Articles
Each quarter, articles and critical essays in the ISERP newsletter highlight the research and policy work being undertaken by our faculty, fellows, and affiliates. We also provide in-depth reports on ISERP’s programming and initiatives. A complete chronology of these articles and program highlights is available below.
ISERP Proudly Introduces New Director
Fall 2009
In May 2009, a search committee appointed by Vice President of the Arts & Sciences Nicholas Dirks selected Sudhir Venkatesh as the new Director of ISERP. Venkatesh is William B. Ransford Professor of Sociology, with a joint appointment in African-American Studies and a visiting appointment in the School of Law. Venkatesh previously led the Center for Urban Research and Policy (CURP) and he continues to direct the Charles H. Revson Fellowship Program, both at ISERP.
China's Floating Population
Spring 2009
The article explores the impact of China’s rapid economic growth and continued industrialization on the people of China's underdeveloped central and western regions. The disparity between the booming coastal metropolises and the rural interior has created a massive movement of migrant laborers know as the “floating population". Professor Yao Lu describes her work documenting the lives of these migrant workers, outlining the difficulties they face, and exploring the lives of those who remian in rural China.
Federal Funds Lead to Spike in Grant Requests
Spring 2009
In late February, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF) received one-time budget injections as a result of the Congressional American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), more commonly referred to as the economic stimulus package. Later that same month, the Obama administration proposed regular budget in¬creases to both agencies for the 2010 fiscal year. These commitments led to a spike in federal grants applications by ISERP Faculty Fellows.
Stress Testing the Global Trading System
Spring 2009
Professor Sharyn O’Halloran crunches the numbers to give a detailed picture of the current global economic downturn, especially as it relates to, and is affected by, trade. O’Halloran goes on to consider the international implications of recent measures taken by a cross-section of countries to try to minimize losses from trade, including new trade barriers enacted by 17 of the G-20 nations.
Congratulations to ISERP Program Graduates
Spring 2009
ISERP congratulates this year’s graduates from its programs: QMSS Masters Program, OHMA Masters Program, and the Revson Fellowship Program.
QMSS and Ford Foundation Higher Education Workshop
Winter 2008-2009
The Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences Masters program will host their second summer workshop funded by the Ford Foundation, Training of Scholars for the Field of Higher Education. We at QMSS are excited to expand upon our first collaboration in the summer of 2008. The program had remarkable success in its first year and we are looking forward to welcoming a new cohort of scholars for the summer and fall of 2009.
OHMA Searches for New Assistant Director
Winter 2008-2009
Columbia University’s Oral History Masters of Arts Program (OHMA), an interdisciplinary MA degree program, is seeking an Assistant Director. As the program expands in its second year, OHMA needs an Assistant Director to help guide the program, develop curricula, organize fieldwork opportunities, and develop a system for recruitment and admission for students.
H&SS Scholars Co-edit Special Issue of AJS
Winter 2008-2009
The American Journal of Sociology published a special issue devoted to the intersection between genetics and sociology. The supplement, published in September 2008, was the collaboration of CHSSP Co-Director Peter Bearman, Sara Shostak, Cohort 2 and Molly Martin, Cohort 1, who co-edited the issue titled “Exploring Genetics and Social Structure.”
Home Computers Equal More Gaming and Less Studying?
Winter 2008-2009
ISERP Seed Grant Awardees Seek Answers in Romanian Voucher Program
In the spring of 2006 ISERP Faculty Fellow Cristian Pop-Eleches (SIPA and Economics) and his research partner Ofer Malamud (University of Chicago) were awarded an ISERP seed grant to study the effect of home-computer ownership on students’ academic achievement.
Two years later the seed grant flourished into a finished report, The Effect of Computer Use on Child Outcomes, published through the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy Studies Working Paper Series.
Separating Reality from Rhetoric
Fall 2008
ISERP is proud to continue its series of discussions of issues relevant to the 2008 presidential campaign. The Institute is hosting four panels in September and October with academics, journalists and experts discussing subjects of interest to candidates and voters in November.
Just What the Doctor Ordered? Two Candidates and Two Different Plans to Fix America's Ailing Health Care System
Fall 2008
For a health policy analyst, this year's election offers a striking illustration of the deep divisions among policymakers in how they view the problems of the health care system and the solutions to these problems. Senators McCain and Obama sometimes seem to be speaking about entirely different systems and their proposed health care solutions are, in many respects, diametrically different.
New Fall Workshop and Seminar Series
Fall 2008
ISERP is committed to fostering cross-discipline dialogue by sponsoring workshops and seminar series that explore diverse topics and open conversations among faculty, students and policy makers. This fall, the institute is sponsoring three news series, the Faculty Seminar on Narrative Genetics, the Workshop on Meaning: Language and Sociocultural Processes, and the Communications Colloquium.
Racial Identity and Voting: New CAAPS Black Politics Survey Explores Racial Identity and Voting Patterns
Fall 2008
In September, fall was just beginning, but the presidential race was heading into the final frantic weeks of one of the longest campaigns ever waged. This was a campaign like no other, although each campaign in the last twenty years has been a little more expensive than the last, and a bit longer then the one before. The unprecedented first in this campaign was the nomination of Barack Obama as the Democratic Party's Presidential nominee, bringing the discussion of race in America to the forefront.
Separating Reality From Rhetoric: ISERP Panel Series Brings Together Academics and Journalists to Discuss The Presidential Race
Fall 2008
ISERP hosted four panel discussions this fall as part of a year-long series providing a forum for academics, journalists and other experts to comment on the issues at stake in the 2008 presidential race.
The Red State, Blue State Paradox: Rich Voters, Poor Voters, and America's Cultural and Political Divide
Fall 2008
"OK, but here's the fact that nobody ever, ever mentions - Democrats win rich people. Over $100,000 in income, you are likely more than not to vote for Democrats. People never point that out. Rich people vote liberal. I don't know what that's all about." - Tucker Carlson, 2007 Carlson was half right. Nowadays the Democrats win the rich states, but rich people - they vote Republican, just as they have for decades.
ISERP Is Proud to Welcome the Eighth Cohort of Mellon Graduate Fellows
Fall 2008
ISERP is proud to welcome the eighth cohort of Mellon Graduate Fellows, who began the program in September 2008. The Mellon Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellows Program was established in 2000 and brings together graduate students from the humanities and social sciences at Columbia University to foster their capacity for incorporating methods, approaches, and knowledge of the different social sciences into their research.
ISERP Introduces the Oral History Masters in Arts Program
Summer 2008
Students come to oral history from a variety of disciplines and for many reasons, but lately many of them are connected by a sense of urgency. They want to learn to interpret the life stories that bridge the gaps among their interests, the academy, and the world. From June 8th through June 20th, the Oral History Research Office held its annual Summer Institute in Oral History, attended by students and faculty from Italy, Romania, Spain, Liberia, the United States, and Canada. The challenge of meeting the needs of fellows from around the world in two short weeks was one compelling reason to create the nation's first Master of Arts in Oral History (OHMA), a year-long degree program beginning under ISERP's umbrella in the fall of 2008. In its initial year, Peter Bearman and I will co-direct the program. I met Peter, director of the Paul Lazarsfeld Center in the Social Sciences and former director of ISERP, while taking oral histories about the events and aftermath of September 11, 2001. That multi-year collaboration showed me how valuable it is for oral history to have a deep grounding in the social sciences as the field stakes its claim in the academy. Peter and I have shared students and projects since, and the results reflect a form of social research that respects the narrative accounts of people academia often studies only from a distance.
ISERP Welcomes Alex Samsky
Summer 2008
ISERP warmly welcomes Alex Samsky as its newest staff member. Prior to joining ISERP as Grants Manager, replacing long-time ISERP staffer, Kristin Murphy, Samsky worked for the Chicago Transit Authority as a Labor and Employment Lawyer until 2004 when he moved to New York City. He worked as an associate editor at the Columbia University Press before moving on to the Practising Law Institute in 2007. As grants manager he will be responsible for facilitating grant research, project development, and proposal submissions to major funding institutions for Columbia faculty. He graduated with a BA from Univeristy of Stanford and a JD from University of Chicago.
Metropolitan Space and Schooling: Revisting the Desegregation Story
Summer 2008
For her dissertation, Ph.D. candidate and ISERP graduate fellow Ansley Erickson is investigating school busing in Nashville as it pertains to desegregation and rezoning initiatives. Historically, Nashville desegregation efforts involved transporting black students significant distances to predominantly white schools. Buses transported white students too, but at a far lower frequency. During the research process, Ansley has found such inequity in busing stems from intentional redistribution of schooling in metropolitan areas. A stark imbalance between the number of schools in suburban areas and the number of schools in urban areas reflects a larger trend of racial inequality. The school redistribution strongly favors the suburban areas, which are mostly white. As the battle over school rezoning rages on today, it becomes clear that the problem of education inequity that faced Nashville forty years ago are far from resolved.
Revson Fellowship Celebrates 30 Years of Service
Summer 2008
2008 is the 30th year of operation for the Revson Fellowship, a program at Columbia for the enhancement of urban leadership in New York City. Each year, the Fellowship, under the current directorship of ISERP's own Sudhir Venkatesh, invites ten mid-career urban leaders to explore new, multi-disciplinary approaches to their studies and programs. Columbia provides financial support, tuition, and access to university resources, faculty, and courses with the hope that the 9-month experience will confer new abilities and understandings onto the leaders and enable them to better help the City.
Blood Diamonds: A Hard Love for the South African Town of Kimberley
Summer 2008
When judging actions in history, one often holds political entities to a higher moral standard than corporate ones. Lindsay Weiss, a Ph.D. candidate in the Anthropology Department at Columbia University, explores how unjust corporate practice can precede unethical governments and establish a system in which those governments can take hold and develop. Such was the case in South Africa, where the De Beers diamond company and others like it laid the social foundations for Apartheid. The term "blood diamond" describes the violent nature of the diamond trade, which many associate with the political upheavals and civil wars that have plagued much of the African continent. However, as Lindsay argues, that association is incomplete; corporate actors can be just as central to the creation of racist and exploitative institutions.
Ecology and Politics with Bruno Latour
Spring 2008
Why have political processes failed to spur decisive action on global warming? Presenting his distinctive approach to understanding the trials and pitfalls of the environmental movement, Bruno Latour addressed an attentive audience at Columbia University in February 2008. The conference was sponsored by the Alliance Program, the Heyman Center for the Humanities, and ISERP.
Featured Publication: The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Conflict in Iraq
Spring 2008
Apart from its tragic human toll, the Iraq War will be staggeringly expensive in financial terms. This sobering study by Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz (Business/SIPA/ Economics) and Linda Bilmes (Harvard) casts a spotlight on expense items that have been hidden from the U.S. taxpayer as well as on the cost in lives and economic damage within Iraq and the region. The book shows what the U.S. taxpayer's money could have produced if it had been invested in the growth of the U.S. economy.
First QMSS-NYAAPOR Event Examines Elections
Spring 2008
Colorful tales of election-related fraud and the controversial issue of felon disenfranchisement have marred the perceived integrity of elections in the United States. These complementary themes of American democracy were given deeper inspection at the first joint meeting of the New York Chapter American Association of Public Opinion Research (NYAAPOR) and ISERP's Quantitative Methods in Social Sciences (QMSS) Research Seminar in February 2008. Capitalizing on the shared research interests of the two groups, these joint meetings will continue to bring quantitative methods master's students and NYAAPOR-affiliated public opinion experts together on a regular basis as the semester unfolds.
ISERP Panel Series on the 2008 Presidential Election
Spring 2008
In anticipation of the 2008 presidential election, ISERP has launched a series of public forums on the key issues at stake in the presidential race. The first two events in the series provided a venue for people to discuss the overall election picture. Future events will hone in on specific substantive issues, such as health, economic and tax policy, and foreign policy.
Robert Shapiro Appointed Next Director of ISERP
Spring 2008
Renowned political scientist and public opinion expert Robert Shapiro has agreed to serve as Acting Director of ISERP. Since joining Columbia faculty in 1982, Shapiro has been a leading figure in the charge to reinvigorate the social sciences at the University. From his position as Chair of the Political Science department, as a leader and founder of multiple interdisciplinary initiatives, and through service on numerous University committees, he has facilitated key improvements to research, teaching, and overall quality of life for faculty and students at Columbia. Few people could match the record of leadership, deep institutional knowledge, and intellectual contributions that Shapiro will bring to ISERP when he assumes the post of Acting Director in summer 2008.
State Death: Pros and Cons
Spring 2008
When U.S.-led forces entered Baghdad on April 9, 2003, the demise of the Iraqi state was imminent. With Saddam Hussein's disappearance, the dismissal of the army, and the de-Baathification of the state, the fundamental governing structures of Iraqi political life were dismantled. Observers agreed that Iraqi sovereignty had been surrendered to coalition forces, even if there were no representatives of the former Iraqi state left to sign a surrender agreement.
The Challenges of Effective Urban Governance
Spring 2008
Is innovation at the level of urban governments becoming more important than federal and state programs to the vitality of global cities like New York? Ester Fuchs (SIPA/Political Science) examined this question at the inaugural session of the Center for Urban Research and Policy (CURP)'s new seminar series, held on February 28, 2008. Drawing on her experience working with Mayor Bloomberg, who has presided over what many consider to be one of the most effective mayoral administrations in NYC history, Fuchs asked whether urban political theory was paying sufficient attention to the growing importance of urban governance and local agency.
Urban Kaleidoscope: In Honor of Herbert Gans
Spring 2008
For the last half century, Herbert Gans has been at the center of sociological debates on poverty, race, and ethnicity; the media; and American culture. To honor his enduring influence on sociology, ISERP's Center for Urban Research and Policy (CURP) hosted a day-long conference on urban sociology and Gans's contributions to the field.
What Can We Learn from Chile's Reforms?
Spring 2008
On February 15, 2008, the Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences (QMSS) Master's Program at ISERP, the Institute for Latin American Studies (ILAS), and the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) hosted a day-long conference designed to examine the recent history of policy innovation and reform in Chile. The theme of the conference, "What Can the United States Learn from Chile's Reforms?," is a particularly timely one for scholars and policymakers alike, as many proposed reforms in the United States have been implemented at a national level in Chile.
Health Care Reform: Building From the States?
Winter 2007-2008
Health care reform promises to be a hot issue in the 2008 presidential elections. By any measure, this discussion is long overdue. The number of uninsured Americans has risen substantially since 1993, and now numbers over 46 million. Health care costs have climbed to 16 percent of the GDP, about twice as much per capita in real dollars as any other country spends.
Our Growing Democratic Deficit: Beyond Party Politics
Winter 2007-2008
Much has been said since 2001 about the growing democratic deficit at the heart of our liberal democracy. Among the leading causes usually mentioned are the Patriot Act, particularly its use by the Bush-Cheney administration to strengthen executive power, and, secondly, our deeply flawed electoral system. Both are indeed critical factors feeding the democratic deficit.
Race, Reform, and the 2008 Presidential Nomination
Winter 2007-2008
In the context of African American politics, the 2008 presidential election cycle presents black voters with a unique opportunity to play a pivotal role in determining the outcome of the Democratic presidential primary, as well as the November general election. And yet, the front-loading of presidential primaries in the first six weeks of the year has once again raised questions about representation and fairness in the presidential nomination process and about whether the selection process needs to be overhauled and replaced with a more inclusive process.
The Campaign Will Go On!
Winter 2007-2008
When Jason Bello and Robert Shapiro first put together their predictions for the primary election a few weeks before the Iowa caucuses, they sought to look at how the rules of the game constrain the outcome. They asked whether there was anything in the rules governing delegate selection that would lead to an early consolidation of candidates.
Yes, It's Rational to Vote in Presidential Elections
Winter 2007-2008
With only a year to the next election, and with the publicity starting up already, now is a good time to ask-is it rational for you to vote? And, by extension, is it worth your while to pay attention to what Hillary, Rudy, and all the others will be saying for the next year or so? With a chance of casting a decisive vote that is comparable to the chance of winning the lottery, what is the gain from being a good citizen and casting your vote?
CONFERENCE: Ecology and Politics with Bruno Latour
Winter 2007-2008
Bruno Latour will explore the ways in which the extension of democratic institutions to ecological issues is fraught with difficulties. The event will take place on Monday, February 25 at 8pm in 501 Schermerhorn and is sponsored by the Alliance Program, the Heyman Center for the Humanities, and ISERP.
Joseph Stiglitz on the "Three Trillion Dollar War"
Winter 2007-2008
The cost of war in Iraq reaches far beyond the tab for bullets and bombs, says economist Joseph Stiglitz, co-author, with Linda Bilmes, of the new book The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict.
New Workshop on African American Politics and Society
Winter 2007-2008
The Center on African American Politics and Society (CAAPS), led by Fredrick Harris (Political Science), has launched a seminar series that will provide a forum for discussing social science research on the political, social, and economic conditions affecting black communities.
FEATURED EVENT: Red State, Blue State? Polls, Predictions, and the 2008 Election
Winter 2007-2008
We invite you to join us for a discussion with leading public opinion and election experts, Robert Erikson, Andrew Gelman, and Robert Shapiro, on the 2008 election.
FEATURED EVENT: State Death: The Politics and Geography of Conquest, Occupation, and Annexation
Winter 2007-2008
Grappling with what is a core issue of international relations, Tanisha Fazal explores two hundred years of military invasion and occupation, from eighteenth-century Poland to present-day Iraq, to derive conclusions that challenge conventional wisdom about state death. We invite you to join Tanisha Fazal and Charles Tilly for a discussion on Fazal's new book.
Request for Seed Grant Proposals on Global Health
Winter 2007-2008
The Columbia University Global Health Research Center in Central Asia is pleased to issue a request for seed grant proposals. Seed grants support proposal development, pilot research, and other activities that address HIV, tuberculosis, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and related issues that have relevance for the global health challenges facing Central Asia.
TODAY: The Billion Dollar Campaign: The 2008 Presidential Election
Winter 2007-2008
Please join Thomas Edsall, Todd Gitlin, Jefrey Pollock, and Robert Shapiro for a discussion about the changing nature of campaigning and its implications for the 2008 presidential election and future presidential races.
FEATURED EVENT: What Can the United States Learn from Chile's Reforms?
Winter 2007-2008
The theme of the panel will be the lessons that Chile has to offer American policymakers-for many of the policy-related ideas and topics currently under discussion in the U.S., conversations remain at a theoretical level (e.g., pension reform) or, at best, with data from small scale implementations (e.g., school vouchers).
New Project on Security, Military, and U.S. Society
Fall 2007
A new ISERP-sponsored project is fostering research and discussion about sociological, historical and political intersections of civil society and military, security and related concerns.
The Changing Climate for Union Organizing at the Turn of the Millennium
Fall 2007
What is the current state of union organizing in the United States? What are the political and economic implications of declining union density on the one hand, and potential union revitalization on the other? A project on the Changing Climate for Union Organizing at the Turn of the Millennium that Dorian Warren is co-directing with Kate Bronfenbrenner of Cornell University takes up these questions.
Bargaining for Brooklyn: Community Organizations in the Entreprenuerial City (A Discussion with Author Nicole Marwell)
Fall 2007
Panel discussion with author Nicole Marwell, sponsored by the Revson Fellowship.
When Does Deliberating Improve Decisionmaking?
Fall 2007
Lindsay Rogers Room, IAB 707 Thursday, November 8 2:45-4:15
At the Right Place at the Wrong Time: The Role of Luck in Young Workers' Careers
Fall 2007
The first years of young workers' careers are characterized by high rates of earnings growth and high job mobility. Many economists interpret mobility as evidence of beneficial job search. However, others counter that the unstructured transition from school to work leads to excess mobility and slows the rate of human capital accumulation. But to what extent - and for how long - are young workers hurt by excess job mobility?
Distinguished Guest Abdulkarim Soroush at CDTR
Fall 2007
ISERP warmly welcomes Abdulkarim Soroush, who will visit ISERP's Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration, and Religion (CDTR) as a distinguished guest for the fall semester. Soroush is considered one of the world's leading Iranian scholars.
Honoring Robert K. Merton
Fall 2007
Robert K. Merton (1910-2003) is remembered as one of the giants of 20th century sociology. On August 9-10, 2007, the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), ISERP, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) co-sponsored a conference to encourage a renewed engagement with Merton's work.
Oral History Master of Arts Launched
Fall 2007
In fall 2008, students in the nation's first master's degree program in oral history will begin their first semester at Columbia University.
José Antonio Ocampo Joins IPD as Co-President
Fall 2007
ISERP welcomes José Antonio Ocampo as Co-President of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD). With Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, Ocampo will direct IPD's activities, which help developing countries explore policy alternatives and enable wider civic participation in economic policymaking.
A Project Exploring How Different the Various Sciences Are, and Why
Fall 2007
Since the time of Newton's great accomplishments, there has been reflection and discussion of the proper methods of science. A new project led by Richard Nelson (SIPA/Business/Law) is focused on describing and analyzing differences among the sciences.
Applied Statistics Center Launched
Summer 2007
The Applied Statistics Center (ASC) is ISERP's latest effort to stimulate collaborative research in the social sciences and related fields. Led by Andrew Gelman (Political Science/Statistics), the Center was established in January 2007 to conduct substantive and methodologically-oriented research projects in the human, health, social, and engineering sciences.
Featured Working Paper: PowerPoint Demonstrations
Summer 2007
How do individuals conduct demonstrations before the public using digital tools? In our era, political and technical questions are increasingly entangled, and public demonstrations are increasingly digital demonstrations.
Grad Fellow Alum Leads NYC Sustainability Initiative
Summer 2007
When Graduate Fellow alum Rohit Aggarwala (2001-02) was tapped by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to be the first Director of the Mayor's Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, he went from studying history to making it. Aggarwala spent the past year crafting PlaNYC 2030, the most sweeping plan to enhance New York's urban environment in the city's modern history.
STEW-MAP: Mapping Civic Innovation in New York
Summer 2007
How do civic groups in New York City work to steward their local communities and in what ways are these groups connected? The Stewardship Mapping and Assessment Project (STEW-MAP - a unique research partnership between ISERP, the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station, and the University of Vermont Spatial Analysis Lab - is studying how environmental stewardship happens.
The Cone of Uncertainty and Hurricane Forecasting
Summer 2007
How will the millions of people living near coastlines in the southeastern United States react to hurricane forecasts presented this year? A recent study conducted by researchers from the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED) examined how and why the "cone of uncertainty," a visual aid used to communicate hurricane risk, is often misinterpreted, leading to dangerous consequences.
A Tyrannical Peace
Spring 2007
Since the attacks of 9/11, the Bush administration has vowed to "end tyranny in our world." In a recent session of the International Politics Seminar, guest speaker Christian Davenport (University of Maryland) questioned Bush's strategy, asking, "Are all tyrannies alike in their repressiveness and thus equally worthy of monitoring, discussion, intervention, and modification?"
Barriers to Prisoner Reentry: A Labor Market Perspective
Spring 2007
From the very inception of the prison, its critics worried that this purported cure for crime actually propagated the disease. Studies on the criminogenic influences of prisons on inmates often focus on the direct impact that prison culture and gang networks have on perpetuating the criminal behaviors of inmates. David Weiman's work, however, focuses on an indirect mechanism—the impact of a prison record on ex-inmates' job prospects.
Capital Punishment and the Deterrence Debate
Spring 2007
The death penalty debate was recently revived by over a dozen new studies arguing that capital punishment led to dramatic decreases in homicides. Some claimed that each execution deterred between three and 32 murders. Others claimed that pardons and commutations had the opposite effect, increasing homicide rates. Amanda Geller, Jeffrey Fagan, and Franklin Zimring's recent study, however, examined homicide trends over the same time period and arrived at a sharply different conclusion.
ISERP Newswatch, Spring 2007
Spring 2007
Between January and March 2007, ISERP affiliates were featured in the media for their research and views on issues such as the 2008 presidential elections, a Hispanic caucus, race and the census, taxation, climate change, and early childhood.
Personal Influence Conference Papers Published in The Annals
Spring 2007
A special issue of The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science compiled papers written for "Re-reading Personal Influence," a conference co-sponsored by ISERP and the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania to celebrate the re-issuing of the classic text Personal Influence: The Part Played by People in the Flow of Mass Communications by Transaction Publishers.
Employment-Focused Programs for Ex-Prisoners
Spring 2007
How do we design employment programs to effectively help ex-prisoners reintegrate into society? Dan Bloom from the MRDC discussed this issue with students in the Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences (QMSS) program and other Columbia departments on February 14, 2007.
Graduate Fellows Program Expands with Mellon Grant
Spring 2007
A new grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will support the expansion of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellows Program, ISERP's oldest training initiative. The program's mission is to bring together talented dissertation-level students from across the social sciences and humanities to foster their ability to incorporate the methods, approaches, and knowledge of the different social sciences into their research.
ISERP Launches Undergraduate Fellows Program
Spring 2007
For the past two years, ISERP has selected motivated high school students to spend the summer working on research projects with faculty and scholars at the Institute. This year, ISERP will expand the program to include undergraduates interested in honing their research skills.
Revson Fellowship Profile: Filipino Journalist Anthony Advincula Connects the Dots in his Journey from Immigrant to Community Advocate
Spring 2007
This fall, Anthony Advincula will be joining ISERP as a Revson Fellow. Arriving in New York City from the Philippines in 2001, he worked odd jobs and cleaned houses before landing the job of Editor-in-Chief at Filipino Express, which launched his journalism career.
Educating Out-of-School Children in India: Questions for Leigh Linden
Winter 2006-2007
What is the best way to increase school enrollment among out-of-school children? Leigh Linden, an Assistant Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Columbia, is currently working on an evaluation of a community based model of education in India with the support of the National Science Foundation and ISERP seed funding.
Inner-city Education in Chicago: Root Causes of the Achievement Gap
Winter 2006-2007
In the 2001 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, President George W. Bush took aim at what he called "the soft bigotry of low expectations" by demanding that public schools hold all students to a common standard of achievement. Fifty years ago, urban schools were expected only to equalize resources such as class size, and even that expectation was seldom met in the inner city. Demanding that all schools be held to a common standard of achievement would have been unthinkable. Neckerman's research on inner-city education in Chicago provides an historical account of how racial disparities in academic achievement arose in this context.
Midterm Elections Roundup
Winter 2006-2007
In the leadup to the 2006 elections, ISERP organized a roundtable discussion on the midterm elections. At a moment when the political climate is highly polarized, and with only a third of all Americans showing up at the polls, we felt that it was important to be able to discuss why political participation at this critical moment counts. The discussion, which took place on November 1st, featured leading social scientists who work on tangible problems-such as healthcare, scientific discovery, environmental risk, fear, confidence, and trust-with an eye towards understanding what is at stake.
New Central Asia HIV Center (CAHC) Established in Kazakhstan
Winter 2006-2007
HIV/AIDS is the world's most devastating and complex health pandemic. Presently, 40 million people are living with HIV worldwide, and an additional 4.6 million are newly infected each year. ISERP will support the establishment of the new Central Asia HIV Center (CAHC) in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Building on the School of Social Work's extensive research and presence in Central Asia, the Center aims to use a number of innovative ways to bring together cross-disciplinary expertise from Columbia and the region to mobilize science and public policy.
Vouchers and Private School Entry: Evidence from Chile
Winter 2006-2007
A classic question in the economics of education concerns the possible effects of introducing competition into school markets. Would children who transferred to private schools do better? Would growing competition from private schools force public schools to improve, such that even those students who remained in them did better? Would private schools "cream skim" good students from public schools? In order to address these questions, McEwan and Urquiola compare the outcomes of students in less competitive and more competitive school markets in Chile.
Reforming America's Middle Schools
Winter 2006-2007
Does it matter whether an adolescent attends a middle school or K-8 school? What particular configurations of grades within a single school are most beneficial to students? These questions underlie some significant educational reforms today. Christine Baker-Smith and colleague Christopher Weiss examine the impact of different configurations of grades on student outcomes.
Gender, Human Rights, and the Global Locations of Liberalism
Fall 2006
"Human rights" and "humanitarianism" have become the most recent terms for justifying Western intervention in non-Western societies. Whether addressed to problems of violence or of social inequality, these terms carry enormous possibilities for social transformation. These terms also often portray ordinary people, especially women, as victims of their own beliefs and culture. Lila Abu-Lughod and Anumpama Rao explore the evolution and contradictions inherent in the idea of "women's rights as human rights."
The Growing Female Advantage in College Completion
Fall 2006
College admissions committees across the country are facing new challenges in their efforts to maintain campus diversity. For the past two decades, women have been graduating from college at higher rates than their male peers, causing some colleges to consider affirmative action policies for men. Why have women gone from graduating at rates far below men to outpacing them so dramatically? And, what are the long-term implications of this reversal in tertiary education trends? Columbia researcher Thomas DiPrete and Ohio State University researcher Claudia Buchmann's recent studies strive to answer these questions and uncover the underlying factors driving the growing gender gap in college completion.
Midterm Elections: Why Outcomes Matter
Fall 2006
Election Day is quickly approaching. Even at the midterms, the outcome matters. At a moment when the political climate is highly polarized, and with only a third of all Americans showing up at the polls, it is important to be able to discuss why political participation at this critical moment counts. Please join us in a roundtable discussion with leading social scientists who work on tangible problems-such as pregnancy and STDs, health insurance, scientific discovery, environmental risk, fear, confidence, and trust-with an eye towards understanding what is at stake.
Summer in the City: Interning at ISERP
Fall 2006
It is the summer before her senior year in high school and Catherine Chong is opting for what most adults in the work force dread: a one-and-a-half-hour daily commute-each way-to work. But for Chong, the trip from northern New Jersey to her summer internship program at Columbia University-s Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP) in New York City is well worth the trek.
Revson Fellowship Annual Alumni Dinner with Keynote Speaker Danny Glover
Summer 2006
Nearly a hundred current and former Revson Fellows gathered for the 26th Annual Alumni Dinner on May 2, 2006, at COLORS restaurant in downtown Manhattan. Fellowship Director Sudhir Venkatesh announced the integration of the Charles H. Revson Fellowship into ISERP and introduced the incoming cohort of Fellows. The dinner featured a discussion with actor Danny Glover, Mable Haddock (CEO and President, National Black Programming Consortium), and Venkatesh on "Politics, Activism, and Art."
First Annual University Research Symposium for Understanding Fundamental Disparities in Health
Summer 2006
What accounts for fundamental disparities in health, and how can they be eliminated? A group of distinguished scholars and health practitioners, including two former Surgeon Generals, Provost Alan Brinkley, and ISERP Director Peter Bearman, gathered on April 24 to stimulate thinking and focus discussion on this question and to foster cooperation across the University in addressing health disparities.
Making Policies, Making Lives: A Trajectory of Homelessness
Summer 2006
Policies directed at reducing homelessness must aim, in the end, at changing the course of people's housing histories. This involves permanently housing those who have been persistently homeless, generating stable housing conditions for those sporadically homeless, and eliminating the risky situations of those often teetering on being unhoused. Surprisingly, however, we don't know much about these housing histories. Evidence suggests that three percent of the U.S. population becomes homeless over a five year period, that three-quarters of those becoming homeless have up to three homeless spells, and that about half of these spells last twelve months or less. Such evidence hints at the temporal structure of homelessness but abbreviates and collapses time in ways that do not let us see homelessness as people live it-day to day, month to month, year to year.
Search
Summer 2006
Among the many new information technologies that are reshaping work and daily life, perhaps none is more empowering than the new technologies of search. With a few key words in Google, we can access enormous databases. At ISERP's Center on Organizational Innovation, we are studying another type of search-the kind where you don't know what you're looking for but will recognize it when you find it. Academics have a ready term for it: research. In other fields, the process goes by a different name: innovation.
QMSS Program and Mexico, ¡Olé!
Summer 2006
The upcoming presidential election in Mexico represents a puzzle for political researchers. How do you forecast an election with a highly volatile electorate? What factors will be crucial in determining the winner of an election in which three major political parties have a chance to gain the presidency? And what issues will resonate with voters in the final weeks of the campaign? These were some of the questions that were addressed in the April 11 panel discussion, "Mexico's Presidential Election of 2006: Voting for Change, Candidates, or Issues?"
Black Ethnicity: Political Attitudes, Identity, and Participation in New York City
Spring 2006
The steady influx of black immigrants in the last half century has redefined what it means to be "African American" in the United States today. For the first time in U.S. history, more Africans are entering the country than during the slave trade. Lending itself to an already complicated discourse about race in America, the arrival of "new blacks" raises questions about the historical significance of nationality, country of origin, and ethnic backgrounds and forces us to reevaluate existing racial paradigms of black identity.
Citizenship and Service: Political and Social Attitudes of Active-Duty Army and Cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point
Spring 2006
Who serves in the military forces of the United States? Who should serve? In recent years, these questions have been the subject of much scrutiny and debate. With the advent of the All-Volunteer Force (AVF) in 1973, the United States lost the mechanism by which a large number of citizens were recruited into military service. The end of the draft also meant that there was no guarantee that the American military would reflect, either demographically or ideologically, the society it served.
Urban Sustainability in New York and Mexico City
Spring 2006
When faced with the challenges of globalization, migration, environmental change, and development, how can we ensure the sustainability of cities around the world? Barnard College senior Hannah Roth tackled this question with fellow students in the Urban Research Workshop in Mexico City over winter break.
Expanding the International Analysis of Social Mobility
Winter 2005-2006
How do radical changes such as urbanization, demographic transition, and deep market transformation affect mobility opportunities for a country's population? While we possess answers to these questions in the industrialized world, when it comes to the developing world, good mobility data does not exist. In 2006, sociologist Florencia Torche will embark on organizing the first national mobility survey in Mexico to understand the association between equality and mobility.
Who Influences Whom?: Mass Communication and Social Networks
Winter 2005-2006
"It's not often that we have an opportunity to hold an author-meets-critics session 50 years after a book's publication." Those remarks by ISERP Director Peter Bearman opened the October 21, 2005 conference Re-Reading Personal Influence: Retrospects and Prospects 50 Years Later. The conference, co-sponsored by ISERP and the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, honored the reissuing of Personal Influence: The Part Played by People in the Flow of Mass Communications by Elihu Katz and Paul Lazarsfeld, which was originally published in 1955.
Development Experts Gather for IGERT Symposium
Winter 2005-2006
Globalization has the potential to be a powerful engine for development, but in many countries, it has instead meant rising poverty and inequality. This paradox has given rise to many heated debates, including the question of whether we can rely on standard economic theory to solve the world's most pressing problems. On November 11th and 12th, 2005, the program hosted a conference that offered alternative perspectives on a range of contemporary development issues.
How can we make trade fair for developing countries?
Winter 2005-2006
There is a growing recognition that the international trade regime is neither free nor fair. For years, powers such as the United States and the European Union have dominated trade negotiations at the expense of the poorest nations. A new book by Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel laureate and former World Bank economist, and Andrew Charlton envisions what a true development round would look like if trade were made fair for developing countries.
Privacy Concerns and the Uncertain Future of Statistical Data
Fall 2005
As we know it today, the national statistical system is millions upon millions of citizens voluntarily checking boxes, completing forms, and answering questions. But government surveys will increasingly encounter a public saying "leave me alone."
Rethinking Voting Rights: Emerging Tradeoffs
Fall 2005
On August 6, 2005, thousands of marchers flooded the streets of Atlanta to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. When the bill was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965, it was intended to redress patterns of disfranchisement that continued to persist after the ratification of the 15th Amendment. Several of the Act's key provisions are slated to expire in 2007 and are at the center of heated debates among the legislature, scholars, and the general public.
Health and Society Scholars Begin Fourth Year
Fall 2005
We would like to announce the arrival of the Cohort 3 Health & Society Scholars: Debbie Barrington, Lisa M. Bates, and Cynthia Colen.
Immigrant Remitting Behavior and Its Developmental Consequences for Mexico and El Salvador
Summer 2005
It is estimated that over $30 billion in remittances, the money transferred by immigrants for familial or collective purposes to home countries, were sent from the United States to Latin America in 2004. This burgeoning rate of remittances has led to a uniform assumption by governments throughout the region-remittances are a panacea for resolving developmental and fiscal problems. However, as is always the case with cure-all solutions such as those currently under consideration by these states, this assumption is plagued with problems.
Spotlight on Seed Grants
Summer 2005
ISERP's seed grants program is intended to support the initial stages of new social science projects with a special emphasis on innovative, interdisciplinary, and collaborative research.
GIS Summer Fellows Selected
Summer 2005
Nine Columbia graduate students will participate in a new summer program in Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
Collective Dynamics Group
Spring 2005
How closely connected are two people who live on opposites sides of the world? In what contexts are social ties most likely to be generated? To what extent do people make choices based on the preferences of others? Can we predict the likelihood that two individuals will know each other? ISERP's Collective Dynamics Group (CDG) tackles these and other social questions using the modern mathematical and computational techniques central to physics, applied mathematics, statistics, and computer science.
ISERP Affiliates Appointed Visiting Scholars at the Russell Sage Foundation
Spring 2005
The Russell Sage Foundation, the only foundation to exclusively support research in the social sciences, appointed six visiting scholars in 2004-2005 with current or past affiliations with ISERP.
ISERP Graduate Fellows Program
Spring 2005
Asked to describe the Graduate Fellows Program, I realized we invite students to engage interdisciplinary exploration even as they struggle to develop disciplinary capacity.
The Impact of Information on Exposure to Unsafe Drinking Water
Spring 2005
As many as one billion people around the world drink unsafe water. Over two million deaths from diarrhea are estimated to have occurred in 1998, the majority of them children. It is surprising that societies continue to fail to meet this basic need. An important question for policy decisions is whether information alone can lead people to change to safe sources of water.
Bringing Down the House: Documenting the Transformation of Public Housing
Winter 2004-2005
From the beginning, public housing was intended to serve as a stepping-stone for the poor. However, due to failing public policies and limited resources, public housing has become a generational source of low-income housing for many families and has subsequently evolved into physically and socially impoverished, isolated ghettos.
Lawmaking and Public Policy
Winter 2004-2005
Ira Katznelson's project on "The Substance of Representation" probes how the type and content of particular public policies shape political partisanship, the formation of coalitions, and the passage of statutes.
IGERT Hosts Symposium on Development and Globalization
Winter 2004-2005
On November 12th and 13th, the IGERT Program in International Development and Globalization held its first Interdisciplinary Symposium on Development and Globalization. Panels were assembled around the topics of Human Development, Financial Flows: Aids and Remittances, Trade and Development, Democracy and Social Movements, and Current Issues in Development.
New Columbia GIS Initiative Funded
Fall 2004
As part of its mission to promote innovative, cross-disciplinary social science research, ISERP identified geographic information systems (GIS) as a key research methodology. To promote the use of GIS at Columbia, ISERP, in collaboration with partners on the Morningside campus and at the Earth Institute, developed a GIS initiative that was recently awarded funding from the Academic Quality Fund.
New NSF-Funded Center for Research on Environmental Decisions
Fall 2004
Decisions based on weather and climate predictions impact critical matters such as agricultural production, water supply and usage, and public health. Yet the uncertainty surrounding climate change and interannual climate variability, and the potential threats associated with it, complicate the decision making process. To better understand these issues, the National Science Foundation has awarded Columbia a five-year $5.9 million dollar grant to establish a new Center for Research on Environmental Decisions.
QMSS Launches Research Fellows Program
Fall 2004
Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences (QMSS), now in its sixth year as Columbia's interdisciplinary social science master's degree program, is launching a new Research Fellows Program this fall.
