Tag Archives: research

Research and Data Analyst | Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Program

Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes and Hate Bias Incidents Prevention Strategy
Research and Data Analyst

Salary: $21/hour
Hours: 20 hours/month
Location: Annapolis, MD
Job Type: Part-Time Contractual
Job Number:
Department: Chief Administrative Office: Office of Equity and Human Rights (OEHR)
Opening Date: 12/05/2024
Closing Date: Until filled

OVERVIEW
In 2023, Anne Arundel County was awarded a grant through the US Department of Justice: Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) to implement the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Program in the county. This is a four (4) year grant, in which Anne Arundel County will develop a comprehensive multi-pronged Hate Crimes and Hate Bias Incidents Prevention Strategy, with a focus on prevention, investigation, and prosecution, while providing quality services to victims of hate bias incidents.

POSITION DESCRIPTION
Anne Arundel County Government is seeking a Research and Data Analyst to support the Anne Arundel County Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes and Hate Bias Incidents Prevention Strategy.

This is a professional-level position in the Office of the County Executive. The position will report to the Senior Project Manager over the Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes and Hate Bias Incidents Prevention Strategy in the Office of Equity and Human Rights (OEHR). This is a part-time contractual, non-benefited position focused ONLY (100%) on Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes and Hate Bias Incidents Prevention Strategy activities. It is a public-facing position and will serve as a representative of the County Executive and its Administration.

The Research and Data Analyst is responsible for:

  • Reviewing and redacting hate bias incidents and hate crimes police reports.
  • Conducting trend analysis.
  • Developing presentations for internal and external audiences.
  • Recommend data-driven solutions for improving current practices.
  • Researching other Hate Bias Initiatives and reports to augment the County’s strategy

Examples of Duties and Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

  • Develop and track performance metrics in line with the County’s Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes and Hate Bias Incidents Prevention Strategy goals and priorities, and identify areas that may need further review;
  • Create data visualizations and end-user reports;
  • Manage ongoing agency performance tasks for the performance improvement initiatives which includes things like troubleshooting issues as they arise, to updating tracking sheets and backend of visualizations annually;
  • Work collaboratively with Anne Arundel County Police Department to identify opportunities for operational improvement;
  • Compile, process, and analyze hate bias and hate crime data in a clear and concise manner;
  • Support the OEHR team in the administration of various Shepard-Byrd Hate Bias Prevention Strategy efforts;
  • Proficient in data cleaning and analysis techniques, with an understanding of basic statistical concepts;
  • Familiarity with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping software such as ESRI;
  • Knowledge of online data visualization platforms such as Quicksight, Tableau, or ESRI

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

  • Possess a four-year degree from an accredited college or university in Business or Public Administration, Research and Evaluation, Social Sciences, or a related field.
  • Two (2) or more years of professional experience performing data analysis and results dissemination, program evaluation and/or process improvement in an academic, data administration, or business analytics environment.
  • Strong interpersonal skills with the capacity to communicate with multiple stakeholder groups.
  • Ability to explain complex, technical information to a non-technical audience.
  • Experience working with law enforcement is preferred.
  • Proficiency in Google Suite and/or Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).

To apply, please send your resume directly to Nicola.smithkea@aacounty.org.

2025 Northwestern Main and Advanced Causal Inference Workshops

We are excited to be holding our 14th annual workshop on Research Design for Causal Inference at Northwestern Law School in Chicago, IL. We invite you to attend.

Main Workshop: Monday – Friday, July 28 – August 1, 2025
Advanced Workshop: Sunday – Wednesday, August 3-6, 2025

What’s special about these workshops are the world-class speakers, who are experts in the topics they will discuss. See the link below for speaker details.

Target audience for the workshops: Quantitative empirical researchers (including faculty, graduate students, post-docs, and other researchers) in social science, including law, political science, economics, many business-school areas (finance, accounting, management, marketing, etc.), medicine, sociology, education, psychology, etc. –anywhere that causal inference is important.

In person-registration is limited to 125 participants for each workshop. There will also be a Zoom option, but come in person if you can; the online experience is not the same.

For information and to register: https://www.law.northwestern.edu/research-faculty/events/conferences/causalinference

Main Workshop Outline
Monday, July 28 (Donald Rubin; Harvard University)
     Introduction to Modern Methods for Causal Inference
Tuesday, July 29 (Jens Hainmueller, Stanford University)
     Matching and Reweighting Designs for “Pure” Observational Studies
Wednesday, July 30 (Jens Hainmueller, Stanford University)
     Panel Data and Difference-in-Differences
Thursday, July 31 (Heather Royer, UC Santa Barbara)
     Regression Discontinuity
Friday, August 1 Morning: (Tymon Sloczynski, Brandeis University)
     Instrumental variable methods
Friday, August 1 Afternoon: Feedback on your own research

Advanced Workshop Outline
Sunday afternoon, August 3 (optional) (Christian Hansen, Univ. of Chicago)
     Primer on machine learning approaches to prediction 
Monday, August 4:  Christian Hansen
     Applications of machine learning to causal inference
Tuesday, August 5:  Andrew Goodman-Bacon (Federal Reserve Board)
     Advanced Difference-in Differences
Wednesday, August 6:  Peter Hull (Brown University)
     Advanced Instrumental Variables

Stata and R coding:  On selected days after the lectures, we will run parallel Stata and R sessions to illustrate code for the research designs discussed in the lectures. 

Workshop Organizers
Bernie Black (Northwestern University)
Scott Cunningham (Baylor University)

Questions:  Please email Bernie Black (bblack@northwestern.edu) or Scott Cunningham (scunning@gmail.com) for questions or fee waiver requests, and Sebastian Bujak (sebastian.bujak@law.northwestern.edu) for logistics and registration questions.

Research Study Participation Opportunity

You are invited to participate in a research study in Washington, D.C. in February 2025. Participating in our study will require up to three hours of your time, spread out over six months, most of which is done through online surveys. You will also be asked to visit one museum on the National Mall. You can receive up to $50 in Amazon gift cards and a chance to win one of ten (10) iPads in a raffle throughout the course of the study.

If interested in participating, please click here to provide some information about yourself. More details on the study will follow.

NIBRS Animal Cruelty Data Research Award

Promoting the Analysis of NIBRS Animal Cruelty Data
AWI’s Center for the Study of NIBRS Animal Cruelty Data is pleased to offer two $5,000 grants for master’s and doctoral students to utilize National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) animal cruelty data in their research

Apply Now

Preview the form.

Application Deadline

  • Completed application forms and accompanying materials must be submitted by February 28, 2025.


Application Requirements

  • Analysis of NIBRS animal cruelty data must play a central part in the proposed research project. Datasets for analysis can be downloaded here (the raw data can also be obtained from the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer or the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research’s National Archive of Criminal Justice Data).
  • Applicants must submit the following:
    • Completed application form
    • Resume/CV
    • Letter(s) of support from their institution

Additional Information

  • Award notifications will be sent in March 2025.
  • Award recipients must agree to submit a written summary of the results of the project at its conclusion. This summary may be edited for potential publication in the AWI Quarterly magazine.
  • Award recipients must agree to submit their results for publication in a professional journal or presentation at an appropriate conference.
  • For additional information, please contact claire@awionline.org.

PhD Student | Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

PhD Student | Research Group Migration and Health Inequalities

The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) is seeking to appoint a full-time PhD student to join the ERC-funded Research Group on Migration and Health Inequalities. The group, led by Silvia Loi, brings together experts from Demography, Quantitative Sociology, and Social Epidemiology to address the pressing scientific and societal question: Why do immigrants age in poorer health compared to non-immigrants? 
The research group agenda builds up on these three research areas:

  1. quantify the gaps in healthy ageing trajectories between immigrants and non-immigrants by age, gender, socioeconomic status, and their interactions; 
  2. identify the critical events and circumstances in immigrants’ lives that put them on a different healthy ageing trajectory from non-immigrants; 
  3. study the impact of family composition and family ties in mitigating health inequalities by migration background. 

We are seeking a qualified and highly motivated student with a quantitative background with interests at the intersection of migration, ageing and health, broadly defined. The successful candidate must have a Master’s degree in Demography, Sociology, Social Epidemiology or related fields, and a strong quantitative background. Candidates with interests in topics surrounding migration, health and ageing in any setting and comparing across gender, socioeconomic class, or geographical location are welcome. Demonstrable skills in R or Stata are highly desirable. 

This PhD studentship offers an excellent opportunity for motivated students to work with a highly international team of researchers, to take advantage of the interdisciplinary intellectual environment at the MPIDR, as well as substantial financial support for travel, research training and data acquisition. 
Admitted students take part in the International Max Planck Research School for Population, Health and Data Science (IMPRS-PHDS) that merges demography, epidemiology and data science. IMPRS-PHDS equips doctoral students not only with advanced knowledge of the theory and methods of demography and epidemiology (broadly defined as ‘population health’), but also with strong technical skills in statistics, mathematical modeling, and computational and data management methods (broadly referred to as ‘data science’). PHDS supports strong interdisciplinary research training and exchange within a network of universities in Europe and the US. The research school offers a core training program in Rostock, extensive networking opportunities across partner sites, and high-quality supervision across at least two institutes. For more information on the IMPRS-PHDS curriculum please see https://www.imprs-phds.mpg.de.

Please apply online via this survey and include in a single PDF file:

  1. Curriculum Vitae including a list of publications 
  2. Copies of transcripts of undergraduate and, if applicable, Master’s degree;
  3. Motivation letter, 1-2 pages that describe how your research interests fit into the research agenda of the Research Group and the related project. Please include your research accomplishments, and highlight your technical skills, and areas of expertise;
  4. A writing sample;
  5. Contact information for up to 2 academic referees.

In order to receive full consideration, applications should be submitted by 28 February 2025. Online interviews will be held in the first half of March 2025. The starting date is flexible, but no later than 1 November 2025.
The advertised position is located at the MPIDR. It is expected that the successful applicant will be in residence at the MPIDR, in Rostock, Germany.
The PhD student is offered a 3-year contract with remuneration based on the salary structure of the German public sector (Öffentlicher Dienst, TVöD Bund) currently starting at 34,295.22 € gross a year, and will be expected to be in residence at the Institute.

Post-Doctoral Researcher | Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

Post-Doctoral Researcher | Research Group Migration and Health Inequalities

The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) is seeking to appoint a full-time post-doctoral researcher to join the ERC-funded Research Group on Migration and Health Inequalities. The group, led by Silvia Loi, brings together experts from Demography, Quantitative Sociology, and Social Epidemiology to address the pressing scientific and societal question: Why do immigrants age in poorer health compared to non-immigrants? 
The research group agenda builds up on these three research areas:

  1. quantify the gaps in healthy ageing trajectories between immigrants and non-immigrants by age, gender, socioeconomic status, and their interactions; 
  2. identify the critical events and circumstances in immigrants’ lives that put them on a different healthy ageing trajectory from non-immigrants; 
  3. study the impact of family composition and family ties in mitigating health inequalities by migration background. 

We are seeking a creative, self-driven, collaborative scholar with a strong quantitative background that can contribute to advancing one or more the three research areas of the group. The selected candidate will be a member of the Research Group on Migration and Health Inequalities, and will have the opportunity to collaborate with other units, such as the Max Planck – University of Helsinki Center for Social Inequalities in Population Health (MaxHel). 

We provide a stimulating research-oriented community, excellent infrastructure at the MPIDR, and an institutional culture that enables everyone to develop their individual skills and competencies. The MPIDR is one of the leading demographic research centers in the world, studying issues of theoretical and policy relevance. These include, but are not limited to mortality, fertility, migration, aging, health, and the redistribution of work and transfers over the life course. The MPIDR is part of the Max Planck Society, a network of 86 institutes that form Germany’s premier basic-research organization. Max Planck Institutes have an established record of world-class, foundational research in the sciences, technology, social sciences, and the humanities.

The successful candidate must have a PhD (or receive it soon) in Demography, Sociology, Social Epidemiology or related fields, a strong quantitative background and is expected to have a profile along at least one of the following lines:

  1. Migrant health
  2. Social determinants of health
  3. Social inequalities
  4. Measuring and modelling life-course processes

Demonstrable skills in R or Stata are highly desirable. Previous experience working with register data will be considered an advantage.

Please apply online via this survey and include in a single PDF file:

  1. Curriculum Vitae including a list of publications;
  2. Motivation letter, 1-2 pages that describe how your expertise fits into the research agenda of the Research Group and the related project. Please include your research accomplishments, and highlight your technical skills, and areas of expertise;
  3. A writing example (e.g., one of your publications or working paper);
  4. Contact information for up to 2 academic referees.

In order to receive full consideration, applications should be submitted by 28 February 2025. Online interviews will be held in the first half of March 2025. We expect candidates to start in the first half of 2025, though a later date might be possible under special circumstances. The successful applicant will be offered a 2-years contract with remuneration commensurate to experience (starting from approx. 57,000 EUR gross per year for researchers who have just completed their PhD, up to approx. 70,000 EUR gross per year for more senior scientists), based on the salary structure of the German public sector (Öffentlicher Dienst, TVöD Bund). The advertised position is located at the MPIDR. It is expected that the successful applicant will be in residence at the MPIDR, in Rostock, Germany, and support for relocation costs is available.

Statistician | DC Government

Statistician

Job ID: 28750
Full/Part Time: Full-Time
Regular/Temporary: Regular
Minimum Rate: $109,999.00
Date Closed: 01/30/2025

Introduction

This position is in the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC). CJCC is an independent agency within the District of Columbia government. The mission of CJCC is to foster systemic change in the justice system, serving as a forum to identify issues and their solutions, proposing actions and facilitating cooperation what will improve public safety and related criminal and juvenile justice services for District of Columbia residents, victims, and offenders.

This position serves as an expert, authoritative Statistician, responsible for performing one or more of the following major duty functions: management and maintenance of the DC Statistical Analysis Center; leading key criminal and juvenile justice research and analysis; providing consultation on relevant and methodologically rigorous analyses; and collaborating with the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Department of Justice on the District’s criminal and juvenile justice data. The incumbent provides professional consultation in applying statistical theories, techniques, and methods to gather, research, analyze, interpret, and/or report quantified information.

Duties and Responsibilities 

Serves as the expert consultant on the statistical aspects of various matters relevant to the criminal and juvenile justice system, or on the technical aspects of a specialized statistical activity, and as such, provides authoritative counsel. Serves as the activity representative to deal with commitment authority for decisions relating to agency statistical resources. Plans, develops and provides technical direction for statistical research programs, where the investigations involve citywide and national data collection problems, which have a bearing on public policy, and/or affect the administrative operational policies of a department or agency of the District or Federal government. Conducts an analysis of the root causes that led to the incarceration of current committed youth, including a voluntary survey of a current committed youth and any self-reported adverse childhood experiences.

Oversees the work of data analysts and research interns; lending statistical, methodological and analytical expertise to shape and direct juvenile and criminal justice research within CJCC, coordinating major research projects with staff; reviewing the work; and providing direction as needed. Develops and maintains wide, continuing relationships with ranking statistical executives, both within and outside the District and Federal government, on broad statistical programs to avoid overlap of objectives and to ensure integration of coordinated statistical programming. Provides final budget recommendations for statistical activities in support of agency programs. Collaborates with CJCC programmatic staff to determine deliverables for grant applications, and white papers, conferences, forums, and summits. Responds to requests for statistical information from partner agencies.  

Qualifications & Education 

Education: Must have a degree that included 15 semester hours in statistics (or in mathematics and statistics, provided at least 6 semester hours were in statistics), and 9 additional semester hours in one or more of the following: physical or biological sciences, medicine, education, or engineering; or in the social sciences including demography, history, economics, social welfare, geography, international relations, social or cultural anthropology, health sociology, political science, public administration, psychology, etc. 

-or-

A combination of education and experience — courses as shown above, plus appropriate experience or additional education. The experience should have included a full range of professional statistical work such as (a) sampling, (b) collecting, computing, and analyzing statistical data, and (c) applying statistical techniques such as measurement of central tendency, dispersion, skewness, sampling error, simple and multiple correlation, analysis of variance, and tests of significance.

Specialized Experience: This position requires one (1) year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lowest grade level in the District of Columbia government. To be creditable, specialized experience must have been equivalent to at least the next lower grade level. Specialized experience is experience which is directly related to the line of work of the position and has equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position.

Postdoctoral Research Associate | Center for Research on Child and Family Wellbeing (CRCFW)

Postdoctoral Research Associate

The Center for Research on Child and Family Wellbeing (CRCFW), directed by Dr. Kathryn Edin and part of the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, invites outstanding researchers to apply for appointments each academic year. CRCFW conducts research on children and young adults’ health, education, and economic wellbeing and on understanding disadvantaged communities. Our current initiatives include the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), exploring the impact of several anti-violence programs in Chicago, understanding the regional concentration of disability receipt and its impact on community life, and the relationship between poverty and trauma.

The following appointment is available for the 2025 – 2026 academic year. The position requires in-person work at least 3 days a week. Applications will be accepted through February 28, 2025.

CRCFW is offering a highly competitive Postdoctoral Research Associate position to an individual with documented interest in the transition to young adulthood and experience working with the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) or other, similar longitudinal survey data. Appointments are for one year with the possibility of renewal, pending satisfactory performance and continued funding, with negotiable starting dates for the next academic year. 

QUALIFICATIONS: Postdocs are expected to have outstanding potential and be self-motivated, goal-oriented and capable of successfully communicating ideas to diverse audiences. They must also be able to build on existing strengths, bridge different fields, and be motivated to work with faculty and staff on complex projects. This position will support independent and collaborative research on the above topics. Preference will be given to candidates that have obtained their PhD within the last two years. While this listing is open to all social science disciplines, preference will be given to those with a PhD in quantitative demography or with formal demography training.  

Postdocs will participate in all of the Center’s activities, including student-faculty seminars, workshops, and public lectures. The postdoc will be expected to spend about 75% of their time working on publications using data from the FFCWS and/or research with Dr. Edin and about 25% of their time assisting the FFCWS data team projects such as merging contextual and administrative data files to the survey data.

Applicants should apply online at https://www.princeton.edu/acad-positions/position/37441(Link is external) (Link opens in new window) and submit: a cover letter describing areas of interest, graduate training, relevant background and possible fit within the center recent CV names, e-mails and phone numbers of three references.

Future of Families Summer Data Workshop

The 2025 Future of Families Summer Data Workshop application form is now available and is due on Monday, February 17, 2025, 11:59 PM EST. The workshop will be held in-person from Wednesday, June 11th, 2025 to Friday, June 13th, 2025. Travel and hotel costs will be covered for successful applicants. For more information or questions on the application, please email ffsummerdataworkshop@columbia.edu to be added to the contact list and notified of when the application will be published.

The workshop is designed to familiarize participants with the data available in the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) (formerly Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study), a national study following a birth cohort of (mostly) unmarried parents and their children, providing information about the capabilities, circumstances, and relationships of unwed parents, the wellbeing of their children, and the role of public policy in family and child wellbeing.

The workshop will be focused on data from the public-use Future of Families files, from the baseline through Year 22 waves. These data can be downloaded by researchers through the Princeton University Office of Population Research Data Archive. Panelists may also discuss data from the restricted-use contract files, but participants need not have the contract data to participate in the workshop. This year’s workshop will place special emphasis on wave 7 of the FFCWS, when the focal children reached age 22. 
 
Applicants must possess basic quantitative data analysis skills. About 25-30 applicants will be selected. Application deadline February 17, 2025. 

The Future of Families Summer Data Workshop is made possible by a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (2R25HD074544-06).

PGPD Embedded Analyst | Maryland Crime Research and Innovation Center (MCRIC)

The Maryland Crime Research and Innovation Center (MCRIC) is seeking to fill the position of embedded analyst for the Prince George’s County Police Department. This appointment would fulfill a graduate assistantship, with full tuition remission and stipend, and requires a one-year commitment. We anticipate beginning the background check process in Spring 2025, with the position starting in Summer 2025 and extending to Spring 2026 (with the possibility of funding support for Summer 2026). 

We anticipate the embedded analyst to work partially at the department and attend in-person meetings as necessary. However, the position is very flexible for a hybrid working schedule. The embedded analyst position is project-driven based on the needs of MCRIC and PGPD. The current project involves analyzing the concentration of violence across the county and at the borders with DC and Montgomery County. This role may also require a mixture of spatial analyses, ride-alongs with officers, and community engagement, based on current project aims. 

The ideal candidate will have research interests/experience in policing, as well as experience in quantitative, geospatial, and qualitative analyses. 

If you are interested in applying for this position, please send a CV and brief cover letter stating your interest in this position to Dr. Bianca Bersani (bbersani@umd.edu) by January 15th. Hiring decisions will be announced by February 2025. 

If you have any questions regarding this position, please reach out to Dr. Bianca Bersani or Torri Sperry (current PG embedded analyst) for more information.