Seminar Series

Speaker

Tod Hamilton
Professor of Sociology
Princeton University

Speaker

Kevin J.A. Thomas
Director, Institute of Urban Policy Research and Analysis
Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies and Sociology
University of Texas at Austin

Speakers

Jennie Romich
Director, West Coast Poverty Center & Professor of Social Work
University of Washington

Speaker

Jenna Nobles
Professor of Demography
University of California Berkeley

Discovering the processes through which early life experiences affect children’s development is critically important for developing prevention and interventions for youth exposed to adversity, and also for understanding the basic science of human development and learning. Nearly all research on early experience and socio-emotional development has been anchored on specific events that have (or have not) occurred in a child’s life. Yet, there is increasing evidence that children’s perceptions of their own experiences and the meaning they construe from what has happened to them can deepen our understanding of their behavioral, health, and learning outcomes. How can we better embrace this real, albeit messy, complexity of human development? This presentation aims to serve as a catalyst for thinking about these kinds of new future research directions.

There is compelling evidence that convictions and incarceration have negative impacts on labor market outcomes. But research also shows that offenders have relatively low levels of human capital even before any contact with the justice system. Thus, accurately characterizing an offender’s employment profile and the plausible impact of the justice system has been challenging due to this population’s non-trivial involvement in both formal and informal sectors and the non-linear relationship between criminal justice involvement and economic outcomes (e.g. the first criminal record playing a critical role in life-long employment outcomes). We use high-quality longitudinal criminal justice records through CJARS integrated with extensive labor market data (IRS W-2s and ACS self-reported work) to examine the effect of criminal justice interactions on labor market outcomes in an event study framework. Employment and earnings are tracked in both formal administrative as well as self-reported employment status in survey responses, providing an opportunity to identify informality and its implications. In this research, we highlight the importance of periodicity of criminal justice events and the role of shifts to informal employment, particularly when using event studies and administrative data.

Over the past few decades, the U.S. has experienced significant declines in involuntary interventions within three major systems that have the power to separate children and parents. Foster care placements in the child welfare system have plummeted in recent years, following longer term declines in juvenile detentions and arrests. Group homes and institutions for children are closing at a rapid pace. Adult prison and criminal justice supervision populations have declined, and states have begun to decriminalize drugs and reduce the use of cash bail. Yet, more recently, there are emerging signals of another pendulum swing, as states struggle to ameliorate social problems through more voluntary or rehabilitative means. Using various state and national data sources, this talk will explore the interconnectedness of child welfare, juvenile justice, and adult criminal justice systems, describe recent and historical system trends, and revisit assumptions about the nature and impacts of involuntary system interventions on children.

Women in science continuously face disadvantages that span across different stages of career, including limited opportunities for academic positions, shorter career longevity and lower international mobility. Previous research has suggested a trend towards more gender equality in science, but with considerable heterogeneity in pace across fields and countries. This study challenges the commonly-held view of slow but consistent progress in gender equality by assessing recent trends in representation of women in the population of published scholars using a demographic framework based on the entry, exit and migration rates of scholars, by gender.  We analyzed one of the most prominent abstract and citation databases, Scopus, which includes over 33 million publications from 1996 to 2020. We estimated that the Gender Parity Index (i.e., the number of female scholars per male scholar) increased significantly, on a global scale, until around 2011. However, since then the trend towards higher representation of women has stagnated across the large majority of countries worldwide. Our projections indicate that, if current trends persist, gender gaps are likely to increase or stabilize over the next decade. We identified three demographic determinants of observed trends. First, the rate at which women enter academia has decreased relative to men; second, the rate at which women exit academia, relative to men, has been fairly stable over time; third, even within a context of enhancement of gender parity in academia, the career length of female scholars has not notably increased.

Energy inequity is an urgent public health issue and climate issue. Energy poverty - broadly understood as the lack of adequate energy services to provide basic needs - has a range of social and health impacts and has been linked to health conditions such as cardiovascular disease and respiratory conditions. Energy retrofits for homes can address energy poverty by reducing energy waste, reducing monthly household bills, and improving thermal comfort while, at the same time, reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, energy retrofits can also worsen energy poverty if they are implemented solely to achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions without considering energy inequities. This talk will focus on Dr. Tozer's recent work on how to catalyze equity-oriented energy transitions. She will present qualitative community-based and policy-engaged research on how energy retrofit programs can play a role in effectively addressing energy poverty in Canada and on using a vulnerability-based approach to address the determinants of energy poverty while working towards a livable climate.