Author Archives: dhou1

NIJ FY25 Graduate Research Fellowship

NIJ seeks applications for the FY25 Graduate Research Fellowship program, which supports doctoral students whose dissertation research is relevant to preventing and controlling crime, advancing knowledge of victimization and effective victim services, or ensuring the fair and impartial administration of criminal or juvenile justice in the United States.

The official applicant is the sponsoring academic institution located in the United States or its territories, and students must apply through their institution. To be eligible, the academic institution must be fully accredited by one of the regional institutional accreditation agencies recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education.

Academic institutions are eligible to apply only if:

The student is currently enrolled in a research doctorate program at the eligible academic institution. Humanities and Visual and Performing Arts degree programs are not eligible.
The student’s proposed dissertation research has demonstrable relevance to preventing and controlling crime, advancing knowledge of victimization and effective victim services, or ensuring the fair and impartial administration of criminal or juvenile justice, in the United States.

An applicant may submit more than one application, but each application must propose sponsoring a different student.

Learn more about the Graduate Research Fellowship program and the current solicitation at an informational webinar on February 13, 2025, at 11:30 – 1:00 p.m. ET. Register for the webinar. Submit any questions in advance to grf@usdoj.gov no later than February 11, 2025 with the subject “Questions for NIJ FY25 Graduate Research Fellowship Webinar.”

Applications will be submitted in a two-step process, each with its own deadline:

Submit SF-424 in Grants.gov. Step 1, Grants.gov Application Deadline: April 15, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. ET
Submit the full application including attachments in JustGrants. Step 2, JustGrants Application Deadline: April 22, 2025 at 8:59 p.m. ET

Postdoctoral Scholar – Social Environments and Population Health | Population Research Institute

Postdoctoral Scholar – Social Environments and Population Health

The Population Research Institute at The Pennsylvania State University anticipates an opening for a Postdoctoral Scholar in Social Environments and Population Health, starting on or around August 15, 2025, contingent on funding availability. The Postdoctoral Scholar will devote time to independent research, collaborations with faculty mentors, and mentored training and professionalization.

This position is funded for one year from the start date, with the possibility of renewal for an additional year, conditional on successful progress.

Applicants must have a Ph.D. in a social science field such as sociology, demography, family studies, anthropology, economics, public policy, or related fields using social science approaches (e.g., epidemiology) by the start date, and have training and research experience in demographic processes (fertility, mortality, migration, and family formation), especially as they are relevant to social environments and population health. Additionally, applicants must demonstrate interest and capacity for independent research, evidence or clear plans for an emerging publication record, have outstanding writing and communication skills, and be able to work effectively on a team.

Apply here.

Postdoctoral Scholar – Emerging Disparities in Population Health | Population Research Institute

Postdoctoral Scholar – Emerging Disparities in Population Health

The Population Research Institute at The Pennsylvania State University anticipates an opening for a Postdoctoral Scholar in Emerging Disparities in Population Health, starting on or around August 15, 2025, contingent on funding availability. The Postdoctoral Scholar will devote time to independent research, collaborations with faculty mentors, and mentored training and professionalization.

This position is funded for one year from the start date, with the possibility of renewal for an additional year, conditional on successful progress.

Applicants must have a Ph.D. in a social science field such as sociology, demography, gerontology, family studies, anthropology, economics, public policy, or related fields using social science approaches (e.g., epidemiology) by the start date, and have training and research experience in substantive demographic topics or demographic methods, especially as they are relevant to aging and population health disparities. Additionally, applicants must demonstrate interest and capacity for independent research, evidence or clear plans for an emerging publication record, have outstanding writing and communication skills, and be able to work effectively on a team.

Apply here.

Project Manager | Center for Educational Data Science & Innovation (EDSI)

Project Manager

The University of Maryland, College Park seeks a skilled project manager to support the newly established Center for Educational Data Science and Innovation (EDSI). This is an excellent opportunity to support the administrative operations of a cutting-edge research center at the intersection of data science, artificial intelligence (AI), and education.

About the Center for Education Data Science and Innovation (EDSI):

The Center for Educational Data Science and Innovation, housed within the College of Education, is dedicated to advancing research and practice at the nexus of data science, AI, and education. EDSI’s mission encompasses:

Accelerating cutting-edge research leveraging data science and AI to address critical issues in education and advance education equity and effectiveness.
Bridging educators, researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders to promote evidence-based, ethical, and responsible use of data and AI in education.
Transforming education systems to achieve greater equity, efficiency, and effectiveness for all students through innovative technological advancements and policy solutions.

Position Overview:

Reporting to the Faculty Director, the project manager will support both the administrative and research components of EDSI. Given EDSI’s recent launch, this position’s responsibilities will evolve as the center grows and expands. This is an on-site, 12-month position classified as a Faculty Specialist at UMD. Initial appointment is 1 year and renewable.

Continue reading →

Data Analyst | Center for Educational Data Science & Innovation (EDSI)

Data Analyst for Educational Data Science

Position Title: Data Analyst
Location: University of Maryland, College Park
Position Type: 1-year Fixed-Term, with the possibility of renewal based on performance and
funding
Work Arrangement: In-person

About the Center for Education Data Science and Innovation (EDSI):

Accelerating cutting-edge research leveraging data science and AI to address critical issues in education and advance education equity and effectiveness.
Bridging educators, researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders to promote evidence-based, ethical, and responsible use of data and AI in education.
Transforming education systems to achieve greater equity, efficiency, and effectiveness for all students through innovative technological advancements and policy solutions.

Position Overview:

We are seeking a highly skilled Data Analyst to lead data-driven research initiatives aimed at improving educational practices. This position involves working with a diverse array of educational data types, coordinating research collaborations, supporting the integration of research insights into innovative educational products and interventions, and exploring cutting-edge technologies, including generative AI, to enhance educational research and practice. The candidate will oversee the collection, management, and analysis of complex educational data from multiple sources, including classroom recordings, administrative datasets, and proprietary learning tools. Additionally, the Data Analyst will help translate research findings into actionable tools and products, working closely with software developers, educational partners, and researchers.

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Policy Analyst | DC Government

Policy Analyst

Job ID: 28720
Location: 441 4th Street, NW
Full/Part Time: Full-Time
Minimum Rate: $93,069.00
Target Openings: 2
Date Closed: 01/26/2025

Introduction

This position is in the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC), an independent agency that serves as a forum for identifying challenges and generating solutions to enhance public safety and the fair administration of justice for District of Columbia residents, visitors and justice-involved individuals. CJCC facilitates information sharing and collaboration; conducts research and analysis; and provides training and technical assistance on behalf of its District and federal member agencies.

Incumbent is responsible for identifying justice system policy and operational issues, proposing and soliciting solutions, and facilitating implementation of multi-agency efforts to help implement those solutions. Incumbent is also responsible for supporting training and technical assistance for various government agencies and community-based organizations through meetings, convenings, panel discussions and webinars. Finally, Incumbent supports transparency and public engagement by planning public meetings on topics of interest to the community. Incumbent generally focuses on one issue area relevant to the criminal justice system in the District.

Duties and Responsibilities

Incumbent is responsible for policy analysis and project management in support of one priority area identified by CJCC members and the Executive Director. Current priority areas include incarceration and community corrections, substance use and mental health, violent crime and juvenile justice but may shift at the discretion of the CJCC members. In collaboration with the Executive Director and Director of Research and Policy, incumbent plans and convenes training and technical assistance programs, information sessions, and public meetings with respect to a single CJCC priority area.

Reviews and synthesizes research, data summaries, policy, and practices of criminal justice policy issues. Presents critical observations, findings and recommendations on policy and legislation and their effect on the District’s justice system activities with respect to focus areas. Assures that policy issues and recommendations are well-defined and recommends needed amendments to laws, regulations and other rules. Prepares policy statements and reviews and assesses the impact of proposed legislation on functions, responsibilities, and operations of the agency, as directed. Prepares grant applications to obtain funding to support research, analysis and technical support related to CJCC priority areas. Oversees the work of policy and research contractors in completing key functions and projects, ensuring quality, task and timeline adherence. Supports the supervisor in developing responses to high-level inquiries from the Mayor, the City Administrator, CJCC members, the Council of the District of Columbia or others regarding issues of significant importance and/or consequence, complexity or sensitivity.

NIJ FY 2025 Graduate Research Fellowship – INFORMATION WEBINAR

NIJ FY 2025 Graduate Research Fellowship Webinar

Thursday, February 13, 2025 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM
(UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)

Agenda

This webinar will give an overview of NIJ’s Graduate Research Fellowship opportunity, which seeks to support doctoral students whose dissertation research is relevant to preventing and controlling crime, advancing knowledge of victimization and effective victim services, or ensuring the fair and impartial administration of criminal or juvenile justice in the United States.

The presenters will discuss program scope, eligibility, application elements, and frequently asked questions.

Live captioning will be available.

Distinguished Student Paper Award

The American Sociological Association’s Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance invites submissions for the 2025 Distinguished Student Paper Award competition. This award is presented annually for the best paper authored by a graduate student. Papers may be empirical or theoretical and can address any topic in the sociology of crime, law, and deviance. Submissions may be sole- or multiple-authored, but all authors must be students at the time of submission. Papers should be article length (approximately 30 double spaced pages) and should follow the manuscript preparation guidelines used by the American Sociological Review. Papers accepted for publication at the time of submission are not eligible.

The winner will receive $500 to offset the cost of attending the 2025 ASA meeting. Nominations may be submitted by the author or by others, and we encourage self-nominations. Please send a PDF of the paper to the Award Committee Chair, Dr. Shannon Malone Gonzalez, sgonzalez@unc.edu, with the subject line, “CLD Distinguished Student Paper Nomination.”

Committee: Chair: Shannon Malone Gonzalez (Chair), University of North Carolina; Tony Cheng, Duke University; Uriel Serrano, University of California, Irvine; Bryan Sykes, Cornell University

KIMCHI MEMORIAL GRADUATE AWARD ANNOUNCEMENT

Purpose
In memory of the life and accomplishments of Dr. Anat Kimchi (Criminology and Criminal Justice graduate student), the Kimchi Memorial Graduate Awards Committee will be selecting the fourth Annual Kimchi Memorial Award recipients from among graduate student applicants in Criminology and Criminal Justice.

The Kimchi funds may be used for expenses related to summer research support, professional conference travel, data collection/access, academic training, or to defray the costs of achieving key academic milestones in the graduate program. The focus of these awards is on research related to racial inequality, social justice, punishment and recidivism research, and other areas of scholarship in the study of formal institutions of social control in society.

For example, award monies might be utilized to support various activities that
are related to these areas of research, such as:

Travel to upcoming academic or policy-related conferences
Summer research stipends (e.g. to complete/submit paper for publication)
ICPSR or other data training workshops
Paying for data access for a student dissertation or related work
Purchasing specialized software needed for research purposes
Key activities tied to programmatic milestones (e.g. finishing dissertation)

Award Eligibility
University of Maryland Criminology & Criminal Justice doctoral students who have completed their master’s thesis are eligible to apply for the Kimchi Memorial Graduate Awards. Preference will be given to students who have advanced to candidacy. The Award Committee is comprised of 3 full-time faculty members and 1 current graduate student. Graduate students serving on the committee are ineligible to receive the Kimchi Award during their tenure on the committee.

Proposal Structure
To be considered for a Kimchi Memorial Graduate Award, applicants must submit a written project proposal to the Kimchi Award Committee. Applicants can submit a travel/data award, research award, or both. Travel/data proposals should be no more than 3 double-spaced pages. Research proposals should be no more than 5 double-spaced pages. The application process is the same for both but research proposals should be more detailed than travel proposals.

For both types of awards, applicants should provide a summary of the proposed project, including a discussion of the importance of the planned activity and its potential impact on criminal justice research, policy and practice. Proposals should include: a description of the research problem; discussion of relevant literature (other studies that address the topic and use the same or related data); and a detailed description of the methodology, including prior experience with the data or analytic method. The proposal should also clearly describe the project’s dissemination strategy (e.g., publication, dissertation, white paper, policy brief, agency report, paper presentation at a professional conference) and discuss whether it is related to the goals of a specific criminal justice or related agency. Successful applications will consider the feasibility of the study (i.e., how likely it is that the project will be successfully executed) and how the proposed project fits into the broader substantive research areas defined below under Award Criteria. A CV should be attached along with the completed application. For more information about the Kimchi Award, please see: go.umd.edu/kimchiaward.

Award Criteria
The committee anticipates being able to support 1 research award that totals no more than $3600, plus up to 2 travel/data awards, each not exceeding $540 in a given year. Travel/data funds can be used to support travel to a national conference, offset costs of a statistical or other training workshop, or help pay for data access or other specialized research costs. Students who receive a Kimchi Award are expected to use the funds to support the proposed activity. Award amounts may vary depending on individual projects and fund priorities and no award may be given some years. Key criteria that should be used to
structure the written proposals include:

Scholarly Importance and Potential Impact of the Research
o Novelty and importance of the research topic
o Potential to make meaningful research contribution to discipline
Substantive Relevance of Proposed Topic Areas
o Preference will be given to proposals related to:
▪ Racial and/or social justice
▪ Community corrections (e.g. probation, parole, etc.)
▪ Prosecution, sentencing or imprisonment
Data and Methods
o Projects should involve high-level quantitative data analysis
o Integration of multiple or complex data sources
o Application of rigorous and sophisticated analytical approaches
Justice Policy and Translational Criminology
o Extent to which research might impact policy
o Potential to enact meaningful change in criminal justice system
o Additional efforts directly related to translational criminology
Overall Quality and Level of Development in the Proposal
o Quality of writing, organization, and connections to prior work
o Quality of description of data and methods
o Completeness of research ideas and feasibility of project

Application Timeline
Student may apply for funds to support projects that will occur at any point during the upcoming year (i.e. Summer, 2025– Spring, 2026). Completed proposals must be submitted to Jessica Townsend (jessicat@umd.edu) with the Subject Line: Kimchi Graduate Award by 5pm on Friday, February 28, 2025. The committee anticipates making final award announcements by Mid-March, 2025.

Save the Date: Jelmar Meester

Please save the date! Jelmar Meester will be delivering a talk via zoom on his Fulbright project, titled “Detecting Corporate Crime: An Estimate for Hidden Offending,” on January 28th at 10:00 AM in the Large Conference Room.

In his presentation, Jelmar will begin by acknowledging that corporate offending suffers from detection bias. Not all offending can be detected through current regulatory practices. But, in contrast to mainstream criminological research, research on corporate offending cannot apply victim surveys or self-report studies to estimate the true figure of offending. To overcome this problem, he examines the application of a detection controlled estimation model to estimate the extent of undetected corporate offending. His first step in the application is to assess the performance of the model using a simulated dataset. Next, the model is applied to a dataset on offending in Dutch inland shipping. He concludes by discussing the benefits and disadvantages of the model as well as possible applications in other contexts.