureau, and discuss steps the Bureau is taking to improve their implementation.

This week, the UW’s Population Health Initiative announced its COVID-19 awards. Congratulations to all awardees! Notably, of the 21 awards made at least seven were awarded to teams including CSDE affiliates and scientific staff! Here we share a few highlights. Jen Otten and her colleagues will examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food systems, food security, and food access in WA. Arthur Acolin, Kyle Crowder, and Rebecca Walter with their team will assess prevailing impacts of COVID-19 on rental housing markets across metropolitan areas and neighborhoods. Carmen Gonzalez and her team will find codeveloping culturally relevant messages for farmworker safety and health in the COVID-19 pandemic. Click below to see all the CSDE affiliate awardees and their research... 

CSDE Affiliates Karin Martin, Ali Rowhani-Rahbar, and CSDE Trainee Charles C. Lanfear are recipients of 2020 University of Washington Awards of Excellence. Martin and Rowhani-Rahbar received the UW Distinguished Teaching Award and Lanfear received the UW Excellence in Teaching Award. The awards, which are the university’s highest awards for instruction, recognize these individuals for their exceptional leadership within the UW Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, the UW School of Public Health, and Sociology Department, respectively. The Distinguished Teaching and Excellence in Teaching Awards also recognize recipients for achievements in mentoring, public service, and staff support. Congratulations, Karin Martin, Ali Rowhani-Rahbar, and Charles Lanfear!

In a new study titled “Institutional Castling: Military Enlistment and Mass Incarceration in the United States” published in the Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, CSDE Regional Affiliate Amy Bailey and Bryan Sykes examine a key consequence of military downsizing: increased incarceration rates. By analyzing data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Bailey and Sykes show how institutional castling—the shifting prominence of competing institutions in the lives of specific demographic groups—has affected the underlying risk of military employment and penal confinement. Their results imply that the military has remarkable protective effects against the penal institution for men with low levels of education and for Black men, in particular.

The Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan has launched a new repository for COVID-19 Data that examines the social, behavioral, public health, and economic impact of the global pandemic. The COVID-19 Data Repository is a free, self-publishing option for any researcher or journalist who wants to share data related to COVID-19. The data will be available to any interested user for secondary data analysis. UW’s Center for Social Science Computation and Research (CSSCR) manages the UW’s partnership with ICPSR through CSSCR’s data archive services.  

Two new RFAs were just announced from the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis.  The links for the calls can be found here for R21 applications or R01 applications. Do let CSDE know if we can help you with any aspect of the preparation of your application (reviewing your narrative, budgeting, or scientific and technical consultations)!