People & Places/ Past & Present
Dr. Tracy Kugler, Dr. Evan Roberts, Dr. Steve Manson
Fellows will use historical and contemporary international census data to explore population changes over time and space. IPUMS IHGIS (International Historical Geographic Information System) has acquired scanned historical census documents from the Bahamas, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Qatar, and the USSR. Fellows will process selected tables from these documents to transform them into analysis-ready data. They will link the data to geographic boundary files to enable mapping and spatial analysis. Fellows will use data from multiple census years to explore and visualize change over time and present their results in a post for the IPUMS blog series. Fellows may choose a country and topic that fits their interests.
Preferred Qualifications*:
- Language/translation of any of the following: Danish, German, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian
- Familiarity with GIS/spatial visualization
Scheduling Requirements: Most of the work can be done remotely. However, initial digitizing from the scanned documents is easier to do in the office (Willey Hall). Scheduling will be flexible. If needed, arrangements could be made for fully remote work.
A systematic review of sleep quality measurement in US population-level datasets
Dr. Sarah Flood, Dr. Julia Drew, Dr. Sarah James, Dr. Ivan Wu
The American Time Use Survey is underutilized as a resource to study sleep and sleep quality. Fellows will work with Dr. Julia Drew, Dr. Sarah Flood, Dr. Sarah James, and Dr. Ivan Wu to conduct a systematic review of the literature on the best way to measure sleep using population data. A systematic literature review will inform the creation of measures of sleep and sleep quality using the American Time Use Survey. If time allows, we will create these measures and generate estimates of sleep and sleep quality and benchmark them against estimates from the National Health Interview Survey and other sources.
Preferred Qualifications*:
- Experience and/or coursework in conducting systematic reviews
- Coursework and/or experience with Stata
Scheduling Requirements: This project will consider candidates who need to work fully remotely for the duration of the fellowship, including those who are not located in the Twin Cities. The selected fellows must be available for a regular meeting between 9 am and 3 pm CST. This project will consider applicants who need to work fully remotely.
Transit Infrastructure and Population Disparities: Building a Historical Transit Database
Dr. Michael Esposito, Dr. Regan Patterson, Dr. David Rigby, David Van Riper, Adam Paul Susaneck
Transit infrastructure – including highways and public transit systems – are often conceptualized as key contributing factors shaping population outcomes, maintaining, among other things, racial residential segregation and place-based health disparities. Still, as essential as these features are in theoretical models of population disparities, quantitative data measuring the development of these systems over time remain sparse. In this project, fellows will work with Dr. Michael Esposito, Dr. Regan Patterson, and Dr. David Rigby to assemble a comprehensive data set on highway, rail, and public transit systems as they developed across the past century in the Twin Cities metro area. Fellows will engage in archival work to recover historical transit maps across the metropolitan area and then digitize these records for use in quantitative research. In addition to creating these novel data, fellows will have the opportunity to participate in research using them to understand broader social inequalities – for instance, research on how public transit maps were initially seeded and re-drawn over time in ways that maintained segregation, despite displacement and other forms of population change.
Preferred Qualifications*:
- Experience with archival (or adjacent) research methods
- Intermediate R skills;
- Familiarity with GIS
Scheduling Requirements: This project will have a hybrid work arrangement (in-office and remote work). Given the archival component, on-the-ground work in the Twin Cities will likely be needed.
Understanding and promoting social science and health research with full count US Census data
Dr. Cathy Fitch, Dr. Diana Magnuson, Kari Williams
IPUMS USA includes full count census data and records for all persons in the censuses of 1850 to 1940. These data present extraordinary opportunities to document and understand economic transformations, family and demographic change, and geographic movement in the U.S. The data are particularly important for studying smaller groups who would not be well-represented in smaller 1% samples of these data. These massive data resources, however, pose new challenges for researchers. Fellows will help with two projects to improve information about this resource. One project will focus on sharing exciting research and guidance for data users. Fellows will review scholarly research using this data, with the goals of identifying interesting examples to share and improving our bibliography. Additionally, fellows will also experiment with the IPUMS data access system and work with mentors to identify areas for training and guidance.
Required Qualifications:
- Interest in social science and health research with census data
Preferred Qualifications*:
- Experience with statistical software (e.g., Stata, R)
- Familiarity with citation/reference management software
Scheduling Requirements: This project will consider candidates who need to work fully remotely for the duration of the fellowship, including those who are not located in the Twin Cities.
*We encourage people to apply even if they don’t meet any of the preferred qualifications. If you meet any of the preferred qualifications, please clearly indicate this in your application materials.