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Why Social Science? Because Institutional Racism Exacerbates our Health and Economic Challenges
Apr 21, 2020
By Allison, Plyer, ScD, Chief Demographer, The Data Center of Southeast LouisianaThe COVID-19 epidemic is hitting African Americans particularly hard. As of this writing, 70% of all COVID-19 deaths in Louisiana are black residents in a state where only one-third of the population is black. To date…
Connell to study impacts of COVID-19 and child maltreatment
Apr 16, 2020
Many populations are impacted by the effects of COVID-19 and the crisis response, but children may be especially vulnerable to poor outcomes during this time.Christian Connell, associate professor of human development and family studies and associate director of the Child Maltreatment Solutions…
Penn State researchers evaluating Twitter data during pandemic
Apr 16, 2020
By collecting global Twitter data from the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, Penn State researchers have developed a dashboard that tracks geotagged tweets to allow researchers and policymakers assess public reactions to the pandemic.“Geotagged Twitter data provides significant opportunities to…
New guide curates COVID-19 related resources for researchers
Apr 15, 2020
Penn State University Libraries has developed a curated guide to COVID-19 related resources for researchers, including ongoing research at Penn State.A collaboration between the Libraries’ STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) experts at University Park and the Harrell Health…
Grief from COVID-19 impact may trigger secondary health and mental health crisis
Apr 15, 2020
The loss of life caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic may just be the first tragic wave to hit the country, according to researchers. Grief from the deaths of close relatives and a sudden loss of support could create serious health, mental health and economic issues for grieving family members…
Dean's Lecture Series: Perspectives on the Pandemic announced
Apr 15, 2020
The College of Health and Human Development has announced the Dean’s Lecture Series: Perspectives on the Pandemic, which seeks to help better understand the COVID-19 pandemic from a public health perspective.The lectures, to be held virtually, will feature leading national and international…
RemoteResearch.psu.edu supports investigators transitioning to remote work
Apr 13, 2020
The office of the Associate Chief Information Officer for Research has created a new resource at RemoteResearch.psu.eduto support investigators as they transition their research to primarily off-site from primarily on-site.Associate CIO for Research Greg Madden and his team created the site to…
Social scientists scramble to study pandemic, in real time
Apr 13, 2020
By Warren Cornwall for Science MagazineIf pandemic lockdowns have people feeling a bit like lab rats stuck in cages, in some ways that’s exactly what they are.
As the coronavirus touches on virtually every part of life around the globe, social scientists are rushing to suck up real-time data on…
Population researchers contribute to special newsletter on COVID-19 topics
Apr 9, 2020
The work of applied demographers and population research scientists addressing the COVID1-19 pandemic is the focus a special issue of “Applied Demography,” the official publication of the Population Association of America (PAA).According to editor Alexis Santos, assistant professor of human…
Podcast episode explores how the Census impacts public health
Apr 9, 2020
Decisions about where to build hospitals and how to allocate emergency medical equipment are critical during a pandemic, and driven by a source you might not expect. This week’s episode of the Democracy Works podcast, produced by the McCourtney Institute for Democracy and WPSU, examines the role…
Resources for military-connected schools
Apr 7, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced schools and families to adapt quickly and many resources are being created for school personnel and parents who have been thrust into new roles.Since the amount of information can be overwhelming, Schools Empowering At-Risk Students (SEAS) project with the …
Penn State University Press makes e-titles available during COVID-19 pandemic
Apr 7, 2020
Penn State University Press is among a select group of college and university presses nationwide to partner with EBSCO Information Services to provide unlimited access to Press e-books for library clients through the EBSCO platform until June 30. The Press also is offering discounted pricing to…
Online dashboard enables COVID-19 tracking by Pennsylvania county
Apr 7, 2020
Residents of Pennsylvania can monitor the spread of COVID-19 across the commonwealth with an online dashboard created by researchers at Penn State. The dashboard, which has been available since March 12, provides a map of the state with the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases represented by county.…
Stuck at Home (Together)
Apr 5, 2020
The Foundation for Art & Healing’s campaign to foster and maintain social connectivity during periods of COVID-19 related physical isolationTo address emotional distress caused by the unprecedented public health demands to establish physical isolation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic,…
COVID-19 and RPC: Connecting Policymakers and Researchers for Children and Families
Apr 3, 2020
The Research to Policy Collaboration is actively collecting and disseminating research-informed solutions and resources on the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on children and families to federal staff and legislators. You can visit our COVID page and review the first issue of our weekly…
Why Social Science? - Because Money Makes The World Go ’Round
Apr 1, 2020
By Bill Maurer, PhD, Dean, School of Social Sciences, University of California, IrvineI often get asked questions like, “What is an anthropologist like you doing studying money? I thought that was the domain of economists!” The archaeological and ethnographic record is full of objects, texts, and…
COSSA compiles social science resources related to COVID-19
Apr 1, 2020
COSSA is compiling a list of resources for social scientists and stakeholders related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The list includes guidance from federal science agencies, collections of publicly available peer-reviewed research related to the crisis, resources from COSSA member associations, and…
Influenza Pandemics and COVID-19
Apr 1, 2020
In response to COVID-19, Dr. Hui Yang, the site director of CHOT at Penn State, created a video to compare the influenza pandemics and COVID-19. In this challenging time, one way to reduce anxiety and stress is a better understanding of influenza pandemics. This video will answer the following…
PPN Brief on COVID19 and the aging population in PA
Mar 31, 2020
New from the Pennsylvania Population Network (PPN) is the PPN Brief "COVID19 & The Commonwealth: Vulnerable Populations in Pennsylvania: Aging". Key findings include:Median Age of PA is 40.7 with 23.7% of the state being 60 Plus
11 counties report having zero ICU beds, seven of which are…
Applied Demography Special Issue on COVID1-19
Mar 31, 2020
The work of applied demographers and population research scientists addressing the COVID1-19 pandemic is the focus a special issue of Applied Demography, the official publication of the Population Association of America. The editorial was written by SSRI cofunded faculty member Alexis Santos, while…
Research-to-Policy Collaboration awarded funding through the Coronavirus Research Seed Fund
Mar 30, 2020
In response to the expanding COVID-19 crisis, Penn State’s research community launched an initiative called the Coronavirus Research Seed Fund (CRSF) to “support research with the potential for significant and rapid impact on human health with respect to the disease (COVID-19) and the causal virus…
Coronavirus Research Seed Fund
Mar 18, 2020
Due to unprecedented interest in the Coronavirus Research Seed Fund, there will only be one more round of proposal evaluation. To give all applicants sufficient time to apply, that final review will begin on Friday, March 27th at 5 p.m. All applications submitted between now and then will be…
Coronavirus Research Seed Fund call for proposals
Mar 5, 2020
The emergence of COVID-19 has reminded the world of our hyper-connectivity and susceptibility to pandemics. An effective response to SARS-CoV-2 and other future emerging pathogens, requires the scientific community to rapidly assess key knowledge gaps and respond with research to improve prevention…
Fighting coronavirus fear with empathy: Lessons learned from how Africans got blamed for Ebola
Feb 7, 2020
This article was originally written for The Conversation by Kevin Thomas, professor of sociology, demography, and African studies.With coronavirus cases exploding in China, the U.S. is once again responding to a global epidemic. Five years ago, when the Ebola virus infected more than 28,000 people…