SSRC Update - February 2013

Meeting on Sexual Violence and HIV Transmission Establishes New Research Agendas

A scientific research planning meeting convened by the SSRC last year at the Greentree Foundation in New York broke through an impasse in HIV research by bringing together policymakers, practitioners, and researchers from the basic sciences, the social and behavioral sciences, epidemiology, and public health to consider the connections between sexual violence and HIV transmission. The consensus White Paper that emerged draws attention to policy and research gaps regarding sexual violence and HIV risk among young women and girls, in conflict situations, and in relation to epidemic modeling. Summary proceedings of the meeting and subsequent review articles are published this month in a Special Issue of the American Journal of Reproductive Immunology guest edited by Charles Wira, professor of physiology and neurobiology at Dartmouth, and Jennifer Klot, senior advisor to the SSRC’s Gender, Security and HIV/AIDS Program.

State of the Congress 2013, a new Measure of America infographic comparing the diversity and well-being of the 113th Congress with the United States as a whole, has been driving discussion in the nation’s capital: the Washington Post republished the infographic and highlights some of its more surprising findings, and Roll Call talked to program codirector Sarah Burd-Sharps about the policy implications.

Recent essays from our digital forums on Africa include, at African Futures, Zachariah Mampilly on “Urban Protests and Rural Violence in Africa: A Call for an Integrated Approach,” and at Kujenga Amani, a piece by Willis Okumu titled “From Ethnic Violence to Seeds of Peace: Pastoralists, Youth, and Intercommunity Peacebuilding in Northwestern Kenya.”

President Ira Katznelson’s new book Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time (Liveright/Norton) is characterized by Louis Menand, writing for the New Yorker, as “ambitious, fascinating, and slightly dark.”

Eryn Snyder’s photo essay "The Real Bedik," winner of the 2012 Rachel Tanur Memorial Prize, is featured in the latest issue of the International Sociological Association's Global Dialogue.

Abe Fellows are sharing knowledge through the media: Andrew Oros (2009) was quoted in a New York Times article on what to expect from Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe’s second term, and the National Bureau of Asian Research conducted an interview with Mary Alice Haddad (2009) related to her research on “Environmental Politics in Northeast Asia: Lessons Learned for North America."

Drugs, Security and Democracy Fellow Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera (2011) has a book out from Palgrave Macmillan: Democracy in "Two Mexicos": Political Institutions in Oaxaca and Nuevo León.

Watch a video recording of the Eurasia Program's recent webinar "Collecting and Interpreting Retrospective Survey Data," the latest in the program’s popular Issues in Quantitative Methods in Eurasian Studies series.

The Inter-Asia Program announced its inaugural cohort of Transregional Research Postdoctoral Fellows, awarding nineteen fellowships for a range of innovative projects on Inter-Asian contexts and connections.

The Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship program and the University of California Humanities Research Institute are cohosting a conference on "After Secularization" at UC Irvine, March 1–2.

Measure of America codirector Sarah Burd-Sharps will speak on higher education standards for a competitive US economy at the World Affairs 2013 conference in San Francisco on March 8.

Upcoming Deadlines: prepare your applications for the Postdoctoral Fellowship for Transregional Research: Inter-Asian Contexts and Connections (March 29), the Korean Studies Workshop for Junior Faculty (April 30), and the Korean Studies Dissertation Workshop (May 1).

IN MEMORIAM
The SSRC mourns the recent passing of two former Council presidents, Francis X. Sutton and Henry W. Riecken Jr. Dr. Sutton was acting president of the SSRC in 1985–86 and served for several years as a member and chair of the Council’s board of directors. Dr. Riecken served as the first director of the National Science Foundation’s division of social sciences and was president of the SSRC in 1969–71. The Council joins friends and colleagues in honoring their many contributions to the social sciences.