The IPUMS Big Microdata Network and NDIRA, a collaboration between IPUMS and the University of Minnesota Life Course Center, are currently accepting submissions for the 2025 Data-Intensive Research Conference, to be held in person in Minneapolis, Minnesota, August 6 - 7, 2025; key components of the program will also be available to virtual participants. The conference theme is Understanding Health and Population Dynamics through Big Microdata. The deadline to apply is January 31, 2025. 

There has been an explosive growth in the quantity of census microdata available for social science and health research. Researchers now have access to full-count individual-level microdata from the U.S. Census spanning 1850 to the present when combining IPUMS full count data with resources available through the Federal Statistical Research Data Center. Similar resources exist in other countries with full count census data and population registers.  Full count microdata are a powerful resource for operationalizing historical and present-day contexts; linking persons, families, or communities to examine trajectories; and elucidating experiences of small demographic groups that often cannot be studied with the available sample in other data sources.

See the complete announcement on the UM website

From the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA):

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the Census Bureau have paused plans to reduce the Current Population Survey (CPS) sample in January 2025, due to a provision in the recently passed continuing resolution that allows BLS to spend CPS funds at a faster rate.

See previous COSSA coverage of this issue here.

Request for Information on the CHIPS and Science Act Section 10343: Research Ethics

Section 10343 ("Research Ethics") of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 directs NSF to incorporate ethical, social, safety, and security considerations into the merit review process that is used to evaluate research projects or other activities for funding. Section 10343 notes that "a number of emerging areas of research have potential ethical, social, safety, and security implications that might be apparent as early as the basic research stage." In addition, Section 10343 states that "the incorporation of ethical, social, safety, and security considerations into the research design and review process for Federal awards may help mitigate potential harms before they happen." Moreover, Section 10343 states that "The Foundation should continue to work with stakeholders to promote best practices for governance of research in emerging technologies at every stage of research."

Comments must be received on or before 11:59 P.M. Eastern time on Friday, December 13, 2024.

See the complete announcement and link to comment on the NSF website.

From the Social Science Research Council (SSRC):

The Policy Innovation Days initiative, supported by Arnold Ventures, provides funding and support for U.S. member universities to work with state and local government partners to host convenings connecting campus-based researchers with agencies seeking research and evaluation support.

Research partnerships between universities and state and local governments can help communities adopt more effective ways of delivering critically important public goods and services like health, education, safety, clean air and water, and growth-oriented infrastructure. Both federal and philanthropic funds can support these research and evaluation partnerships. Yet it is not easy for either government agencies or campus-based researchers to form these research collaborations.

The Policy Innovation Days initiative supports convenings designed to incubate impactful and funded research and evaluation collaborations between SSRC member universities and their state and local government partners. The SSRC will provide planning support, funding for convening expenses, and post-event support to help develop funding proposals for partnered research projects.

See complete information about the program online here.

"Biomedical researchers should change the way they use race and ethnicity in their research, says a new National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report, calling on researchers to scrutinize whether the use of race and ethnicity is appropriate at each stage of their work — and explain the scientific reasoning behind their decision in any publications.  
 
"Biomedical research spans human health and disease — from laboratory studies of animal tissue that improve our understanding of human biology, to clinical trials for new medical treatments. Race and ethnicity are used widely in biomedicine. However, the report says, racial and ethnic categories are often used inappropriately in biomedical research as proxies for biology — or as poor substitutes for factors such as genetics or environmental exposures — despite there being no genetic or biological basis for race. In some discrete cases, their use can be appropriate, for example in identifying health disparities."

Read the full media release here

Access the report here

ASA President Adia Harvey Wingfield  announced on November 1 the appointment of Dr. Heather Washington as Executive Director of the American Sociological Association. Heather has been serving as Interim Executive Director since May 2024. In August, the Finance Committee unanimously recommended Heather for appointment to Executive Director, and in October, ASA Council enthusiastically and unanimously voted to appoint her to the position.

Heather has been an integral part of ASA since 2021. She began her career at ASA as Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), where she directed the Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) and led efforts to advance ASA’s DEI goals. Most recently, Heather served as ASA Deputy Director, a role in which she continued to lead the association’s DEI efforts, while also serving as the principal investigator on two large grants: The National Science Foundation-funded ASA Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant and the William T. Grant Foundation-funded project on recognizing and rewarding community-engaged scholarship in tenure and promotion.

Heather holds a PhD and MA in sociology from The Ohio State University. Prior to joining ASA staff, she was an associate professor of sociology with tenure and an accomplished researcher and teacher. Heather is a Fellow of the ASA MFP (Cohort 38), a recipient of the American Society of Criminology minority fellowship, and a graduate of the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program. In 2018, she was selected as an Emerging Scholar by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, a significant honor recognizing professors who have distinguished themselves in their various academic disciplines and who are working to make our society more equitable and just. 

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) has put out a call for experts to participate in a study focused on increasing knowledge about barriers, solutions, and policies facing people with disabilities to advance a robust STEM workforce and STEM education workforce. NASEM staff is looking to build a team of approximately 12-16 volunteers whose tasks will include collecting information on potential speakers, participants, and peer reviewers for any publications regarding this study. NASEM is seeking experts in the following areas: disability studies, STEM career development, STEM and STEM education workforce, employment law, disability accommodations for academic and non-academic workplace environments, universal design, and STEM policy administration.

The full solicitation and description of qualifications can be found here. The deadline to submit recommendations is November 15.

Source: Consortium of Social Science Associations Washington Update, October 29, 2024

On October 15, President Biden announced his intent to appoint the newest class of National Science Board members, which includes sociologist and former White House official Alondra Nelson.

The National Science Board (NSB) is the policy-making body of the National Science Foundation (NSF) that also serves as an independent advisor to the President and Congress on federal science policy. The board consists of 24 members who serve staggered six-year terms and new members are appointed by the President.

Alondra Nelson is a sociologist who served as the first Deputy Director for Science and Society at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in the Biden Administration and was the first social scientist and woman of color to serve as interim OSTP Director. She left OSTP in 2023 and returned to academia at the Institute for Advanced Study. 

Source: Consortium of Social Science Associations Washington Update, October 29, 2024

The Center for Integrated Latent Variable Research (CILVR) at The University of Maryland is pleased to announce the following popular online short courses open to the public:

ANALYSIS OF COMPLEX SURVEY DATA (from NCES)
Dr. Laura Stapleton, University of Maryland
November 7-8, 2024

MULTILEVEL MODELING
Dr. Tracy Sweet, University of Maryland
December 12-13, 2024

For more information on the complete CILVR course catalog and to register, see the UMD Open Learning website.

"Loka Ashwood is a sociologist examining the intersection of environmental injustice, corporate and state power, and anti-government sentiment in American rural communities. Ashwood reveals how state support for some corporate interests can come at a high cost for rural residents. She draws from her own experience on her family’s farm and ethnographic research in rural communities facing ecological, economic, and social challenges. By analyzing specific local issues in the context of larger institutional structures, she sheds light on rural identity, culture, and politics."

See Ashwood's complete profile on the MacArthur Foundation website.

"Ruha Benjamin is a transdisciplinary scholar and writer illuminating how advances in science, medicine, and technology reflect and reproduce social inequality. By integrating critical analysis of innovation with attentiveness to the potential for positive change, Benjamin demonstrates the importance of imagination and grassroots activism in shaping social policies and cultural practices. In People’s Science: Bodies and Rights on the Stem Cell Frontier (2013), Benjamin examines the persistent gap between those who contribute to new medical technologies and those who actually benefit from them."

Read Benjamin's complete profile on the MacArthur Foundation website.